Pallof Press
When talking about great exercises to target your core muscles including your abdominals we often hear about the plank and deadbug variations. Don’t get me wrong they are great exercises. But Pallof Press is a killer exercise often overlooked!
Pallof Press is a great way to train anti-rotation and can also be used for anti lateral flexion, shoulder stability and single leg lateral movements.
When working on the core we often forget about rotational forces. Improving your ability to resist rotational forces is extremely important for successful athletes in most sports.
The Pallof Press improves the real function of your core, that is resisting motion (in this case rotation)
In many sports athletes want to create more rotational power. For instance swinging a bat in baseball, throwing a competitor in Mixed Martial Arts etc. If you cannot control rotation and create “rigidity” through your hips and trunk when you need it, you may inhibit your game.
The exercise helps athletes maintain rigidity through the hips and trunk. Which in-turn will better the stability of those muscles and your ability to generate power.
It is a great exercise for most athletes including power and strength athletes.
How to do the Pallof Press
The Palloff press has so many great progressions you can try, but let’s start with the basics.
Stand feet shoulder width apart. Hold a resistance band or cable with hands in front on your chest. You can place one hand on the inside of the band or cable and the other on top for support.
Keep your knees slightly bent, try not to rotate your hips as this will take pressure off your trunk.
Enough reading get training!
Want more? Check out more great stability exercises for athletes and the movement too many athletes ignore!
Another great and cheap way to train your abdominal muscles is using an ab roller. You can affect the difficulty by altering the range of motion on the descent. See ab roller below!
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