The lower abs are something that basically everyone struggles with. This is because they are quite misunderstood. I am going to clear up the confusion in this blog post…..
The upper middle abs tilts the rib cage down and flexes the thoracic spine. The lower abs tilts the pelvis backwards and flexes the lumbar spine. These are the basic details that are missing from most peoples brains when it comes the abs.
The main problem with peoples abdominal muscles is that they have no idea on how they work and the information out there is not very good.
People link the lower abs and the abs in general with hip flexion and that is the worst of the worst. When people do knee raises, that is called hip flexion, and that is not every going to work your lower abs….but that is what everyone thinks will happen. What will happen is your hip flexors will get overworked and get tight, also creating a binding affect with the abdominals…so you will never be able to coordinate your abdominals separately from the hip flexors.
The hip flexors are to be turned off when the abs are engaged, specifically when the lower abs are engaged. The lower abs should be able to keep the pelvis tilted into proper position all by themselves and should not need any help from the hip flexors. The lower abs are the biggest of all the six pack muscles so they have a lot of strength.
The best lower ab exercises are…..
first, learning how to activate you abs and that is the essence of getting good abs
Low Ab Knee Raise
Get into this position with the knees up and up a lot…more than 90 degrees. The feet, legs, hips should all be limp. Contract and relax your abs 5 times, just on and then off, do not tense up anything but your abs. You do not have to tighten them 100%, you can just tighten them gently so that you can be sure not to tighten up everything, specifically you hip flexors and legs. Do 5 repetitions for 4 sets.
The stomach muscles do 3 things…they suck in, push out, and relax
We are going to push the stomach out for a contraction, that is going to activate the 6 pack. Sucking in the stomach activates the Transverses Abdominus which is behind the 6 pack so we do not care about it if we are looking to engage our 6 pack.
There are 2 ways to push out your stomach and contract it. You can push your stomach out and make it look like a pregnant belly or you can push your stomach out, just tighten it, and it does not have to go out really far. I give the example, if I was going to punch you in the stomach, what would you do, you would push your stomach out and tighten it, you would not suck it in!!!! So in the exercise above, push your stomach out and then relax 5 times for 4 sets without tensing up your legs or hips.
second, hanging with the knees up and of course keep the legs and hips loose and limp
third, the dragonfly
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