I hate prone holds! There, I admit it and I think anyone who says they ‘like’ them are mad! But the only reason I hate them is because they are so damn challenging both physically and mentally.
So, as I am a fan of creating workouts that try to eliminate that boredom factor often associated with exercise, I have improvised the prone hold to involve more movements whilst still achieving the same benefits.
Personally, when someone says to me, ‘perform a 2 minute prone hold’ I cringe. That 2 minutes is the longest 2 minutes ever known to man! So instead, I am going to break that 2 minutes up into 10 second intervals – makes it much more interesting and easier to achieve whilst still being a fantastic, challenging abdominals workout!
The abdominal exercises involved are (colour relates to picture):
1 – Prone hold (red)
2 – Up downs (yellow)
3 – Shoulder taps (blue)
Most people are familiar with prone holds but the main elements you need to be conscious of are keeping your body flat as though a straight line could be drawn from your feet to your shoulders (try not to raise your bum in the air), keeping your feet close together and trying not to hunch your shoulders.
For up downs and shoulder taps, the same techniques as the prone hold are administered (flat body, feet close together) but the most important is trying to hold your body stiff and not rocking from side to side while you complete the movements. Also, perform the movements slowly and with control e.g. for up downs, don’t just move from your elbows to your hands super quick as you will not be in control and clearly not using your abs!
2 Minute Abs Blitz
Every 10 seconds you will change exercise. Perform a prone hold for the first 10 seconds, then change to up downs for the second 10 seconds (until you get to 20 seconds) then change to shoulder taps for the next 10 seconds until you reach 30 seconds in total. Repeat this 4 times until the 2 minutes is up – you should be desperate for the end of that 2 minutes!
If you think you are up for it, have 1 minute rest before completing the 2 minutes again!
Add this to your usual gym routine or do it at home while watching TV and get your partner or housemate or whoever to time you. I hope you feel the burn and love it 🙂
JD x
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