Alternate Heel Touchers
Trains the Abs and Obliques.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Mechanic
- Isolation
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat, a little wider than your hips.
- Lift your head and shoulders slightly off the floor and hold them there.
- Reach one hand down the side of your body toward that heel, bending sideways at the waist.
- Return through the middle and reach the other hand toward the other heel.
- Keep the shoulders off the floor throughout.
- Continue alternating at a controlled pace.
Common mistakes
- Letting the shoulders drop back down between reaches. Holding them up is what keeps the abdominals loaded; dropping them turns the movement into a lying stretch.
- Reaching with the arm rather than bending at the waist. The hand gets closer because the trunk side-bends, not because the shoulder stretches further.
- Setting the feet too far from the hips. Heels close enough to reach is the setup; a long stretch to touch them means the trunk has to rotate.
- Going fast. Speed hides a shoulder that has quietly settled back onto the floor.