SHRED Your Six-Pack Abs With Anti-Janda Abdominal Sit-Ups

Your abs are going to HATE me for this one...for real.

As I'm wring this, I did this one on Monday...today is Friday and my abs are STILL sore. So use with caution :).

I actually felt a pump in my six-pack abs after doing this one, which is very rare.

I call this one an "Anti-Janda Sit-Up"...not because Jandas are bad (they're excellent) but because this uses a similar but opposite muscle action concept to those.

If you're not familiar with the Janda Sit-up, essentially, you hook your heels over something (or have a partner hold your heels) so that you can pull your heels against it, activating your hamstrings.

This activation of the hams (which are hip extensors) is targeted to minimize activation of the hip flexors, so that they don't contribute as much to the sit-up exercise.

And it works great.

This works even better...oddly enough, because it probably shouldn't.

How to Set Up Anti-Janda Sit-Ups

I've got a pair of ab sling straps clipped to a low pulley with 70 lbs on the stack.

I've also got a rolled-up towel that will go under the lower back to help change the leverage of the sit-up exercise from a hip flexion exercise to a spinal flexion exercise. If you're familiar with the Ab Mat or Abdominal Sit-ups, this is the concept at work.

I used this ab sling setup without the towel and it didn't work as well, so definitely use it.

Here's the key... don't set the straps behind your heels...set them UP on your calves, as close to the knees as you can get them.

When you shift back a little bit to get the cable stack up (and keep it there), I found this actually activated the QUADS, not the hamstrings. The quads fire to keep your feet from getting pulled forward (like a constant leg extension or sissy squat).

The rectus femoris (one of the quad muscles) is also a hip flexor...so the hip flexors ARE actually very involved with this exercise.

I also found this additional load set up like this required me to brace my abs, just to help maintain that position. So basically, your six-pack abs and hip flexors are already under tension before you even start the exercise.

Set the towel under your lower back.

Now do a sit-up over the towel, using NO momentum. It should be all muscle action.

I would recommend starting with your arms at your chest or held forward...how you hold them will vary the resistance (further back is harder, forward is easier).

At the start, the towel creates a new pivot point for the six-pack abs to work against, shifting the load onto the muscles we really want to be working.

This allows your six-pack abs to start from a slightly stretched position, which is going to be a bit of a shock if you've never done anything like that before.

SHRED Your Six-Pack Abs With Anti-Janda Abdominal Sit-Ups Start

The chest comes up (this first part of the movement is more upper ab area focused like a crunch), then when you get to about the halfway point, that pivot point kicks in and the focus shifts to the lower aspect of the abdominals to finish the movement.

(And yes, you CAN shift tension from upper to lower abs...they're not separate muscles but due to the nature of the "sheet" of muscle, spinal anatomy and the changing leverage, you can shift more tension...not fully isolate but shift)

Come the rest of the way up to the top of the sit-up, until your chest is up against your thighs.

SHRED Your Six-Pack Abs With Anti-Janda Abdominal Sit-Ups Midde

Hold for a few seconds and really dig into the contraction....

SHRED Your Six-Pack Abs With Anti-Janda Abdominal Sit-Ups Top

...then lower back down slowly and under control.

Unroll your abs at and relax at the bottom, then go again.

What I did after a few reps was to adjust arm position on the fly in order to keep going. I would start with my arms at my chest for the first part (which is actually a bit easier), then bring them forward for the second part, which is harder.