Ab Exercises

Le Rack

Firstly sorry if this is the wrong place, but I'm looking for exercises to build and tone my lower abs and obliques. I do Tae Kwon Do two to three times a weeks and my arms, legs and upper abs are well toned, muscular, whatever, but I can't seem to do anything about my lower abs and obliques. I know a few exercises for them but they aren't very good or else I'm not doing them right.
Anyone any advice?
Thanks in advance.

g'em

cycling crunches (where you twist your body so your elbow moves towards the opposite knee). Only lift your torso about 30 degrees off the ground, keep your abs tensed throughout the movement. Or hanging crunches (hang from a chin-up bar, wide-grip and bring your knees up to your chest but don't swing).

Lots of other suggestions here.. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?MainMuscle=Abdominals

I dunno if you do any weights but compound excercises like deadlifts and squats also strengthen the core in a big way.

Le Rack

Thank you!
I do a very small amount of weights, but my legs and arms are starting to get a bit too chunky for my liking, being a girly girl and all! :rolleyes:
I thought squats were only for the leg and ass area but thanks a lot!

Dragan

The fact that you already do lots of excercise and martial arts leads me to assume that your stomach is most likely already nice and flat. I also expect you have a strong core ( imagine your abs working like a hinge, being used to help stabalise your body in everything you do ).

There may be two issues holding back your abs.

1) The genetic shape of the abs themselves or the body's preference to store some small amount of fat in this area. This can be a pain in the ass, as it means all the abs excercises in the world will lead to fairly shallow abs, but they WILL still be there.
2) The genetic potential simply hasn't been brought out. As g'em said, the excercise are great. I would also suggest you have a look at the ab excercises on bobybuilding.com

Do things like leg lifts, the plank etc and your abs will come out. Like any other muscle hit them with variety and a lovely six pack shall be yours.

And don't worry about your arms etc. The right amount of muscle just makes a girl look better. Look at Jessice Biel, Jennifer Gardnier and Miss Jolie. ( granted my Angeline has gone a bit skiny of late !!!! )

Le Rack

I think it's part one above there, like if I do tense up and that I can feel the abs but they are very much iside rather then visible. My whole torso, down to my belly button is flat and reasonably well toned, but from my bellybutton to my hip height (for want of better anantomical terms! :rolleyes:) I have a slight bump which is fairly bloody irritating!
Thanks anyway guys!

I do a lot of marital arts myself. I've found doing the ab section here - http://www.trainforstrength.com/workout1.shtml to be very good for building up core strength. Maybe try it either before or after yout TKD classes. Also make sure to work on your lower back, so that your muscle groups remained balanced strength wise. Otherwise you're liekly to pick up injuries.

Toning doesn't really exist. It's a combination of dropping body fat% and non-excessive muscle growth.

Thing is my abs are never really defined unless I'm dropping weight for a competition or something, not matter how much work i do on them. Not being able to have defined/toned abs probably has a lot more to do with body fat % and genetics as mentioned above than anything else.

g'em

TBH, if you already do lots of training, and the muscles are already there as you've said, the only, and I mean ONLY way they'll be seen is through diet. Even at the highest level of figure competitions (bodybuilding, women's figure, fitness etc) weight training and workouts are less than half the battle- diet counts for about 80% of how your body will look.

If you find that you have a little 'belly' around your middle, try cutting down on processed foods, which are usually high in sugar and salt and elad to bloating. Cut out fizzy drinks and drink lots of water, swap white bread/ pasta/ rice for brown or wholemeal all of which will keep you full longer,cut down on bloating and aid digestion.

Le Rack

My diet is really healthy. I've had food tolerency tests done, so I know exactly what my body can and can't handle, I'm a veggie, so no yocky animal fats, I don't use dairy, just a bit of cheese. I eat very little processed food, pretty much everything is homemade, sauces the whole lot. I don't drink fizzy drinks, very rarely, I drink all water, fruit juice and sugar free cordials. I don't use salt either on food or to cook. The only bread I have is a slice of toast in the morning and even though I do eat a lot of rice and pasta I work (or think I do) a lot of it off with training.

I think it's all getting to me more cuz I know I'm fit and eat well but still can't fix it up and around me my stick figure friends eat junk permanently and don't go the slightest bit out of shape! I don't even want a stick figure, just to flaten the tum a bit more cuz it's not too bad, just bad enough to annoy in certain jeans!

amazingemmet

You could take some pilates classes, they're good for toning up that whole general area.

