Lots of fitness enthusiasts around the world are trying to build a body similar to their favorite celebrity. None more so than Rocky Balboa himself. If your goal is to learn how to build muscle, the Sylvester Stallone abs workout is something you'll undoubtedly be very interested in.
Make no mistake about it, the sculpted six pack you see in the Rocky movies didn't come cheap. However, if you can combine this style of training with some of the proven muscle building principles towards your diet and rest you will see fantastic results with it.
This workout is quite brutal and you are going to be pushed very hard. However, there is something about training like Rocky Balboa that seems to warrant a brutal session like this. After all, if it was ridiculously easy you would probably complain, right?
There are a few exercises in today's workout which you may not have encountered before so we will walk you through each one.
* Crunches on the floor or with an exercise ball.
* Twisting Crunches
* Hanging Knee Raise.
* Rotary Oblique Twists.
* The wheel.
The first stop in today's workout is a regular crunch. The trouble with crunches is most people perform them slightly wrong and put unnecessary stress on their neck by pulling from behind the head. For those who feel back discomfort while doing floor crunches, feel free to use an exercise ball instead. Sly himself made this change during the late nineties.
Attempt to perform three sets of thirty repetitions of the floor crunch. If you find this too difficult, you can start by aiming for fifteen and working your way up to the target figure at a later date. The key to crunches is maintaining a slow tempo, really focusing on the contraction of the upper abs each time you reach the top of a repetition.
Another of Sly's favorite exercises is crunches with an additional twist at the end of each rep. This allows you to place the emphasis of the move on the oblique muscles. Most of us know these as the tiny muscles which run down the outside of the six pack area.
Upright knee raises are another move which is often performed incorrectly in the gym. Many fitness enthusiasts unknowingly remove the stress from their stomach and place it on the hips by swinging their legs forward. Instead, perform this move with knees bent at 90 degrees and focus on pulling your knees through a contraction of the lower abdominal area, removing momentum from the equation altogether.
Perhaps the most surprising move in today's session is the next exercise, which Sly credits with building his best ever midsection during the mid-to-late 1980's. The torso twist is an often overlooked exercise which targets your obliques. However, by performing this move on a decline bench you will be able to switch the target to your entire core, incorporating every single muscle in your stomach and lower back. This is a great move for building core strength.
Finally, we move onto the wheel. This piece of equipment has existed in gyms for many decades and remains one of the most underutilized pieces of kit. The reason this exercise is kept until last is because you won't want to work out any longer if you get this technique correct.
The trick is all in the technique. Get this wrong and you won't feel it where you are supposed to, or you will end up falling flat onto your face! Slowly roll the wheel away from your knees until you reach a point where you cannot roll any further forward without compromising your balance. As you become stronger and more familiar with the move you'll be able to generate a bigger range of movement.
Make no mistakes, the Sylvester Stallone abs workout is every bit as tough as you would expect it to be. However, if your primary goal is to learn how to build muscle with classic, old school moves then this workout definitely has some great benefits to it.
Make no mistake about it, the sculpted six pack you see in the Rocky movies didn't come cheap. However, if you can combine this style of training with some of the proven muscle building principles towards your diet and rest you will see fantastic results with it.
This workout is quite brutal and you are going to be pushed very hard. However, there is something about training like Rocky Balboa that seems to warrant a brutal session like this. After all, if it was ridiculously easy you would probably complain, right?
There are a few exercises in today's workout which you may not have encountered before so we will walk you through each one.
* Crunches on the floor or with an exercise ball.
* Twisting Crunches
* Hanging Knee Raise.
* Rotary Oblique Twists.
* The wheel.
The first stop in today's workout is a regular crunch. The trouble with crunches is most people perform them slightly wrong and put unnecessary stress on their neck by pulling from behind the head. For those who feel back discomfort while doing floor crunches, feel free to use an exercise ball instead. Sly himself made this change during the late nineties.
Attempt to perform three sets of thirty repetitions of the floor crunch. If you find this too difficult, you can start by aiming for fifteen and working your way up to the target figure at a later date. The key to crunches is maintaining a slow tempo, really focusing on the contraction of the upper abs each time you reach the top of a repetition.
Another of Sly's favorite exercises is crunches with an additional twist at the end of each rep. This allows you to place the emphasis of the move on the oblique muscles. Most of us know these as the tiny muscles which run down the outside of the six pack area.
Upright knee raises are another move which is often performed incorrectly in the gym. Many fitness enthusiasts unknowingly remove the stress from their stomach and place it on the hips by swinging their legs forward. Instead, perform this move with knees bent at 90 degrees and focus on pulling your knees through a contraction of the lower abdominal area, removing momentum from the equation altogether.
Perhaps the most surprising move in today's session is the next exercise, which Sly credits with building his best ever midsection during the mid-to-late 1980's. The torso twist is an often overlooked exercise which targets your obliques. However, by performing this move on a decline bench you will be able to switch the target to your entire core, incorporating every single muscle in your stomach and lower back. This is a great move for building core strength.
Finally, we move onto the wheel. This piece of equipment has existed in gyms for many decades and remains one of the most underutilized pieces of kit. The reason this exercise is kept until last is because you won't want to work out any longer if you get this technique correct.
The trick is all in the technique. Get this wrong and you won't feel it where you are supposed to, or you will end up falling flat onto your face! Slowly roll the wheel away from your knees until you reach a point where you cannot roll any further forward without compromising your balance. As you become stronger and more familiar with the move you'll be able to generate a bigger range of movement.
Make no mistakes, the Sylvester Stallone abs workout is every bit as tough as you would expect it to be. However, if your primary goal is to learn how to build muscle with classic, old school moves then this workout definitely has some great benefits to it.
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About the author: Discover how to build muscle with personal trainer Russ Howe PTI's easy guide to the sylvester stallone abs workout today.