By Jon Hinds, Owner/Founder of the Monkey Bar Gym

Ever since people began to exercise they have constantly sought out the most efficient way to train the body and mind for ultimate health. Back in the day the ab crunch was thought to be the best…then the hanging leg raise was next, a little better but still not the best. Next people began doing crunches on a stability ball, it’s a bit unstable but all in all, none of them are as efficient as the Power Wheel and some of its most effective exercises: Roll-out, Crawls and Pike Ups.

Here are the 4 Point guidelines you want to follow:

1. The LESS supported you are the MORE you must stabilize.
   
   • Meaning the less area supporting your body (which can be from your whole body, hands, feet, head or your back/feet or butt on the floor or a stability ball or bench) means you MUST work more to right yourself while doing any movement or exercise.
   • The more unstable the movement, the harder it will be. This is true up to a point; if the movement is overly un-stable then it defeats the point. A perfect example of this is standing on a stability ball to improve stability. Now while this is a really challenging exercise. It is so unstable that it goes in the direction of being dangerous. Also, this does NOT mean, unstable and supported though, it simply means unstable:). Many people think crunches on a stability ball, yes it’s unstable, but your supported. In the real world you would never be supported, nor is doing a crunch the optimal way of strengthening the ‘core’, so pass on that one.
2. The MORE you oppose gravity, the MORE you work your body.
   
   • Meaning the more your body is extended directly against gravity (horizontally is best as that is direct opposition to gravity) the more challenge you have.
   • The second part of opposing gravity is the longer lever arm you make the harder the movement. So the more you are lengthened or extended over gravity, the ground, the harder the exercise will be.
3. The MORE intense the contraction, the MORE efficient the exercise.
   
   • Fewer reps, treat the ‘core’ like any other muscle group you train for strength, power or endurance.
4. Prone position for truly effective core work.
   
   • Prone(face down), not supine (face up), as people have usually trained the core. In which case, they are supported and stable, this sounds nice and safe, but in reality, it is not what you want.
   • In the real world people need the ability to react, stabilize and support themselves, and you can’t do that if you only train in a supported and stable environment.
   • Lets look at the traditional core exercises and I’ll break them down.
     
     • Crunch - supported by floor completely, stable, short lever, weak contractions, even on a stability ball it is still a weak exercise as you have to literally do hundreds of reps with the results of no gain in stability, because none was trained.
     • Sit ups - A bit better but very similar, supported, stable, a longer lever arm so it’s better there, good contraction, less reps to fatigue, but still not a lot of stability gained. I like it more than crunches by a long shot though:)
     • Hanging leg lifts - still better yet as you can create a long lever arm, but here you get a ton of hip flexor work and for people who have tight hips (about 90% of all Americans:) this is not what you want to tighten even more. Similar to a laying leg lift, they definitely work ‘core’ stability, but can tighten the hip flexors a lot too.