ROTATION
TRAINING WITH A CABLE
CORRECT
FORM
1) Grasp a cable
pulley attached to a pulley machine (such as a cable
crossover). Step far enough away from the machine so that you
take up all of the slack of the cable. Keep
your feet slightly more than shoulder width apart and get into an
athletic-ready stance, with your knees bent just slightly. Keep your
shoulders back and always look straight ahead. You should look like
this:
2) Keeping your arms and shoulders in the same position, tighten your
abdominals (to get them to kick in) and then pivot with your hips
- away from the cable machine. Make your upper body move as one segment.
3) Pivot through
the hips as far away from the machine as possible. Hold 1-2 seconds,
then slowly return.
4) Inhale
as you return. Exhale as you pivot.
MUSCLES
USED
SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS/PRECAUTIONS
Be sure to watch
for lower back pain when doing this exercise. Lower back injuries
can occur when performing a rotational exercise with an injured or
strained spine. You should feel all of the tension develop in the
abdominals (especially in the obliques) and legs. If
you have difficulty feeling this in your abdominals, and become fatigued
in the arms instead, try bringing the cable closer to your body.
EFFECTIVENESS
This version of
the torso rotation with a cable is one of the very best DYNAMIC abdominal
stabilization exercises. It uses the abdominals in the way they typically
get used in real life, not working like a sit-up or crunch, but turning
the body and stabilizing the spine simultaneously. This
exercise is an excellent training tool for any sport which requires
rotation - football, basketball, baseball, boxing, etc. There are
very few ways to train rotation, and this is one of them.
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