The abdominal exercise Jackknife Facing Away

While system founder Juliu Horvath has said that every exercise, when done correctly, is an abdominal exercise, there are directly abdominal strengthening exercises in the system. This is a great one. It's also one of the more advanced abdominal exercises on the Pulley Tower. There are 3 preparatory exercises you would work through before getting to this facing away version.

One of the most important aspects of abdominal exercises in GYROTONIC® training is the breath. The breath should be a key part of any abdominal exercise in every exercise system but as a former personal trainer, I know that breathing generally isn't focused on when doing direct abs work in traditional fitness training. As a general point, and I've said this to every client I've ever trained, there is no exercise system that unites movement and breath as thoroughly or as completely as Gyrotonic training.  In abs exercises, you use the Squeezing Breath. The muscles you use for forced exhalation are the muscles you're trying to strengthen with any abdominal exercise. So if you're not purposely integrating your motion and you're breath, you're not working your abs as completely as you could.