Make This Quick Abs Workout Part of Your Bedtime Routine
If you have a job, kids, and any semblance of social life, the only thing you may feel like you’re missing is time. That's why you might find that, more often than not, after you spend an hour at the gym busting through sets for your major muscles, you pick up your gym bag and sneak past the abs area of the gym without hitting a single plank or sit-up. You've got bathtime responsibilities or dinner with friends on the docket, after all – so you skip focused core training.
Abs are an easy muscle group to pass over. The training can be monotonous, and since your core muscles get worked during most compound exercises, you might feel like you've done enough, anyway. But if you want the type of midsection that gets attention, you must give it some attention. Your abs are like any other muscle in your body. You need to directly target them to grow, and when you adjust your calorie intake to shed fat, they appear more prominent.
If anyone understands how to build an enviable six-pack while balancing life, it’s Cory Gregory, who recently created the Dad Bod Shred training plan. Gregory, a 46-year-old father of three, trainer and fitness model, has learned to squeeze in training sessions so no muscle goes untrained, no matter how busy his life gets.
A prime example of this fitness savvy is his nighttime abs routine, which consists of one exercise and takes less than ten minutes to complete.
It might take you a week or two to get into the habit of knocking out weighted crunches, but the pay off is a time-effective way to level-up your abs. We think you’ll love this method.
The Bedtime Abs Workout
How to do it: Lie face-up on the floor with your heels on the edge of your bed (a weight bench also works), legs bent at 90 degrees. Grab a weight plate – between 5 and 15kg should work for most guys – and hold it in both hands behind your head. Squeeze your abs and curl forward until your upper back is off of the ground. Reverse the motion slowly until your lower back is flat against the floor. Gregory wants you to do four sets of 25 reps. Try to keep your rest between sets to one to two minutes.
Accumulating 100 crunches is a lot of volume, so don’t feel defeated if you can’t complete each set uninterrupted. Start with sets of just your body weight, slowly working up to 15kg in 2.5kg increments. If you’re able to perform four sets of 25 reps with a 15kg plate, try elevating your butt off of the ground to make the set harder.
PRO TIP: To ensure he gets to the work done, Gregory keeps a plate underneath his bed and bangs out his crunches as a part of his nightly routine.
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