Crunches aren’t enough: add exercise for lower abdominal muscles if you want ripped abs.
If you’re spending hours on your abs each week but not seeing results you may need to add exercise for lower abdominal muscles to your workout. In the quest for washboard abs, too many people confine their efforts to marathon sessions of crunches or sit-ups only to fall back in defeat when they don’t see results.
Are you one of them?
Well, I hate to break it to you but you’ve been going about it all wrong. Embrace these three habits, however, and you’ll begin to see results.
1. Add exercise for lower abdominal muscles and obliques to your weekly routine.
2. Burn fat with regular aerobic activity.
3. Eat five to six small, well-balanced meals per day.
To succeed, you need to change the way you think about your ab workout.
Despite popular opinion, crunches and sit-ups aren’t the best ab exercises. Traditional sit-ups work the hip flexors rather than the abs; crunches may put your upper abdominal muscles through a good workout but they are not a good exercise for lower abdominal muscles or obliques. To achieve a well-balanced torso, you need to make sure your workout includes exercise for all abdominal muscles, as well as the small muscles in your back.
It took more than ab exercises to give Janet Jackson her eight pack. Despite the claims of many self-proclaimed experts, who are so good at telling us what we want to believe, spot reducing exercises will not burn fat. To do that you have to get your heart rate up, and keep it there, for intense periods of at least 30 minutes, three times a week.
And, if you really want to get ripped, fast and furious isn’t the way to go. There is no physical advantage to pushing yourself through 100 or more reps of a single exercise for lower abdominal muscles or other core muscle groups. In fact, the opposite is true.
To develop abdominal strength you need to overload the muscles then give them time to repair themselves. If you don’t begin to feel muscle fatigue until you’ve performed a high number of repetitions, then you aren’t working hard enough or with proper form.
To get the most out of any exercise for lower abdominal muscles, for example, you need to focus on frequency rather than intensity. You also need to perform the movement slowly and deliberately. Try doing each rep to a count of two or three instead of one. You should notice a difference.
If you are in need of a good exercise for lower abdominal muscles, add seated leg tucks, the bicycle or pelvic tilt (described below) to your ab workout.
1. Lie on the floor in the crunch position. Your feet should be shoulder width apart.
2. Press your lower back against the floor then slowly lift your lower torso upwards. Hold for a count of two.
3. Slowly return to the starting position.
4. Repeat 10 to 16 times.
Another good exercise for lower abdominal muscles (as well as the upper abs and obliques) is the captain’s chair:
1. Stand on the chair and stabilize your upper body by gripping the handholds.
2. Pressing your back against the pad, contract your abs to raise your legs. Lift your knees towards your chest.
3. Be careful not to arch your back.
4. Slowly lower your legs to the starting position.
5. Repeat 10 to 16 times.Similar Articles
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