Shadowing Practice: Ab Training Made EASY With These 5 Tips! - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Each mode opens a full-screen practice room.

183 sentences

If sentences are too short or too long, click Edit to adjust them.

Five tips that are going to take your abs from looking flat to chunky and bulky.

These are the tips you need that are going to take your abs to the next level.

Let's go.

Number one is learning to engage your abs on every rep, on every exercise.

Too often I see people just slightly performing them wrong and it's putting tension on the hip flexors, just not on the abs.

So this is number one tip for getting those abs engaged.

One of the most effective, if not the most effective exercise for abs, hanging leg raises, as long as you're performing them correctly.

Instead of what I see all the time is people just

raising their legs straight up without actually thinking about engaging the abs.

The key before lifting your legs up is to learn how to roll your waist forward.

So this is engaging the lower abs.

If I'm just raising my leg up, yes, the lower abs will get some work, but the majority of the tension is going to be on the hip flexors.

So what you need to do is think about your abs crunching in together.

As you can see, they're way more engaged than if I'm just lifting.

I'm tensing my abs now and just lifting my legs rather than tensing your abs just by rolling your hips forward.

So when I'm doing the leg raise up, I'm actually intentionally tensing them by squeezing.

but by rolling my hips forward they automatically engage

so on the leg raises that's the first thing you should be thinking about before performing your reps

so there rather than me lifting my legs up you can

see i'm not even lifting my legs i'm purely crunching with my abs by rolling my hips forward

and that's generally all you need but to get the full range of motion you would want to come up a bit,

but learn to just bring your hips off the bench.

The faster you can get this motion down, this bit of technique, the faster your abs will grow.

So when you put them all together, instead of it just being like this, it should be that first and then your legs up.

My abs are on absolute fire just through a few reps and that goes to show how important the technique is.

Still on tip number one, but I'm going to show you the most effective technique

and how to engage your abs on the most effective exercises for your abs, which will take me into tip number two.

We've got cable rope crunch.

We actually have a machine here, but it's the same whether you're doing it on the cables or any motion where you are crunching.

You need to be thinking about your abs contracting together.

Lots of the time I see this mistake.

So they'll get the cable rope and they'll just come straight down here.

Okay.

And there is no contraction really in your abs.

That's It's more of like a plank movement, you know, but you're not actually contracting your abs.

So as you come through, rather than just coming straight forward, you need to be contracting, bringing your head more towards your waist.

You don't want your chin to come on your chest.

You want that distance to stay the same, but contract your abs.

I've used this before, but

if you just think about your finger the three different breaks in your finger

or your abs instead of just going straight down you need to contract

and curl your abs together

so this would be wrong coming straight down not actually getting

full contraction rather than tucking your head more towards your waist Now I can feel my abs are engaged

and the difference will be drastic when you start contracting rather than just stabilizing straight.

We want to be tucking our head under while keeping the same distance away from our chest and chin.

Number two is going to be about obliques.

So they are going to be key to framing your abs, but we want to target them the right way and not really effectively build a wider waist.

So this is one of my key exercises for doing that and probably really the only exercise I do for obliques.

So if you want the striations on your obliques,

you need to be hitting them as frequent as abs and this is one of my go-to exercises to do that.

So what we want to do is get on the ball of our hip, find a decline bench where you can secure your leg.

You can also do this on the floor and I'll show you an alternative exercise if if you don't have this equipment.

But what we wanna do is feel the tension along our oblique as we come down and then same thing, squeezing up.

What we're not doing is the same as the upper crunch, as I said, and just coming straight up.

It's a matter of squeezing and contracting with every rep.

You can also mix it up by just bringing a slight rotation into it, which will put a little bit more onto the abs as well as obliques.

You can use a mat here, but I don't have one

they're being used around the corner the gym's a little bit busy this morning

but you don't really need one the same thing though we're on the ball of our hip

and what we're doing is keeping ourselves balanced with our elbow

making sure we're not too far over either way getting a good strong core

and what we're going to do is not bring our knees in

because once again we want to crunch together

so my legs are going up to squeeze the obliques this is generally going to work the same area as

that decline bench oblique crunch and obviously when you've done your reps

that side then you switch to the other side yeah my abs are on fire

so my tip number three kind of rounds up what i've done

so far in the video and

that is the three most essential exercises i'm not even joking

these are the only three you really need to do of course you need to obviously increase with progressive overload

and step up the technique the reps and things like that

but if you're smashing these three exercises you're going to build a good core

and that is leg raises whether they're hanging lying

or using the assisted leg raise machine this is by far the most effective for building those lower abdominals

and then exercise number two for the upper abs is going to be cable rope crunch

or an upper crunch i prefer this machine

if you don't have it then you know the exercise where you do it on the cables on your knees

and crunching together, making sure you're using that technique that I spoke about in tip number one.

So those are the most effective exercises for the lower abs and then the upper abs, the cable rope crunch.

These are the exercises that if I couldn't do any other ab exercises again for the rest of my life, these are the three I would choose.

