Top MMA Coach, Greg Jackson knows the secret to powerful abs, his career and that of his fighters have depended on it. He wanted to show us one of his top abdominal exercises, one that he has used to strengthen the abs of his athletes for decades. In this article, we will walk you through this exercise, step by step. Before talking about all that you need to get visible, powerful, abs.
Greg Jackson’s Explosive Dumbbell Crunches
This is Greg’s ultimate exercise for building stronger abs, it offers the following benefits:
Overall core strength
Enhanced stability
Boosted metabolism
Improved stamina
For this exercise you will need:
One light dumbbell – this will be something you can lift with ease
Here’s what it should look like:
Instructions:
Lie flat on your back with the dumbbell in one hand
Put your feet flat on the floor with your knees bent
Raise the dumbbell out in front of you into the air
Sit up as fast as you can, keeping your arm up in the air
Slowly lower back down to the original position
Explode up again, followed by a slow descent back down
Repeat
Reps: 12 (6 on each side)
The idea here is to create an imbalance in your body by holding the dumbbell out with one hand, this forces your core to stabilise you. This extra instability makes your midsection work a lot harder and helps with its overall development [1].
And the exploding up, with the slow descent down keeps your heart rate elevated and gives your metabolism the boost it needs to help you burn more fat.
If you’re struggling with this exercise Greg suggests moving your feet further away from you, this will give you less of an incline and reduced resistance when you ‘sit up’:
Done right, you’ll be feeling the burn after only a few reps. It’s the perfect ab exercise to add to your routine.
How to Build Six-Pack Abs
Greg Jackson’s exercise is very effective at strengthening the abdominal muscles and burning calories. But it will not give you visible abs on its own. A common misconception is that most people don’t have a six-pack. We all do, every single person has abdominal muscles, but they are rarely visible.
If you want to see your abs, you need to have a very low body fat percentage. Men need a body fat percentage of around 10-15%, while women need it to be around 20%. Most people should concentrate on creating a calorie deficit so that they can lose excess body fat.
You can do this by lowering the number of calories you consume and increasing the number of calories you burn. This can be done by exercising more, walking more during the day, and using fat burners such as Instant Knockout Cut, which can raise your metabolic rate.
That doesn’t mean that abdominal exercises are not useful though. Larger ab muscles are more likely to be visible and will be better defined. There are also numerous fitness benefits, abs can help to improve your posture, improve your athleticism, increase your power, and help to protect your organs better.
Using a combination of compound exercises (that work the abs alongside many other muscles) and ab-specific exercises such as explosive dumbbell crunches, you will build a stronger, more athletic, and defined set of abs.
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