Top 5 Explosive Core Exercises – Garage Strength

Top 5 Explosive Core Exercises

Having a strong core requires training explosive ab exercises.


You have to begin by defining the core. And more importantly, should you be discussing the core as just the abs? Or should you be talking about the trunk?!?


Looking at it as the trunk, you need to look at your abdominals, your side abs, your connective tissue into the hips, and everything in the back. Doing that you can then make sense of how to train and optimize everything in the core for better sports performance.


There is a point to isolating your abs. It is just better to view everything inside your abs and core through the lens of the trunk.


The trunk plays a large role in explosive movements. To start, you can think about decelerating and preventing your torso from collapsing. Putting your front foot out in front of you requires dynamic trunk control through a strong trunk to get out of a cutting position. The trunk plays a pivotal role in a change of direction.

Sports

Any sport that requires a rapid change of direction requires you to have an explosive core. You can throw in any sport that has a racket or throwing motion. You can also include any sport with rapid deceleration or posture control. Pretty much every sport out there requires an explosive core to be successful.

Exercise 1

The first exercise you want to do is called Dane’s fast abs. It is an exercise that involves deceleration and rotation. You can do the exercise with a hydro weight because the water is moving and requires more trunk control.


On a decline bench, you rotate to the side, extend the hydro weight, and quickly pull the hydro weight to your chest while rotating to the center. You do this 3 times to each side and the center.


You can even fatigue yourself more with a crunch at the end. Regardless, Dane’s fast abs will lead to an explosive core and better dynamic trunk control. 

explosive core exercises

Exercise 2

The second exercise has you combining two things. The exercise is great for rotational strength. The exercise begins with holding a med ball and performing a fowler, where you balance on your butt with your chest up and legs up and you rotate the med ball back and forth. That is the first part of the exercise.


You then add a piece to the movement that makes it phenomenal. So you go fowler, side to side, and then throw and catch the med ball. 


You can call exercise 2 the fowler into faris throw. The rotation with the athletic throw leads to a big-time explosive core.

Exercise 3

You may think this exercise looks absurd. It is a movement that mimics what throwers tend to do. Throwers are some of the most explosive athletes in the world. 


If you want to learn how to come out of a cut in athletics, you have to know there is rotational work that goes into it. You have to coordinate the rotational work with ground reactive forces.


Using a PowerLastic band, you mimic coming out of the back of the circle like a spinner. You will start with your right leg down with your left hand on the band. You will jump, rotate 180 degrees, plant, and then come back. You want to control the position. 


The main focus is on the eccentric. You want to control the positions. The exercise is called rotating side band jumps. The main focus is being stable and not collapsing. 


Rotating side band jumps allow you to do a plyometric with trunk tension to develop dynamic trunk control. 

Exercise 4

You will use a PowerLastic band again. The movement creates a ton of tension. 


You can think of golfing, pitching, or throwing a football. You will hold the loop on the PowerLastic, rotate back, come through, and then count for 4 during the eccentric. The movement involves a quick rotation into a controlled eccentric. You will pause at the point of contact at the end of the eccentric to solidify the explosive core work.


The exercise is called golf swing rotations. You will feel this explosive core exercise in your hamstrings, glutes, and abs. It is a great showcase of how the trunk factors in. You will even feel your lats engaged performing golf swing rotations. Feel the rotational ground forces.

Exercise 5

You will again use a hydro weight to optimize dynamic trunk control development with this exercise. 


You will lay on a flat bench with your legs out and off the bench. You will cradle the hydro weight like a Zercher carry. You will then rotate your elbows to your quads, alternating side to side.


When the water turns in the hydro weight you will feel how hard the movement becomes as you decelerate the water. It is brutal. 


It is important to make sure your lower back is not in contact with the bench.

Recap

Explosive core exercises are needed in every single sport. Go to the gym and try out all 5 exercises with both the PowerLastics and the Hydro Weight.

Hydro Weight

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