And then for the obliques, we've got the decline bench oblique crunch.

And remember, you can do all of these exercises without this equipment.

And I'll just quickly run through those now.

So these exercises are going to be good

if you're not at the gym and you want to keep those gains going while you're at home.

So you've got the lying leg raises, which will be the alternative for the hanging leg raise.

So quick technique tips with these is whenever we're bringing our legs up, we don't want to raise as our feet come over our waist.

See how my feet are in line with my waist?

that's when you want to raise your hips up.

We don't want to cheat and do it like this because we're not getting the engagement in our abs.

What we want to do is let our legs get to around our waist height

and then raise up and control back down.

Exercise number two is going to be the alternative for the cable rope crunch.

If you have a little bit of weight at home, you can add weight.

But if you get the technique right, you probably won't need it.

So in this one, same thing.

We don't just want to come straight up.

We want to focus on getting a contraction in our abs by rolling together, keeping the same distance between our chin and our chest.

100

You have to bear with me.

101

I've done a lot of reps.

102

My abs are on fire.

103

Breathing out as you crunch, back in as you go down.

104

And then the third and final non-negotiable ab exercise or oblique exercise will be that decline bench oblique crunch.

105

This is going to be the alternative for the decline oblique crunch.

106

Same as I showed you earlier before, bringing those feet up and crunching in.

107

Stretch and contract.

108

And now we're into tip number four.

109

And this one is such a big tip.

110

and that is to avoid getting flat abs and build bigger blockier abs

111

so once you've got the leg raises to like 10 12

112

reps with your body weight you want to add some weight

113

because what you want to do is progressive overload

114

so we can actually make the abs bigger and thicker

115

and they're going to pop through your skin and to do

116

that you want to add some weight the easiest way to do

117

that is grabbing a dumbbell and putting it between your feet

118

so it's the same sort of thing focusing on

119

that technique rolling the hips forward

120

but now we've got some added weight to make it harder

121

so So that's the leg raises with the weight between your legs.

122

It's great for those lower abs.

123

And obviously you've got the cable rope crunch, which is already weighted.

124

But the key is to progress your weight like you would with any other muscle.

125

You wouldn't do like 20 to 30, 40 reps of biceps or chest to make it grow.

126

So you wouldn't want to do the same for abs.

127

You want to be hitting failure around that kind of 8 to 15 mark.

128

That is where the growth is going to happen.

129

It's the tip inside a tip.

130

And when it comes to training weights with your abs, yes, I train my lower abs with weights, my upper abs with weights, but what I don't really train is my obliques with weights.

131

I will keep those reps quite a bit higher and just to body weight, because what we don't want is to create a bigger, wider waist.

132

We want to shred them up.

133

Obviously it's kind of hard to just completely do

134

that with just training diet does that as well of course

135

but the key is to not focus on failing around 8 to 12 with the obliques

136

and going more to like 15 20 25 reps keeping the heavier weight to more the lower

137

and upper abs they are going to be growing underneath the skin

138

that you're or the fat you're bulking with but it is key

139

because whenever you cut back down the size is still going to be there.

140

It's the same with any other muscle.

141

You don't get big blocky abs by staying really shredded.

142

You got to bulk up, build the size in them, stay consistent with them like you would in every other muscle group.

143

Don't just leave them to the end and just do a couple reps.

144

You need to be hitting 20-30 minutes, two, three times a week with weights, mixing up exercises.

145

Or as I've said, you don't really need to mix up the exercises.

146

Just look at progressing the weight in those key exercises and your abs will grow.

147

So stop avoiding them during a bulk, be consistent with them like you would anything else.

148

And of course, the biggest key to having abs visible is your diet.

149

You know, if you're in a calorie surplus, you're gaining weight, you're not going to be seeing your abs as much.

150

But because this is taking me off of the trail talking a little bit, but whenever I bulk up no matter how big i really get you can still see my abs

151

and that is because years of training them during a bulk

152

and then cutting back down and gaining the size in them

153

because they've got big enough to show through my skin even whenever i'm big

154

and bulky and holding a bit more body fat so

155

that is why you need to be training them your body composition is going to get better

156

and better every time you bulk

157

and cut the first time i bulked like 16 17 years ago my bulk is completely different now.

158

You know, I've learned more things about my body.

159

My body composition changes.

160

So the bulk and the cut process are going to help you get much better abs and of course, every other muscle.

161

But the number one thing is obviously revealing them with diet.

162

Unfortunately, I get this question a lot is how do I lose the fat off my lower abs?

163

How do I lose the fat off my quads?

164

That's the thing.

165

You can't choose where you lose your body fat from.

166

We're all different and it will come off you in different stages.

