Functional Strength Training – Part 3

The next exercises are a body raise and a leg raise. The body raise is performed like a sit up and you are going to lay flat on the floor and raise your body, using your stomach muscles to do so.

The leg raise is the reverse, lifting your legs from the flat lying position, over your head and touching the floor with your toes.

Both movements are difficult to perform correctly so I will explain!

As you raise your body, focus on the muscles in question to perform the movement and don’t ‘bounce’ yourself off the floor. In the beginning, it doesn’t mater how far you can move off the floor, only that you are engaging the right muscles. The same goes for the leg raise – just raise your legs as high as you can, keeping them straight all of the way.

Breath in through the nose and out through the mouth matching the intensity of the exercise with the speed of the breath – as the work becomes more difficult, then the breathing is faster and sharper, the reverse is true for the slower, less intense work.

Begin by raising and lowering to a slow count of ten and then twenty, working the number of repetitions up and then work Ballistically. To do this, using the leg raise for example – raise the legs slowly and descend fast. Reverse this and then perform the raise and lowering fast, in what I term ‘Ballistic style’.

As with everything I teach, you don’t want to get injured, SO TAKE IT SLOWLY, working up over a period of weeks and even months until you are strong enough.

So what’s the next step? What product should I purchase after reading this article?

I would suggest Train Like a Fighter and A Fighters Diet!