Today, Team Alpha Male members Urijah Faber and Joseph Benavidez teaches us an essential core exercise, the Overhead Sit-Up.
When you look at the whole of Team Alpha Male, they’ve all got one thing in common — six-pack abs. Not only does the overhead sit-up help you acquire aesthetics in the mid-section, it is also one of the best core exercises that can help you train both endurance and explosiveness that is applicable to MMA.
For the overhead sit-up, you’re gonna need a training partner and a medicine ball. Play the video below.
Tips and Tricks:
- If it’s your first time doing this exercise, start with a lower weight medicine ball to get you acquainted with the movement. Much like any exercise, form is more important than the weight. You might be working with heavier weight but if you don’t have your form down, you’re not getting the full benefit from this exercise.
- Gradually increase the weight of the medicine ball, once you got your form down, the heavier the better. Just don’t use a kettlebell, that’s just dumb.
- Keep your knees bent with your feet hooked onto your partner’s ankles.
- Try incorporating an explosive movement with this exercise to work on core strength as well as endurance.
- You can opt to do this with a set amount of reps or mix it up tabata style. 20 seconds fast, 10 seconds slow, 20 seconds fast and so forth for a 5 minute round straight — it’s up to you.
- If you want more of a challenge, lie down on a decline bench and perform this exercise for a harder core workout.
I personally do overhead sit-ups tabata style and I use a Gymboss Interval Timer to monitor my workouts. It only costs $20 from MMAWarehouse and you can use it for anywhere from rounds in the heavy bag, HIIT sprints and of course, the overhead sit-up that you just learned. The Gymboss Interval Timer definitely pays for itself. It clips easily to your shorts or fits in your pocket, and not does this little beast let you know when the round is over by the sound, it also actually vibrates. A great investment for your MMA training needs.
PURCHASE: Gymboss Interval Timer
