300 Workout- Abs Modified for a Mom

I was talking to some colleagues at work today and they mentioned they had done the 300 workout. This is an intense barbell circuit with some great fat burning lifts in it. The original came out about 2 years ago and there has been a few updates since. There is one move in particular that is great, but can definitely be improved for a new mom. The move is called the Windshield wiper and it is for your abdominals. It requires you to lay on the floor with and perform a reverse abdominal curl while holding and pressing a barbell above your chest. Side swipes are also involved which requires you to perform this same reverse curl move for obliques as you lift your legs out to the side of the barbell, then to the middle (traditional reverse curl) and then to the other side of the barbell.

I had first attempted this move after giving birth to my first child a few years ago. My pelvis and abs were not stable enough to perform oblique reverse curls without over rotation in my lumbar spine (anything over 15 degrees)leaving me prone to back pain. As well performing a double leg reverse curl crunch put too much pressure on my weak pelvic floor muscles and displaced bladder leaving me prone to stress incontinence. So how can we make this great exercise MOM FRIENDLY? Very easy, perform your barbell press with alternating 1 legged reverse leg curls (a more advanced version of the dead bug in your mothers day program). This allows you to work both sides of your abdominals independently without putting too much pressure on your bladder. This also stimulates one side of your obliques and hip flexors while you are still able to maintain neutral spine and almost no lumbar rotation as you can anchor your opposite hip to the floor. This is definitely a plus for new moms or any moms that have undergone abdominal stretching, pelvic instability and rectis diastasis. Please note this modification does not make the exercise any easier and probably even harder, but it is much safer after going through pregnancy and delivery.

For the beginner you can place one leg on the floor and just do opposite knee ins to chest between barbell or dumbbell chest presses, for slightly more advanced you can elevate both legs to with bent knees and pull one knee in further and for advanced you can elevate both legs with a straight leg and pull one leg at a time to the barbell while hovering the other leg just above ground level.
Again this is a great abdmoinal exercise without performing a single traditional crunch sit up.