Abs of Steel with Windshield Wipers

The windshield wiper is an amazing core exercise, and its fun too, but its not for beginners. This exercise gets its name from its motion that is very much like a windshield wiper on your car, flopping left and right like a metronome. Doing these before your core is already strong will result in a very, very painful pulled muscle.

Many people find these difficult so let me show you how to work up to them. First, you need to have done bicycles for several months so your obliques are pretty strong. Next, you need to be really strong at hanging leg raises so work on these. If you cant do a straight legged raise to horizontal and hold it, then you wont be able to do windshield wipers, so work on this first.

For safety, make sure your pullup bar is sturdy and use wrist straps! You are hanging upside down, if you fall, you will break your back or neck – this is NOT a time to work on your grip strength! In one fluid motion, bring your knees up to your elbows. Dont just hang passively from the bar, push the bar down toward your waist till you can balance.

For the advanced windshield wiper, keep your legs straight, for the beginning version bend the knees 90 degrees.