Lower abdominal exercise....

Bump,,, i have the exact same question!!!

while EVERYBODY will come screaming to this post saying you cant target reduce your body, i think its important to focus on things that make you FEEL good abt yourself, or as tho you are working the area you want to reduce.

Pinching my nipples makes me feel good about myself, is it good for fat loss?

while EVERYBODY will come screaming to this post saying you cant target reduce your body, i think its important to focus on things that make you FEEL good abt yourself, or as tho you are working the area you want to reduce.

Pinching my nipples makes me feel good about myself, is it good for fat loss?

whatever floats your boat

I think a lot of people would admit that working your lower abs is one of the toughest areas to work. I know it is for me rignt now b/c I just had c-section a little over 3 months ago! I kind of feel like I"m starting for scratch right now. In reality to lose your "rolls" you will have to continue to lose fat, but strengthing your core will help with your posture. Having better posture can make you appear leaner, which is always a plus!

Any ab excercise where you raise your legs is going to work that lower ab area. You can modify legs raises until you get stronger, instead of lying on your back with your legs straight and lifting them up and down do it with your legs bent at a 90 degree angle. Most ab excercises there are ways to modify them until you can do the full version. If you can only do 1 or 2 of an excercise do that, then the next week do 5, then the next week do 10, then the next week try 2 of the unmodified version and 8 modified, and so on, and so on.

Find a support you can hold on to. Starting with just one leg while standing and holding onto the support, lift your leg up with a bent knee as high as you can. Do this for 20 reps if you can then do the other side.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
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Love to do these but with both knees on the Captain's chair at the gym. The one where you prop up on your elbows and let your feet hang. You can do straight leg lifts or bring both knees up high while keeping your abs tight, you can definitely feel it!

Lay on the ground with your legs straight out and bring them up at the same time to form as much of a 90-degree angle with your body as you can...further if possible.

My sister and I do those, and we also modify it to where she stands behind me with my head between her feet, I hold on to the backs of her shoes/heels and I bring my feet up to her, and she pushes them down while I try to control the rate that my feet move back toward the floor. When I started doing those I could barely do 20 total. Now I can do at least 4 sets of 25 or so.

I still have fat to lose in the stomach area (I also have the divot across the bellybutton), but there is actually muscle under there, and my stomach HAS become a little more flat.

Reverse crunches are also good from what I hear.

On the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD she says the reverse crunch (I think that's the name) is for the lower tummy pouch. It's the one where you do a crunch with your back flat but bring up your hips so your bottom is off of the floor. Hope this makes sense!

^^^^^ THIS is exactly what I was going to say... Jillian Michaels reverse crunch

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart on the floor and your fingers locked behind your head, elbows flaring out to the side.

Slowly start to bend your right knee and bring it up towards your chest. At the same, take your left elbow and draw it in towards your knee. Lower your leg down and stand straight up. Switch sides, bringing your left leg up to try and meet your right elbow. As you do this, your back should arch slightly into a C-shape. Repeat 25-50 times. Concentrate on feeling the lower abs work as you do the movement. This will work your upper abdominals as well, but the leg movement will really help the lower.

Also look up youtube videos for lumberjack swings- this will really help build your core. Start with no weight and eventually you might even be able to swing 10 or even 25 pounds.

You can lay on your back with both legs straight and lift them just a bit off the floor and hold them there. You only need a few inches. It is harder than you would think to hold them just a little bit off the floor. You can also hold your arms out straight overhead too. your whole body should be pretty much parallel with the floor. To make it just a little bit harder, pulse your arms and legs up and down just a touch, or do very small circles. You can work up lifting your legs higher and higher eventually

I was going to suggest something like JM six week six pack, not necessary to follow the exact program, but to do a few days a week or mix it in with whatever other stuff you do (I use her 30 shed for my cardio/strenght 2 days a week just for fitness and endurance) She does cardio as well as strength, with focus on abs in this one obviously, so you'll still be working other parts and burning fat, but also targeting the areas you most want to target as well. There are some good suggestions here to work in with my reg stuff too, so thanks people!.

@mbajrami, I love that exercise too!

Meg

The exercise I find that really works the lower abdominal muscles is to lie on the floor on your back and hold one weight with both hands straight above so your arms are perpendicular to the floor. Then keep a controlled move past your head down towards the floor (but don't touch it) and return to starting point. Use as heavy a weight as you can. Really effective in working those lower abs.

A PT showed me where I was going wrong myself, i was doing standard bent knee sit ups
he watched me for a while (he wasn't pinching his nipples at the time) and then came over and said;

'Try a 3 set workout
1st set legs flat feet an inch off the mat, hands/arms flat to the floor and then pull your knees to your chest (reading this it's JM style
2nd set in a plank position and for want of a better description make love to the floor, pull your *kitten* up so your body is at 120 degrees (i think) then lower it
3rd set on your back knees at 90 degrees back flat reach up with your hands to the ceiling and pull yourself up using your abs to about a 60 degree angle then lower yourself back down

The reaching up makes you engage or switch on your abs for the whole exercise which is the key where as it was more on/off with the way i was originally doing it and I really felt the difference too personally. You've got a stack of good advice in the above posts so I hope it helps and you start to see results :happy:

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