Are you looking for the best core exercise? You have come to the right place. The sit up is a must-do exercise in any training plan. It can be used as a beginner exercise or can be advanced to fit into any experienced athletes programme. Strengthening our abdominal muscle group is extremely important for Mudders as they are used in every element on our courses. Running, lifting, swinging and jumping, all these exercises require a strong core. Luckily for us, we can strengthen these muscles from the comfort of our own home with minimal equipment. Read on for some great beginner tips and then some great advanced add-ons to your core workout.
The Basic Sit Up for Beginners
- Lie down on your back, with your feet on the floor, knees bent.
- Place your hands on either side of your head in a comfortable position.
- Bend your hips and waist to raise your body off the ground. Make sure you keep looking straight ahead, keeping your chin off your chest in a relaxed position.
- Lower your body back to the ground into the starting position.
- Repeat
Working on your core strength has many health benefits, particularly for strengthening your lower back. See below for our best core strengthening exercises
Ab Bikes
This is a great next step from the sit up to build your muscles ready to to crawl through Kiss Of Mud (will also assist with your six pack creation).
- Lie down on your mat with your legs off the ground extended in front of you. Hands should be at your ears, with bent elbows.
- Next it’s time to ride that bike, whilst keeping one leg extended, bend one knee and bring it into your chest. Simultaneously rotate your torso toward the the knee you have brought in and touch it with your elbow.
- Untwist your torso whilst extending your leg back out and bringing the other knee into the chest. As you are doing this twist your torso back the other way toward the knee.
- Continue alternating between left and right.
The Plank
The plank is one of the easiest yet toughest core strength exercises to do – the longer you go, the stronger you will get.
- Start by putting your forearms onto the mat, extend your legs behind, bring your hips off the mat resting on the balls of your feet.
- Activate your core and hold in this position, making sure your back remains in a neutral position.
- Hold here for specified time. We recommend starting with 30 seconds and increasing in 15 second increments.
If you’d like more great ab workout exercises head here. And if you feel like you are ready for the mud it’s time to check out our event page. Pick an upcoming event today. See you in the mud.