how to work lower abs?

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i've been doing do sit-ups recently abd my upper abs are hurting so i'm asumming that's good. how do i work the lower abs? i must be doing the sit-ups wrong?

hunnymonster

Are you a man or a woman? My physio has given me exercises to work my abs, obliques and hip flexors but they are female specific. Essentially they boil down to doing the normal abs exercises (planks and crunches and the like) but combining them with pelvic floor type moves. They require a lot of concentration and a fair bit of falling all over the place but they certainly helped strengthen the area. Compound weights exercises have also helped. I've still got a long way to go though so maybe the others here will have better advice.

Leon11

Look up 4 point tummy tucks, horse stance "superman" exercises in addition to what hunnymonster said, they are more core specfic but I definitely feel my lower abs worked when I do them.

To be honest one of the best ways is nice deep squats.

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ok i'll look that up thanks.

i'm male . about 14 stone, trying to lose a bit of weight and at the same time build muscle. i'm pretty muscular, just need to loose some weight from face and tummy.

also, my right bicep is smaller than my left (i'm right handed, no funny jokes ). i know because the heart is on the left that might have something to do with it? will doing more lifting with the dumbbell on the right arm help?

Leon11

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also, my right bicep is smaller than my left (i'm right handed, no funny jokes ). i know because the heart is on the left that might have something to do with it? will doing more lifting with the dumbbell on the right arm help?

no no no, just lift the same weight on each arm and look to increase it steadily and over time your muscle imbalance should correct itself to within half an inch.

I'm open to correction but I'm pretty sure your arms are never the exact same size. Usually 1/2 inch to a full inch in size difference.

Marathon Man

I cant advocate leg raises enough. there are a few variations but the two main types i do (lying on ones back) are raising ones legs behind ones head, and then there are 20 degree leg raises. Both are tough- thats how you know they work. Prior to doing these I only had a 4 pack now I've got a full pack.

HammerHeadGym

I like knees to elbows. Hang from a chin up bar and bring your knees up untill they touch your elbows, as the name suggests. Make sure your hips come up. Full details available here

cowzerp

( . )( . ) wrote:

also, my right bicep is smaller than my left (i'm right handed, no funny jokes ). i know because the heart is on the left that might have something to do with it? will doing more lifting with the dumbbell on the right arm help?

The muscle in balance in your arms is nothing to do with your heart! its got to do with you over using your left arm-when picking the weight for bicep curls, select it based on the weak arm-this way the left arm still gets work while the right arm catches up-the left should find it a bit easier and thats fine.

MA

Leon11 wrote:

no no no, just lift the same weight on each arm and look to increase it steadily and over time your muscle imbalance should correct itself to within half an inch.

I'm open to correction but I'm pretty sure your arms are never the exact same size. Usually 1/2 inch to a full inch in size difference.

No your correct - ones always going to be stronger , everyone has a preferred arm they use unintentionally more than the other.
Lifting different weight on each arm is a workout NO -unless your doing imbalance training where you would be switching the heavyereight into the other hand and vs verser on every other set

MA

Leg raises target the lower abs, same with the chair or bicycles. id do them before your crunches, that way you fatigue the lower abs so when it comes to your crunches the lower abs have to work twice as hard

SliteConfusion

Just so you are aware you will not get rid of body fat around your abdominals by doing sit-ups. You wouldn't go swinging your head around 1,000 times to loose fat on your face, would you!!! You need to work on your cardio to loose fat, and you will loose it from all the areas that you store fat. We all store fat in different places...genetics has a lot to do with this, but we will cannot focus on one particular area to loose fat. Get into the gym and sweat it.

Work your uppper abs, lower, obliques, transverse abdominis and lower back. I could get into a list of excercises but you should just Google the above list and that should get you started. Start off with beginner excercises and work your way up.

I agree, one arm will be stronger that the next, but try to avoid lifting weights with a bar, as your stronger hand will make up for the weaker. Use dumbells for a while as each hand has to carry the same weight, and one hand is not substituting for the other. Never, ever, ever lift different weights on different arms, unless as MA states, you reverse over to balance out the previous excercise.