Tone Your Abs, Lats & Legs

As every serious bodybuilder knows, Squats are often the exercise that separates the wannabes from the big boys. There’s no doubt that good old Squats are still the best all around muscle developer out there—they not only work to increase muscle-mass in the lower body, they also have a beneficial anabolic effect on the entire body.

Here’s an easy way to up the intensity even higher with your Squats and blast your legs to new growth. Some of you may already do this, but if you don’t give it a shot. Do your regular warm-ups. During your working sets, drop your weight down by about 15%-25%. Perform your Squats as usual—descending to parallel with proper form. However, instead of locking out your knees at the top of the movement, maintain continuous tension on your muscles by stopping short of lock-out and slowly dropping back down to parallel. Repeat for a set of 8-20 reps without locking out until the last rep. You’ll feel your upper legs explode.

Have you tried Vertical Lying Leg Thrusts yet? These are a great target exercise for your lower abs. Begin by lying on your back; I like to do the movement on a flat bench, but it also works on the floor. Now lift your legs until they’re vertical. Tuck your hands under your buttocks, and make sure your lower back is flat on the ground.

To perform the movement concentrate on tightening up and squeezing together the muscles in your lower abs.  Your legs and your lower torso should move upward toward the ceiling.  Remember, the feeling you’re after is one of tightening and squeezing in your abs; and it’s this squeezing that should lift your buttocks off your hands. Lower your torso back down to complete one rep.  The most important thing in lower ab training is not how many reps you do but how hard you squeeze.

You can effectively work your lower lats for full back development by using Low Pulley Rows with a close-grip handle. Pull into your lower abs really focusing on flaring your lats out at the point of peak contraction.

The whole key to this exercise is to concentrate on pulling with your lats as opposed to your arms. To get a sense of the proper form, warm up with a very light weight, stretch the lats fully forward, and begin the motion by pulling only your lats back . . . don’t even bend your arms until you’ve pulled your lats back as far as possible.

As with other exercises—and lat exercises in particular—it’s a good idea to vary your hand positions and grip widths from to time. I like to use not only a palms facing each other grip with this exercise, but also an overhand grip and even, occasionally, an underhand grip.