Aleks Salkin - The Hebrew Hammer

Real world strength through kettlebells, calisthenics, and natural movement

Your Eyes, Your Legs, and your Strength

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They all matter more than you might think.

If you’re on your way toward greater and greater feats of calisthenics strength and your goal is to hear “Do you wanna join our traveling circus as the freakishly powerful, leotard-clad strongman?” at least once a week, odds are you are going to butt up against some plateaus eventually, let me do you a favor and tell you a couple of “secrets” (i.e. observations) I’ve discovered that have helped me a lot and will help you too. They’re unconventional (i.e. not just “get tight!”, “tense your abs!” etc.), but can mean the difference between marching forward and sliding back.

1) Where your eyes are looking matters.
Wherever you look, your body will follow. If you look up, it will activate the extensor reflex. If you look down, the flexor reflex. So if you’re working on an exercise that requires a lot of flexion – like, say, the Dragon Flag – it may not be a bad idea to look toward your belly button to intensify the contraction. If you’re doing a stand-to-stand bridge, you’re going to want to try to look behind you. Trust me – don’t stare idly, eyes all glazed over and such. Look with purpose and you’ll set yourself up for greater success.

2) What your legs are doing matters.
Or more to the point, what they’re NOT doing. If your legs are as loose as a rag doll, they’re going to torpedo your efforts. As my friend Josh “Chimpy” Halbert says “Loose legs are heavy legs.” Rid yourself of the concept of “upper body” and “lower body.” It’s all one body, and if you’ve ever attempted a free-standing handstand, you’ll know all too well that jelly legs will bring your otherwise impressive inverted feat straight to Earth. Activating your legs and glutes will give you greater stability in things like handstands, planches, elbow levers, and so on.

​Other things, such as maintaining the hollow position, working the basics hard, progressive overload, etc. are always going to be important. Just don’t let that encourage you not to look after those head-slappingly simple things that pave the way for greater and eye-popping feats. The journey’s already a long one and doesn’t have to be made any longer.

You have to train your core

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Don’t pretend like it’s strong enough; it’s not.

You *have* to work your abs.

For the life of me, I’ll never understand why so many people out there say things like “you don’t need to directly work your abs. Heavy squats and deadlifts are enough.”

Really? By that logic, you also don’t need to squat and deadlift, as deadlift lockouts and heavy squat walkouts will work your back and legs sufficiently, right?

If that sounds absurd, good. It ought to. Just as deadlifts and squats *can* help you make your abs stronger, they’ll only get stronger up to a point – much the same as heavy deadlift lockouts and heavy squat walkouts *can* make your back and legs stronger. Eventually, however, you’ll have to submit to the fact that you have to squat and deadlift. And eventually you’re going to have to spend some time getting your abs stronger. Your abs are made to brace statically and move dynamically just like any other body part. So why ignore a vital part of their overall training? Don’t be lazy.
If you’re a rank beginner, you can’t do much better than dead bugs and floor-bound leg raises (dead bug video here) . If you’re an intermediate, hanging leg raises and windshield wipers will do the trick (video here). And if you’re a seasoned athlete, dragon flags ought to be on the menu.

And no matter where you are on the scale from beginner to elite, you should definitely be crawling. My abs never contract harder than when I’m crawling backward up a hill – even harder than when I do dragon flags. Hard to believe, so don’t take my word for it. Crawl backward up and forward down a hill for a minute and see if your abs aren’t the most on-fire they’ve ever been.

Pavel Tsatsouline recommends that you make ab training a serious part of your training regimen a few times a year, and spend the other time working your heavy compound lifts hard. Hard to argue with the man himself. So if it’s been a while since you’ve emphasized chiseling up your midsection, get on it and watch your full-body strength go through the roof.

Pictured is Chuck Sipes, who didn’t get his abs to look and feel like those of a Greek statue by ignoring them.