Six Pack Abs Blog

An Advanced Drill That Fixes a Common Problem

Today I’d like to share with you an advanced drill that will make your abs training more effective. It’s meant to fix a problem 90% of my new clients have. It makes their abs training less effective, and it sure doesn’t help them get six pack abs.

Here it is:

They can’t dissociate the muscles of their hips from those of their abs.

Can you?

Abs vs. hip flexors

During most abs exercises, two groups of muscles will contract: the abdominal muscles and the hip flexors.

The “six pack abs” muscle, the rectus abdominis, is attached to the bottom of your sternum and to the front of your pelvis (the hip bone). When you flex it, it curls your torso in.

The hip flexors (the psoas muscle and the iliacus muscle) are attached to your femur (the thigh bone) and to the last few vertebras of your spine (psoas) or to the back of your hip bone (iliacus). When they contract, they raise your thigh, or, if your thighs are anchored, they lift your trunk.

If you’re not careful, when you train your abs, your hip flexors will do most of the work. This isn’t good, unless you want strong hip flexors and flabby abs.

The 5×5x5 Drill

So how can you fix this?

Try this drill. It will take you 10 minutes. Do it every day for 5 days, and you’ll control your abs like never before.

5×5x5 Drill: Exercise 1

Practice doing crunches: this isn’t an exercise I would normally recommend, but it’ll help you learn to dissociate your abs from your help flexors.

Do 5 sets of 5, with 1:00 in between. Keep your lower back in contact with the floor at all times. Don’t anchor your feet. Curl your torso up as high as you can: most people can’t go higher than 30° off the floor. Focus on contracting your abs, and your abs only. If you already train, this exercise shouldn’t be hard.

5×5x5 Drill: Exercise 2

Practice doing sit-ups. Again, this isn’t an exercise I usually recommend, but for this drill we’ll make an exception.

Do 5 sets of 5, with 1:00 in between. Anchor your feet. Lift your trunk as one, without curling in. Keep the form, and lower yourself down. This one might be a tad harder.

As you might have guessed, this exercise trains your hip flexors. Once you get good at contracting them, you’ll be one step closer to dissociating your them from your abs.

Wrapping up

After doing this drill for 5 days, you should be able to distinguish your abs from your hip flexors. From this point on, when you work out your abs, focus on contracting your abs only, and keeping your hip flexors as relaxed as you can. This should make your abs work more, and should help you get them strong and defined.

A question for you: would you like me to shoot a video of this drill? If you would, let me know by leaving a comment below.

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