My annoying stomach

[Bretty101]

This is quite common as training you upper abs takes less effort then your lower abs. Crunches are easy, sit ups with your knees raised are easy and as well you get a nice burn and it feels good!

 

The lower abs are more difficult to train, as reommended leg lifts take more effort but are what you need or sit ups with people holding your legs so you sit up keeping your back as straight as possible.

 

I've found tho developing my lower abs makes my stomach stick out funny and slightly restricts my kicking often leading to cramp in my hip flexurs when i kick a lot.

 

I'd say try the leg raises (lay on your back and raise both legs straight) ans straight back sit ups.

 

Bretty

[Bretty101]

Also worth mentioning...

 

Sit ups especialy ones which stress you lower abs also stress you back. So be very careful, warm up, support your back where you can and avoid jerky movements.

[tigerstyle18]

It just dawned on me. Use reverse crunches. Lie flat on your back and lift your legs a couple inches off the ground. The moving only your legs, bring them up into a crunch position. Then bring them back to the starting position with your feet a couple inches off the ground. Hope this is understandable.

 

 

[Jack]

yep tigerstyle, exactly what I recommended. Very effective lower abdominal exercise.

 

Be sure to maintain tension in your abs while moving, and tense them when your knees reach crunch position for a few seconds before moving them back down.

[tigerstyle18]

oh yeah I didn't even see that. Sorry Jack, good imput.

 

 

[Radok]

hey three 60, trust me on this. lay on your back. Point your legs straight up in the air. Grab a couch behind you. now use just yo abs to lift your butt off the ground.

 

 

[Bitseach]

You need to do different types of crunches to target different areas of the rectus abdominal muscles. The crunches you are doing at the moment are perhaps only covering the one area leading to localised hypertrophy (increase in muscle mass). This site has a good variety of abs exercises in it: http://www.netfit.co.uk/abdominals-web-site.htm but as Bretty said, it's important to warm up well first.

 

Also important is to exercise the lower back so that the area is balanced - flip over onto your front and gently raise your chest off hte ground, keeping your legs out straight behind you. Raise your chest no more than about 3-4 inches (10cm or less) (DON'T be tempted to go further than this as it does you no good to hyperextend!) and keep your head so that you're looking at the ground. To start with, or if you have a weak back, do these with your hands behind your back; then progress to having your hands on your earlobes and eventually, straight out in front. Also stretch the abs by lying face down with your hands in a narrow press-ups position and *gently* push up the upper half of your body, keeping your hips on the floor and legs out behind you. You should also do some "cat stretches" to ease the erector spinae small muscles of the back.

 

If you only do abs crunches etc without these balancing exercises for the back, and abs stretches, you risk ending up with uneven posture and subsequent lower back pain.

 

 

[KickChick]

Nice link Bitseach ... I plan on using that boxing ab crunch on my class tomorrow!!

 

 

The lower belly .... otherwise known to us moms as the "baby pouch" .... sometimes this area is stretched out due to this fact. (Take it from me!) Abs need to be strengthen again .... and then for women this is the area where "fat" tends to congregate ---> the lower ab area! Cut out the fat in your diet!! Diet has alot to do with it .... all the crunches in the world won't flatten out a flabby belly.... but together with the right ab work (Simply: Regular crunches with heels together legs turned out low, will target this area also!) .... you'll achieve results!