Le Rack

Pilates? They the things all the celebs do these days? I doubt there's anywhere around here that do them! Thanks anyway!

amazingemmet

Theres loads of people doing it around the country ask these guys here for a list of instructors in your area

Le Rack

okey cokey

Musashi

And if none of that works try hanging leg raises, nothing hits the lower abs like hanging raises! From your Pubis to Bellybutton will get tortured! Do them twisting to hit laterals obliques all that good stuff! Do 'em on a three count even, straight, left and right? Do them until you cramp up and rep out some more, Pain is Gain and all! Post pics after three months (even if only to me!)
Sabum Minyinka! Tae Kyon!

Transform

Unless you have your body fat comfortably below 10% you will not see the lower part of 6 pack.

Also doing plenty of proper weight training will bring it along also.

Seraphina

Le Rack wrote:

I think it's all getting to me more cuz I know I'm fit and eat well but still can't fix it up and around me my stick figure friends eat junk permanently and don't go the slightest bit out of shape! I don't even want a stick figure, just to flaten the tum a bit more cuz it's not too bad, just bad enough to annoy in certain jeans!

this bugs me so much too! i try so hard but those who dont do anything all still have better bodies than me!
bloody genetics! *shakes fist at mother and father*

Boru.

Okay, there's a secret to it. Its a super secret that no one's is allowed to talk about....but here goes.....

All the exercises above are excellent. I personally love the hanging leg raises g'em recommends. That said all of the are missing the one tiny bit of info you need to really flatten the stomach, its been hinted at but no one's out right said it.

The super secret is referred to as the "TA"! Right I've said too much.

The Ta or transverse abdominus is a muscle tissue located by the rectus or you six pack muscles. The TA is the muscles responsible for pulling those abs in and giving you a flat stomach. (That said women will always have a slight rounding of the lower stomach, its part of what genetically defines women)

If you see many top athletes they have terrific defined abs but the minute they think they aren't being watched the all have a huge rounded bellies! This is because your abs, like every other muscle in the body rounds out when developed.

What counters this in the TA. The TA is an essential core muscle that rarely gets worked. When your told to keep your abs tensed during a movement they are referring to the TA.

Suck in your abs, the muscle doing that is the TA. So how do you train it?

An excellent method is using Pilates Breathing techniques, or old school methods like vacuuming (personal favourite).

Try this one. Lie down on a floor face stomach on the ground. Keep you spine straight and arms by your side. Turn your face to one side if this is more comfortable. From this position breath in deeply, and as you do so pull up the abs. If you do this right they should come off the floor more than enough to fit a hand underneath! (That said; if you're overweight try this standing up). If you have a hard time contracting the right abs muscles to do his visualise an ice cube or thumb tack underneath your stomach that your trying to avoid! Breath out slowly making a hissing s sound (This increases intra abdominal pressure and activates more muscles in the core.

Try ten repetitions and don't let your stomach hit the floor!

That’s a good start. I'm sure other trainers here have other techniques but if you master that feeling and apply it to your other abs work you'll se great results!

g'em

Boru. wrote:

An excellent method is using Pilates Breathing techniques, or old school methods like vacuuming (personal favourite).

yeah, these work a treat. An alternative to the lying down version is to stand with feet shoulder width apart, knees gently bent. Breath in and tense the abs and then try to suck in your abs like as if you're trying to push them as far towards the spine as they will go, creating a vaccuum. Hold for 10 seconds and slowly release. The key is to control your breathing throughout. Repeat 5-6 times.

Oh, but one tip- always try to do these excercises on an empty stomach or you'll feel very queasy very fast!!!

martinl

As a few others already pointed out I would recommend a variety of exercise, don’t stick to only two or three different exercises – use occasionally a gym ball as well for time to time to do them and if you get a chance try various Pilates exercise.

As you seem to do already a good bit of various exercise a beginners Pilates class might be a bit easy, still worthwhile doing to get the technique right from the start.

Either ring the National Training Centre www.ntc.ie, they are one of the colleges that educate Pilates instructors – they should be able to give you the details of a contact person in your area, or have a quick look at my website www.fitnecise.com (in case you are in Dublin). I will re-start courses in January in the city centre and in south Dublin.

Otherwise there is the elbow-room yoga and Pilates studio in Dublin, the Yoga Studio, which offers also Pilates classes and some gyms offer also Pilates classes to non members.

Le Rack

All sounds...fun...

I do the vaccum-ey thingey when I'm doing, sit-ups and different crunches and stuff, I'll give some more of these a try though, thanx everybody!

Cindy Love

Hi there

I have/had a similar complaint.Ive been doing what I think are called abductions and planks as well as leg raises,crunches and standard sit ups. Im getting encouraging results from the abductions and planks. Perhaps you could give em a go. (if your unsure what im talking about send me a pm and Ill be happy to descibe the movement to you)

Best of luck anyhow and keep the head up!