Jay Cutler is one of the smartest minds in the world of bodybuilding, when it comes to building solid workout plans. He recently shared some tips to boost your ab workouts, and bring your core to the next level.
As a four-time Olympia champ, Cutler had a well balanced and fantastic physique during the peak of his career. He worked hard to build the type of physique needed to best the competition on more than one occasion, establishing himself as a fan favorite for the rest of his career.
While Jay retired from competition in 2013, he is still in impressive condition, and has been using his knowledge to help others progress in their fitness journeys. The most recent form of this came in some advice that he shared to fans who subscribe to his newsletter.
In this email, Cutler shared his three favorite workouts to add to his routine, in order to boost his midsection and make his abs shredded. While he made it clear that the only way to properly improve your abs is to lower your body fat through dieting, these are his favorite ways to add a little extra to your ab days.
Jay Cutler’s Three Favorite Ab Workouts
1. Hanging Leg Raises
For this exercise, you want to get an overhand grip on a pull-up bar, holding your hands shoulder width apart. From here, you slowly raise your legs to a 90º angle, keeping your core tight and focusing on your abdominal muscles.
“To hit the lower part of the abs I really like hanging leg raises, the entire core gets a workout with this movement as well,” Cutler said.
“You have to make sure you don’t use any momentum to lift your legs up and the torso stays still – if there is any swinging you aren’t going to isolate your abs properly.”
2. Crunches
One of the most common form of ab workouts, crunches can be done without any equipment. While there are many variations of crunches that you can do, the basic crunch sees you laying flat on your back, with your legs hip width apart, as you cross your arms over your chest, sit up, and lower back down, contracting your abs.
“Crunches use a really short range of motion which means you keep tension on the upper abs for the whole set – I like to hit 15-20 repetitions with crunches to get extra tension,” Jay Cutler said.
“Again, don’t use any momentum – keep the tension on the abs and remember to breathe out as you squeeze at the top!”
3. Kneeling Cable Crunches
With this crunch variation, you will need a cable machine with a rope attachment, set to your optimal weight. Kneeling down, you hold the rope against your head and bend forward, contracting your midsection while bringing the rope to the floor, before bringing it back up to your kneeling position.
“Using resistance helps bring the abs up because they are a muscle like any other, which means they require overload at some point,” Cutler explained.
“Kneeling cable crunches is a great way to work the whole ab region, giving a stretch and the chance to get that contraction as well – you can gradually build the weight.”
With these workouts, Jay Cutler advises that you add them into your routine once or twice a week, once you are lean enough that you can visibly see your abs. From there, this will add a boost to your core, and give you a killer six pack in no time.
