Bodybuilder Erin Stern is back for the new year imparting workout wisdom and advice for reaching your fitness goals. In her latest venture on YouTube, Stern walked fans through three exercises she uses regularly for creating a smaller and more toned midsection.
“We want to look for some natural ways to increase that core strength and these exercises are going to help a lot with that. Now, for frequency per week, you’re looking at two to three times per week performing these exercises and you’re going to see really great results.”
As a former two-time Figure Olympia champion, Erin Stern’s ability to blend conditioning, muscle volume, and stage presentation turned her into a star. She has carried that fame proudly since moving on to the Bikini category where she quickly found success.
With nearly 300,000 subscribers on YouTube, Stern has amassed a loyal fanbase, offering easy-to-understand gym content for men and women of varying fitness levels. From building a ‘superhero x-frame’ to superset-based arm training sessions, Stern’s educative tone and approach have helped people from around the world build their best physiques.
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Erin Stern Shares 3 Exercises for Core Control & Creating a Smaller Waist
Before getting to the workout, Stern explained why training the muscles in the abdomen is so important:
“It’s important to work on ab control, core stability, and ab musculature. Now, when I talk about ab musculature, we’re talking about the muscles you can see like that erectus abdominis or the six-pack. We got the obliques that come into the side. I think one of the more important muscles that is often ignored in a lot of ab workouts is your TVA or transverse abdominis.”
“This musculature actually runs horizontally and it can act as an internal girdle which is pretty cool because when you strengthen that internal girdle, picture it cinching up, it’s almost like an internal waist trainer. So you’re not going to need to strap yourself into a waist trainer and try to cinch your waist that way.”
Stern’s Quick Smaller Waist Workout Breakdown
- Quadruped vacuum
- Barbell rollout
- Hollow body hold
Quadruped vacuum
Stern started her demonstration with a vacuum movement, advising viewers to keep their upper legs and arms perpendicular to the floor.
“The reason I chose this variation is that it is the second easiest variation a vacuum to perform. So if you haven’t quite gotten up to the kneeling or the standing vacuum, the quadruped or the hands and knees vacuum variation is going to be your best friend.”
“To perform this exercise you want to get on your hands and knees and you want to make sure your upper legs and your arms are perpendicular to the floor. You want to think about putting your head down and creating a round in your back, specifically in that lower back.”
Pulling the diaphragm up, Stern focuses on her breathing and holds it for as long as possible.
“Take a deep breath, exhale all of the air if possible and I want you to think about almost trying to breathe in but imagine that your nose and your mouth are blocked. So that is going to essentially pull that diaphragm up and you’re going to hold it for as long as you can.”
“2-4 sets is going to be perfect. If you’re able to hold it from anywhere between eight to 15 seconds.”
Barbell rollout
Next, Stern went over a barbell rollout exercise which can also be performed with an ab roller.
“If you have an ab wheel you can perform this exercise just the same,” shared Erin Stern. “This is a relatively easy exercise to set up.”
In addition to providing tips on body placement, Stern shared that this exercise also effectively works the lats.
“You’re going to start in a kneeling position. It’s really important for this exercise I want you to consider keeping your body in that plank position. Now, as a sneaky side note here, this is also an excellent exercise for training the lats. So we are hopefully going to activate work on the lats at the same time strengthening and working on that core stability.”
“There is a point of no return and you may or may not find that and that’s okay but just go to your comfort level and then work on rolling out a little bit farther each time you perform this exercise. For a number of reps, you’re looking at anywhere from six reps up to 20 reps.”
Hollow body hold
Stern finished up the routine with hollow body holds, which she described as an excellent isometric exercise.
“This is an excellent isometric exercise and the key thing here that I want you to think about is once you lay flat on the floor.
I want you to think about pressing your lower back into the floor, really really important that your lower back keeps contact with the floor. This is going to be one of the hardest parts of the exercise.”
Stern mentioned that hollow body holds train the TVA as well.
“One of the reasons this exercise is not only excellent for training your TVA but also for really improving core stability. The ability to brace on other exercises.”
“Start with your legs at a 90-degree angle from the floor or almost perpendicular from the floor,” said Stern.
“Alright those are our three key exercises for creating a smaller waist.”
Tailoring workouts to the individual is sometimes key to growth, so Stern makes sure to offer an array of different workout techniques to her fans. The former two-time Figure Olympia recently unveiled her ‘5A’ protocol’ which is a strategy she uses when she is tasked with training around pesky injuries.
Shredding unwanted belly fat is trending in the world of fitness, especially as people navigate life after the holidays. Stern hopes to provide her following with an effective and quick core strength routine, which she uses to stay in shape when she’s not prepping for contests.
RELATED: 2x Figure Olympia Erin Stern Shares How To Grow Shoulder Width w/ Latest Workout
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