Ab work

Bexethan

I'm interested in concentrating on my abs a little more but I'm not interested in traditional floor work for it. Partly because I've had a lot of kids and I suspect a bit of ab seperation as a result. With the first few I went back to ab work within the first year of having them, and ran into random other issues. The last child I had I avoided ab work for over a year and noticed that a lot of those issues seemed to reverse or disappear entirely. Are there any other ways that anyone likes to work their abs? Ways to work them at home are ideal...I'm a single mother of 5 kids and it's incredibly hard to go anywhere exercise specific or without kids underfoot!

slaite1

Do you do any other exercise? Lifting will work your abs without doing any ab-specific exercises. Specifically deadlifts, squats, pull-ups and any overhead work. Do the exercises correctly and do them slow. Also sprinting is a great core workout.

A lot of people love planks, and it doesn't use the same movements as a lot of typical ab workouts. There are tons of variations as you get stronger-side planks, side planks with arm lifts, leg lifts during the plank, etc. You can also incorporate some back specific exercises into your workout like supermans and an exercise called "supergirls" (I don't know it's real name) which is a tougher variation. These help with stability and strengthen your core. These recommendations are assuming you do not lift weights or do any other exercise, since you didn't specify. If you lift heavy weights, I would focus on the exercises I mentioned in the first paragraph.

canadianlbs

i really like suitcase carries with whatever you've got that you can hold in your hands. the athlean-x guy had a youtube thing about them that got my attention and i still have them in my short list of go-to's for when i want to wake up my core a little. ymmv but i prefer them to planks because they're an exercise in using your core while you're in motion, compared with the way planks are either static or they're a damn nuisance for someone as left-right dyslexic as me when i start adding in other factors.

i also like the one-hand overhead carry a lot. that's more of a shoulder thing for me, but there's definitely a core factor involved as well since the weight 'travels' straight down the line of your arm and through your side to get to the ground through your legs.

middlehaitch

Get checked by your doctor for diastasis recti. If you have it ask for a pt ref that will set you up with an exercise routine.

Doing some ab exercises can aggravate the condition.

Cheers, h.