167

So if you still have that little bit of body fat in a certain area, you've got to keep pushing and it will come off

168

but training the abs getting them bigger are going to be easier to see

169

so the bigger they are the easier they are going to be able to see

170

when i first started training years ago i don't do this

171

so much now

172

but i think that's why my abs have become quite a dominant part of my physique

173

because i used to do whole days on abs i'm talking

174

45 minutes to an hour on my abs don't ask me why it wasn't really necessary

175

but now i just spend 30 minutes three times a week guys use these tips train them during a bulk

176

and you will see them pop whenever you cut back down

177

if you really want to see them now start training them how i've told you

178

and getting a calorie deficit

179

and they will start popping through i hope you guys like

180

the video i forgot to talk about my competition as well i need to make a video about

181

that yeah i recently competed that's why i'm super lean like

182

this there's no way i'm gonna have abs in my veins for much longer

183

that might be alive i am pretty much the king of shreds

Download App

Everything you need to speak fluently

AI PronunciationScore every sentence

IPA PracticeMaster every sound

VocabularyBuild your word bank

Vocab GameLearn while playing

Scan QR

Download on theApp Store Get it onGoogle Play

FOR YOU

Recommend Video

136 sentences

How to Create a Strength & Conditioning Program for Athletes | Programming for Athletic Performance

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

247 sentences

Train Your Brain to Automatically Reach Your Goals

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

381 sentences

Training W/ Angela White

Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students

247 sentences

6 Days OUT | FST-7 Shoulders with 4X Classic Olympian Champ Chris Bumstead

Business EnglishUniversity StudentsWorking Adults

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Ab Training Made EASY With These 5 Tips!”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: exercise, leg, weight, oblique, crunch. This video has 183 sentences and 2500 words to shadow. The speech runs for 12:10. The speaker talks fast, about 205 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
crunch verb	/kɹʌnt͡ʃ/	To crush something, especially food, with a noisy crackling sound.
oblique adjective	/oʊˈbliːk/	Not erect or perpendicular; not parallel to, or at right angles from, the base.
bulk noun	/bʌlk/	Size, specifically, volume.
waist noun	/weɪst/	The part of the body between the pelvis and the stomach.
rope noun	/ɹoʊp/	Thick strings, yarn, monofilaments, metal wires, or strands of other cordage that are twisted together to form a stronger line.
squeeze verb	/skwiːz/	To apply pressure (to something) from two or more sides at once.
contraction noun	/kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/	An act of incurring debt; also (generally), an act of acquiring something (generally negative).
tense noun	/tɛns/	The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists.
chin noun	/ˈt͡ʃɪn/	The bottom of a face, (specifically) the typically jutting jawline below the mouth.
blocky adjective	/ˈblɑk.i/	Resembling a block in shape.
bulky adjective	/ˈbʌlki/	Being large in size, mass, or volume; big, fat or muscular.
flexor noun	/ˈflɛksə(ɹ)/	A muscle whose contraction acts to bend a joint or limb.
overload verb	/ˌəʊvəˈləʊd/	To load excessively.
shred verb	/ʃɹɛd/	To cut or tear (something) into long, narrow pieces or strips.
tuck verb	/tʌk/	To pull or gather up (an item of fabric).

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
cut back verb	To reduce the amount of (something).
come off verb	To become detached.
mix up verb	To mix or blend thoroughly and completely.
back down verb	To take a less aggressive position in a conflict than one previously had, or has planned to have.
come down verb	To descend, fall down, collapse.
come over verb	To affect in a sudden, unprecedented or surprising manner; to overwhelm a person's ordinarily contrary impulse.
come through verb	To come into a room or other space through a door or passageway.
come up verb	To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

We've got cable rope crunch.
See how my feet are in line with my waist?
We don't just want to come straight up.
I've done a lot of reps.
How do I lose the fat off my quads?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	you've done · i've done · I've said
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	abs, which will · raises, which will · crunch, which is
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	is let · is already weighted

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 81 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: contraction /kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/, shred /ʃɹɛd/, negotiable /nɪˈɡoʊʃəbəl/, striation [stɹaɪˈeɪ.ʃən], intentionally /ɪnˈtɛn(t)ʃənəli/
Long words — get the stress right: negotiable /nɪˈɡoʊʃəbəl/, intentionally /ɪnˈtɛn(t)ʃənəli/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like crunch, oblique, bulk.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Ab Training Made EASY With These 5 Tips! - Learn English Speaking with Video

Choose a practice mode

Download App

The ONLY 2 Exercises You Need to Fix Your Flat Butt

Study Tips - How to learn new content

Targeting Belly Fat Is... Possible?! (NEW Study)

My Morning Workout Routine

5 Ways To Become A Better Badminton Player

What actually makes muscles grow

Strengthen Your LES in 5 Minutes a Day | 5 Exercises for Acid Reflux Prevention

Speak 10X Clearer: Do These 3 Vocal Exercises Daily!

How to Create a Strength & Conditioning Program for Athletes | Programming for Athletic Performance

Train Your Brain to Automatically Reach Your Goals

Training W/ Angela White

6 Days OUT | FST-7 Shoulders with 4X Classic Olympian Champ Chris Bumstead

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?