Hey hey!

What’s going on in your world?  Things are rockin’ and rollin’ over here.

Johnny Utah loves abs workouts!

On a side note, every time I say “rockin’ and rollin’” I think of the movie “Point Break” with Keanu Reeves and the late, great Patrick Swayze about bank robbing surfers.

Okay, back to reality.

I want to give you a few Abs Workout “Exercise Swaps” today.

What are Exercise Swaps?  They’re exercises you swap out for ones that are too easy, or for ones that are worthless.

When I create workouts, whether an abs workout specifically or full-body training programs, I like to operate under the assumption you don’t have much free time to spend working out and that working out isn’t the most fun thing in the world for you.

That then leads me to create short and sweet workouts for you to do from home that give you the most bang for your buck.

So, let’s get on with the stomach exercise swaps to help you lose fat and get strong!

1) Replace any and all triceps and shoulder isolation movements like kickbacks, overhead extensions, lateral raises, etc. with some variation of the push-up.

I could give you dozens of different push-up variations all focusing on different areas, and we do all of them in my studio, so why not give a few to you too.

One of my favorites is the T Push-up.

To do it, get into a normal push-up position, but as you raise yourself up, bring one hand off the floor and rotate yourself until your body looks like a sideways “T” with one hand on the floor and the other pointing toward the ceiling.

It may sound difficult, and it is, but it can be adapted to many different fitness levels.
If you’re a beginner, only do a ½ T – you don’t rotate all the way.

If you can do the full T, but are a bit wobbly, increase the width between your feet – the wider your stance, the stronger your base and the easier it’ll be…

On the flip side, the closer your feet, the more difficult the exercise because you’ll have to work harder to balance yourself.

Do a few sets of 10-12 of those puppies and, if done properly, not only will your triceps and shoulders be singing, but your core should too.

The next abs workout exercise swap is…

2) Replace any type of crunch variation with Burpee.

“What’s that you say?  Burpees?  Hell no!!”

Hell yes!

While at first blush, burpees may not sound like a good abs exercise, or a good exercise at all, but they are phenomenal.

When it comes right down to it, the best abs exercises are the ones that burn the most calories, which make you burn more fat.  That’s the reason you want a flatter stomach right?  Remove the layer of fat and it looks better.  Tone the muscles and it looks even better.

The burpee not only burns a ton of calories, but it also “works” the abs to the max – better than 50,000 crunches could ever do (plus it saves your back).

Rather than telling you how to do a burpee, it’s much easier to show you.  In the video below I do burpees as a part of the workout, so give it a watch (and give the workout a try).

Okay, I’m going to let you go now.  It’s bright and early when I’m writing this and boot camp clients are going to start rolling in any time.

Hope you enjoyed these abs workout exercise swaps!  Have an awesome day and I’ll talk to you soon!

Ed