Figure eights.
Description: A drill for the midsection. This gets pretty much everything in your
abdomen.
Motions trained: Torso flexion and extension.
Main muscles used: Abs, lower back
Other muscles: Legs
How to do it:
Grab a single weight. Pass it around your legs in a figure-8 pattern. The key here is
to use your legs a lot. You should always be pulling on the weight, so that it never
has a spot where it is moving just of its own momentum. Keep your weight on your heels,
not on the balls of your feet. Don't forget to reverse direction. You can also vary it
by doing circles around one leg, then the other, reversing the direction too.
How to work up to it: Start with a low weight. The trickiest part of
this is the hand-off under the legs so practice that a few times to be sure.
A common flub is to whack yourself in the back of a leg and with a heavyweight
you'll end up on the floor. 2 minutes lightweight practice will fix that,
Ramping it up: Time yourself. Increase the number of seconds you
do this rather than aiming for high weights. 30 - 60 seconds actually puts quite some
stress on your abdomen, so be aware of overtraining.
Do's and don'ts:
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