The best ab exercises to do with your clients - TRAINER ENGAGEMENT
The best ab exercises to do with your clients – TRAINER ENGAGEMENT
Every client that you train will want to work their abs. Anything from bicycle kicks, planks, dead bugs, bird dogs, pallofs- you name it, they will want to do it! Look at your local group exercise class, the “ABS Classes” are jammed packed full of participants hoping for that slim midsection. As a trainer, you need to learn to PLAY THE GAME. Knowing that endless abdominal exercises will NOT IN FACT do much of anything to your client's abs, they still want to feel that burn! If you want to become a successful personal trainer, you need to play the game. At Show Up Fitness, our programming has been designed to get your clients the best results, but also implement cool / flashy / Instagram worthy exercises without compromising optimal tension on the muscle. Here is how we program for clients trying to lose fat or gain muscle at Show Up Fitness:
Core, Core, Accessory. The CORE means CORE MOVEMENT PATTERN (Hinge, Squat, Unilateral, Push, Pull, Transitional). Pending on your clients' goals, you'll put the main core pattern as their goal (I break this down more in my book How To Become A Successful Personal Trainer on page 138 & 150.) If you have a BRO who wants a bigger chest, you'd start with the core pattern of a push i.e. bench press, chin-ups, planks. For the plank variation, most trainers at Equinox or Lifetime Fitness would pull out their phone and clock 60-seconds. YOU ARE A GREAT TRAINER, not an average one (yes, most trainers at Equinox are AVERAGE), so get creative and add some trainer engagement like Jimmy Dabney is here. Jimmy is one of the best trainers at Show Up Fitness as you can see from these trainer engagement videos. If you're looking for a trainer in Santa Monica, Jimmy is the best there is.
Lets pretend pretend the following is your assessment (an actual inquiry to Show Up Fitness La Jolla):
I am looking to get back into shape safely postpartum. I have always been very active and I have both personal training experience and participate in several sports including surfing, yoga, pilates and long distance swimming. My goals are to recover my core and overall fitness to be able to get back to my active lifestyle.
Here is the program that we'd design (first circuit): Hip Thrust (hinge), Pull-ups (pull), Deadbug (accessory). The first circuit is movement prep aka a warm-up. The second and third set is when you'd want to get after it. After the Deadbug exercise, you'd add the weight for the client, offer water, grab them a towel, ask some great questions and when they are ready to go, you begin set 2. The BEST RULE OF THUMB&. Work until you need to rest, rest until you can work. Force production is the key here folk, I don't want to see a bunch of agonist – synergist pairings i.e. Hip Thrusts into band walks for the first circuit.
After three circuits of Core, Core, Accessory, your client will hit the main movement patterns based off of their goals (upper emphasis vs lower emphasis.) At the end of the workout, you can ask your client what is an area that they want to train. I usually ask, “If a magical genie were to pop out of a lamp, what is the one muscle that you'd like to train today& KEEP IT PC!!” I'll then add in 3-5 minutes of a metcon or game to make it FUN! Notice how we don't lose track of the FUN aspect over optimizing tension. At Show Up Fitness West Hollywood, we have a large turf space to run back and fourth. Here is what we would do for a client who wanted to focus more on their abs& Plank pull-throughs (video below), get up and run with the bean bag to the overside of the gym. Do 5 throw downs and then repeat the plank pull-throughs. The client would do this for 3-5 minute straight. To make it even more challenging, whenver the trainer yells out PIZZA, the client would need to perform a wall sit until otherwise noted. THIS IS HOW YOU KEEP YOUR CLIENTS SHOWING UP! So many personal trainers quit because they are uneducated and boring. Not when you SHOW UP!
If you want to make personal training into a career, the answer begins with reading THE BOOK and then getting into an internship program to gain sueprvised experience. If you cannot make it to our West Hollywood, San Diego or Austin location, we have weekend seminars every month. All of the scientific material that we cover is ONLINE – you can become a trainer from ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD when you show up. Contact us for more information info@showupfitness.com
Here are some great ab workouts from the top Fitness Professionals in personal training:
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Pre Hab Guys: HOW TO BUILD CORE STRENGTH: What is the core and how do we train it? When you think of the core, you often think of a “6-pack” or “washboard stomach”. Read their article HERE.
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Johm Rusin – The Top 30 Exercises To Build Strong Abs & Healthy Lower Backs. If you want to have a long-lasting training career full of beneficial results until the day you put the dumbbells down forever, there is one absolute quality that can help you achieve that. A resilient core. Read the entire article HERE.
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Bret Conteras – Many lifters are interested in progressively training the core as they advance in strength. The typical workout consisting of sit-ups, crunches, and side bends becomes boring, and more advanced variations are desirable. Below are some of my favorite ab/core exercises. Read more about the best ab workouts here.
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Don't fall for click bait like they do at GQ with headlines “The Best Abs Workout: The Only 6 Exercises You Need to Get a Six-Pack”“ like this Focus on information by top fitness professionals which you can find here