In the earliest editions of the CrossFit Journal, Greg Glassman was famous for saying squats were the best way to get strong abs.
Fast forward a few years to CrossFit as a mainstream fitness routine, and the taboo surrounding working your abs has mostly disappeared.
Don’t get me wrong, squats will make your core strong. But that answer isn’t what everyone is looking for.
If your goal is to train your abs more, or you’d like to do more core training to become a better athlete, this guide is for you.
To perform the series, you'll need a decline bench and a barbell. Don't just grab the nearest 45-pound bar handy, however; Samuel says that you'll need less weight than you might expect. "Even a 20 [pound bar] will slay most people if you’re really owning that hold position," he says, noting that he filmed the series using a 25-pound bar himself. If you struggle getting lighter weight up or don't have access to smaller barbells, just use your body weight and keep your hands directly over your shoulders throughout the series.
Start in hold position with your torso parallel to ground, holding the barbell directly over your shoulders. Don't let the bar drift over your chest.
Hold for 2 seconds.
Perform 3 sit-up reps, flexing your back muscles to shoot the bar overhead.
Return back to the hold position.
Repeat the cycle twice more for 3 total clusters.
Samuel says that your abs get work from both the sit-ups and the bracing that comes during the hold position, which is another key function of your core. "The regular bracing in this will help you keep your sit-up form clean, reinforcing in your mind that your core must stay tight," he says. "We're also adding load to the equation to really carve depth and shape into our abs."
Add this burner to your workout as a core finisher by doing 3 total sets of the series, with about a minute between each set.