I feel like my workout is pretty well-rounded, except I don’t feel I’m working the lower abs in isolation as much as I’d like. I do crunches and leg lifts, but I don’t feel them working the muscles between the navel and the pelvic girdle as hard and as focused as I’d like to. I also have some arthritis problems with my back, so full sit ups are out, but I’m trying to strengthen my core to help my back. Any suggestions?
Hi, Rubystreak!
I’ve been doing a ship-load of ab exercises on a machine in my gym, made by a company named HOIST, I think, that has me seated and leaning forward against a weighted (and padded) bar–it seems to give me a lot of resistence, yet so far not a single pang of lower back pain (which I’ve had in the past). There are several positions to place my feet in, which seem to work out different parts of my ab muscles. Obviously, I don’t know jack about the technicalities, but I can tell you that I’ve been doing this routine for a few months now and it’s been good for my back (and for my front as well). I do feel it in the lower abs, big-time, so much that I have to quit sometimes because it feels like I’m stressing them too hard.
I’ll hit you up with a little bit more detail tomorrow, but there’s really no such thing as upper and lower abs, so you don’t need to worry about isolating them.
I would appreciate more detail and any insight that you have. Thanks.
Have you taken any Pilates classes? You’ll feel your core. Make sure you let the instructor know you have back issues so he or she can show you modifications that will allow you to participate without harming yourself.
I swear by Pilates–after seven major abdominal surgeries, Pilates gave me my abs back.
I’ve HEARD that leg lifts just work your hip flexors.
They feel like it’s lower abs because it’s the same position, but it’s really not. they’re behind your abs.
My wife’s pilates instructor has them work the lower abs with an exercise, well. . .description:
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lay on your back
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lift your legs so that your heels are pointing at the ceiling (might bend the knees a bit),
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Lift buttocks off the ground pushing heels towards ceiling. Lower butt. Lift butt. But, you’re not lowering your legs to the ground. You’re keeping them up in the air with your heels towards the ceiling the whole time.
In that exercise, you almost feel like you’re pushing your lower back into the ground. It causes me screaming lovely pain the region below my belly button.
However, I’m not exactly sure what ultrafllter is getting at. We certainly SEEM to have upper and lower abs, but I’ve always felt that most of my sit-ups and crunches work them all. That is, I’m not really isolating them.
I’ve also found that this seems to cause pain to all abs: sit on ground with knees bent, feet on floor. Lean back until it’s your core supporting your torso. You might start shaking. I think that’s good.
Oh, and in general. . .I think that pilates is great for all around core. Find a class, or get a DVD or something.
ETA: what Contrary said.
I’d been in a car accident when I was younger and strained some of my back muscles in the process. One of the exercises they had me do in physical therapy was called the pelvic tilt. It’ll help strengthen your lower back and tone a bit of your abdominals (mostly the lower muscle groups) and inner thighs in the process. There’s a lot of diagrams out there for what it’s supposed to look like, so here’s the GIS results that show them. Hope this helps.
On your hands and knees.
Bring a knee up to your chin, dip your chin to make it possible.
Straighten your leg, bring your chin back to normal, do not arch your back.
Repeat with other leg, do 20 each, every day.
Might help, but really, do not arch your back or kick firmly with your leg, this is NOT a donkey kick.
I saw an infomercial yesterday for a Malibu Pilates exercise chair. It’s hideously expensive so I won’t buy it, but it’s on their web site. Susan Lucci swears by it!
Thanks for the laugh.
A Malibu Pilates “exercise chair” endorsed by SUSAN LUCCI as seen on TV !!!
Hey, it’s not just bullshit. It’s bullshit, CALIFORNIA STYLE!!
I think I saw a commercial for “ab-on. apply directly to abs”.
The name “pilates” is apparently allowed to be attached to anything anyone wants (wiki note). I think it’s safe to say the the German guy who invented pilates for WWI soldiers didn’t have the Malibu pilates exercise chair endorsed by Susan Lucci in mind.
Pilates isn’t good because it has some magic-ab formula. It’s good because for an hour straight each class, they make you keep your legs in the air, and lift your torso using your core muscles a thousand times.
You do need to be careful about getting into any old class, though. My wife went to one that was decidedly NOT pilates, yet advertised as such.
Anyway, the OP has gotten some good answers, and even though there are probably ways to do what she wants. . .there’s simply nothing like doing a ton of work every day if you want your core to be strong. Sit-ups, crunches, side crunches, medicine ball, push-ups, hand-stands, yoga poses (bridges, legs over head, warrior poses). The cumulative effect is going to help all your abs.
Oh heck, I don’t use any machines. It’s all done on a mat and can have me trembling like a leaf even after having done Pilates and yoga now for almost three years.
Suzanne Deason has a decent Pilates workout; what I like about this one is that she shows three modifications so you can start where you are with your body.
Ana Caban has a much tougher workout. Unfortunately she does not show modifications, so if you’ve never done Pilates, this probably isn’t where you want to start. If you end up liking Ana’s style, she also offers a very challenging ab workout.
I started by taking classes because I was afraid of aggravating all my surgery sites. Now that money is tight, I use my DVDs.
Hey, if I’ve made someone laugh, the rest of the day is golden!
I’ve tried Winsor pilates consistently for months and it didn’t make one bit of difference. Dang, and some of those moves are hard!
I don’t really isolate ab muscles, but I do work them in a certain order. I go to a Core Class, which works out, your…um…core muscles, which is more than just abs, but also legs (hamstrings is what I really feel), glutes, and lower back. So when you do your ab muscles, make sure to also do your lower back. I like hanging bent knee raises.
Or on the floor, with your hands at your sides (or under you for more support, but much easier), put your legs and feet together and lift straight up raising your buttocks off the floor. Add a twist for more difficulty. Resting position is your legs straight (as possible) up. 2 sets of 20. 10-15 secs rest.
Theres a dvd they sell called power 90 x. It’s way to expensive for me to buy but a friend showed me the ab workout from there (it’s on youtube i’m pretty sure) and it’s brutal–I never knew how underpowered my hip flexors were until the day after that workout when I couldn’t bring my legs forward. Look it up.
Thanks for all the advice. Some of them I’m already doing, some I will try. I’m not a big fan of using ad machines because I’m short and short torso’ed, so I never fit in them right, and thus they don’t do what they’re supposed to. The mat exercises are definitely going to get tried at my next visit to the gym.
This summer, when I don’t have to work in the morning (because for some reason, these classes are always in the morning), I’m planning to try this 10 week, twice a week Pilates class at the gym. The poster says it will give you “a new body” in 20 sessions. I’m thinking, the 50 minute workout twice a week plus the rest of it will probably have an effect if nothing else.
Ana Caban has a beginning mat class DVD that shows modifications and I think it is excellent.
Still, if you’ve never done Pilates before, I’d recommend a couple intro classes with an instructor so you can learn how to do exercises properly for your back problems.
I love Pilates.
The basics are pretty much like I said before: the rectus abdominis is one muscle, without lower and upper parts that move separately. It looks like it ought to because it’s broken up between muscle and tendon-like sections, but those are just there because the obliques would tear it apart otherwise.
One of the best ab exercises I know is to lie flat on your back with your legs sticking straight up. Over the course of ten seconds, lower your legs without arching your back. If you can’t do it with both legs (most people can’t), try with just one at a time.