One of the most frequently asked questions we receive concerns the building of the abdominal muscles. Let’s face it, most people would love to be able to go to the beach and display that beautiful six-pack. Well, do I have a workout for you. The physical training (PT) session that we will be conducting this week is Abdominal Blast. This session, of course, targets the abdominals. It will also target the chest and tricep muscles. We will end the session with a nice run to get the heart rate up. Let’s get started.The only thing you’ll need for this exercise session is a nice field to conduct your exercises in.
You will begin this session with stretching. Specifically target the chest, triceps and back. After stretching, the first exercises you will be doing is sit-up drills. You can do sit-ups or the new modified crunch that the Marine Corps has incorporated. You will do three sets of sit-ups or crunches. The first set you will do will be the maximum amount you can do in two minutes. If you have troops, you can alternate between the port (left) and starboard (right) sides. What I mean by that is, your troops should be formed in two lines facing each other. Of course, when one side is conducting the exercise, the other side holds their legs. The first set will be followed by three more max descending timed sets. This means each side will do the following: two minutes max set, rest, 1 minute max set, rest, 30 second max set, rest, 15 second max set, rest.
After finishing this part of the session, we will be conducting leg throws. This exercise is performed in the following manner. Have one side of your troop line stand up. Have the side that is seated turn around with their backs facing the standing side. Next, have the standing side spread their legs shoulder width apart. Then, have the seated side lie down on their backs with their heads between the feet of the ones standing. At that point, they will grab the backs of the standing lines’ ankles. Remaining on their backs, they will raise their feet until their bodies are at a 90 degree angle. The standing line will grab the hard charger’s ankles or feet. Finally, he will push his feet to the front. The motivator lying on his back will let his feet go to approximately 3-6 inches above the ground, before pulling them back up to the 90 degree point. The person standing will alternate throws to the left, middle, and right. It should be noted that it is harder to raise the legs from the middle. Also, ensure that they keep their legs straight while conducting this exercise. They will do 40-45 repetitions (reps). After the first person does his or her repetitions, they will switch places and do the same thing. Once they’ve both done 40-45 reps, they will repeat the exercise, this time only doing 30-35 reps. This completes phase two of the pt session. At this point, the abs will be pretty warm. Now time for the meat and potatoes.
The following part will be done in a pyramid fashion. Have your troops form a large pt circle around you. There are three exercises we will be alternating between. These are push-ups, sit-ups/crunches and Hello dollies/flutter kicks. When I say that they will be done in a pyramid fashion, I mean that you will conduct one of each exercise consecutively, then two of each one, then three, etc, etc up to ten. At first you may only be able to go up to seven or eight. That’s okay, we have to start somewhere. All exercise will be four count. Now, about the push-ups. You will alternate the push-ups between diamond push-ups (with your thumbs and index fingers touching), medium width placement push-ups (with your hands shoulder width apart), and wide placement push-ups (hands placed wider than shoulder width).
The following will illustrate this a little more simply:
1 (4 ct.) push-up,
1 hello dolly/flutter kick (4 ct.),
1 sit-up/crunch (4 ct.)
2 push-ups,
2 hello dollies/flutter kicks,
2 sit-ups/crunches
3 push-ups,
3 hello dollies/flutter kicks,
3 sit-ups/crunches 4........5...... 6....7...8..9..10
Once you make it to ten, you will go back down to one and that will end the upper body portion of the session.
The final part of this pt session is a 2-3 mile run. Make sure that you stretch before and after this workout. I hope you have fun with this session. I know my troops and I do (yeah right!). Good luck on building that six pack. See you on the beach. Once again, stay pumped, stay motivated and OO-RAH!
Semper Fidelis!
