5 Lessons About Ab Training You Can Learn From a Baby
The following is an excerpt from the new Men's Health training guide 90-Day Transformation Challenge: Abs. In one volume, you'll get all the tools you need—information, a nutrition guide, and workouts—to build your abs in just 3 months.
Have you ever seen a baby learning better motor control through the first 12 to 18 months of their life?
It’s really fascinating to watch. It’s not a simple process—that child is developing core stability on a daily regimen, all day, progressing toward walking around. And you did that exact same thing as an infant. We take this for granted because obviously we don’t remember that stage of our life. However, some of the main principles you used to shuttle yourself around as a baby are going to be the same ones we call on when working through this program. This step-by-step process is long proven through our evolution. Think about how many years humanity has been walking.
Applying these principles to this core work in the same order is part of the magic. Realistically, you may not even notice the progression at first, but that is what I am here for. Let me walk you through this journey training the core not in isolation but in the presence of movement.
Here’s a look at some of these key patterns.
Stance Changes (Half-Kneeling and Tall Kneeling)
Mastering different positional stances will move your core stability slowly into your full strength routine. Everything from pushes to squats can be programmed from the root of these positions. Small adjustments over time will make your existing routine more difficult, more variable, and more effective.
Examples: Half-Kneeling Chest Press, Tall-Kneeling Pallof Press
Crawling
Moving through space in the true four-point stance will test your bracing and stability. If you’re thinking, “Wait. You are seriously going to make me crawl?,” the answer is yeah. And it’s going to be tougher—and more effective— than you think.
Examples: Beast Crawls, Crab Walk
Supine (On Your Back)
In this position you will learn how to properly brace the core and move your limbs away from the midsection. You'll begin by working on one limb at a time and slowly progress to contralateral (opposite sides) and eventually to ipsilateral (same side).
Examples: Deadbugs, Hollow Rocks
Prone (On Your Stomach)
For babies, this is “tummy time,” when they learn to control their head and neck positions. We are going to use this to transition toward some of the movements we use more often
in our training, such as pushups. Developing core stability allows us to push back up into the extended position, and it will eventually move us into the next phase.
Examples: Cobra Stretch, Supermans
Quadruped (On Hands and Knees/Feet)
This is the stationary position babies take before learning to move. In the same way we learned how to move the limbs in the supine position, we will practice this from the hands and knees. This will get drastically harder as we progress to a true four-point stance with knees off the floor, but the same limb movement principles will be used here.
Examples: Beast Hold, Shoulder Taps
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