Cable Exercises for the Core Muscles
Ab Exercises with Cables or Resistance Bands

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Cable exercises are some of the best functional training exercises for your core and abdominal muscles.

In most traditional ab workout routines there are 3 common things that people leave out of their workout. Below are 3 ab workout mistakes.

#1 No Rotational Movements
#2 Lack of Progression
#3 Everything Done lying on the Floor

With cables or resistance bands you can easily include the 3 components above to create a fun, effective, and functional ab workout.

Ab Workout Mistake #1: No Rotational Movements

So many ab workouts focus on moving in one direction. Ab Crunches are a great exercise, but they only prepare your body for one type of challenge. Your spine must be strong moving in many different directions.

We are most vulnerable to injury when we twist or rotate, so in order to protect the lower back we must also practice rotational movements.

Here are some cable exercises that focus on rotation.

Standing Rotations
Kneeling Rotations
Half Kneeling Rotations

Ab Workout Mistake #2: Lack of Progression

Another problem with many ab workouts is that they lack progression. When crunches become easy, most people simply do more repetitions. Doing a ton of reps is not a bad thing, but for most people it is not the most efficient way to develop core strength.

If you want to continually increase your core and abdominal strength, then you must continually challenge your abdominal muscles.

Using cables to add resistance to your ab exercises can help you to break stength plateaus.

Cable ab crunches on a swiss ball is an example of how the cables can be used to progress your ab exercises.

Ab Workout Mistake #3: Doing Every Exercise Lying on the Floor

I am a big fan of traditional abdominal exercises on the floor. When you exercise your abs on the floor, gravity and your body weight provides the resistance.

However, if you think about daily activities, functional activities, and athletic activities many of them are done from a standing position.

When you perform cable exercises from a standing position, you increase your balance and improve the strength of the stabilizers in your ankles, knees, and hips.

Lifting and chopping mostions are some of the best standing functional training exercises for the core muscles.

Here's pictures for Cable Lifts and Cable Chops or Wood Choppers.

Summary

There are thousands of ways to work your abdominal muscles. You can use cables to progress exercises once they become too easy. Cables are also great for rotational movements, and cables are also a great tool for working your abdominal muscles from a standing position.

Visit the Directory of Abdominal and Core Exercises to learn additional abdominal and core exercises that complement cable exercises.

Also read the fitness article Core Exercises for a Better Body

Or Learn 14 Core Workout Tips

Have fun with your core workouts.
Yours in Health
Dr. Charles PT/PT