Lower Abdominals

[Juka865]

Can anyone suggest some excercises to work out my lower abs ? or just fill me in on stuff I prolly dont know. Ive been working on abs alot lately and it seems I really only have been working out my mid and upper its hard to get those lower. and also if you could whats a good excercise / stretch to work the love handles? dont have much anymore as im still loosing but i figure working em out would only help right? Thx~

[mystik]

It will just be a combination of diet and leg raises to hit those lower abs.

For the "love handles" you need to hit more cardio to get the fat down. For exercises just use an ab bench, or any normal crunch, but lay your legs on their sides, and do a normal crunch.

For the lower abs, you can do hanging leg raises or if you don't want to put so much stress on your shoulders, there is also a machine (the name slips my mind) which you can prop yourself up on your forearms and have at it.

Another decent exercise for that group of muscles would be alternating elbow to knee crunches.

[meat12]

do some Med. ball straight leg crunches, those seem to isolate the lower abs the best for me.

[Viral]

Ya, and some ppl make the mistake of looking at the lower abdominal muscles, and they arnt split. Thats because they dont, because in fact its not 2 seperate muscles. Its hard to explain, but just check out some body builder pics.

[Juka865]

.

meat12 do some Med. ball straight leg crunches, those seem to isolate the lower abs the best for me.

Yea this reminds me. A few days ago my brother tried this. He found a new thing called ... Beer. Yea so hes got a little stomache growing haha. So asshole decides to out of the blue do 400 crunches with a medicine ball at the gym he goes too. He ripped his muscle or something dont know if he needs surgery im about to go see him at the hospital now. But thx for the info lower abs are really hard to target on myself at least only thing that seems to do it are those leg raises I try other things that say they work it out i must be doing it wrong though.

[Puddles]

When you're doing the hanging leg raises, try keeping your legs extended out instead of bent at the knee and see if you feel it more in your lower abs. Also, don't let your body swing when you're doing them...keep your torso still. After you do a few raises, when your legs get up to the top, stop and hold them there for 5-10 seconds and then very slowly lower them, repeat a few times and you should feel it better.

I wouldn't work them every day because your abs, just like the other muscles in your body, need time off to repair in order to grow.

[jaypee]

Originally posted by Puddles
When you're doing the hanging leg raises, try keeping your legs extended out instead of bent at the knee and see if you feel it more in your lower abs. Also, don't let your body swing when you're doing them...keep your torso still.

You know I always try to do this, but my quads wear out before my abs.

[keeny]

their is no such thing as lower abs. Your abdominal wall is connected from your sternem to your pelvis and is one long muscle. It seems like your LOWER abs dont get worked because we all tend to hold more fat theri then anywhere else. True. Crunch and feel upper and lower abs, they both contract at same time. Diet is the key to that sixpack, all exercises mentioned are good also. good luck

[asvedarsky]

The Rectus abdominis or ab muscle is one muscle that is innervated by two disctinct nerves. If you want to work the lower abs the best way to start out would be to lie on your back with your legs in the air and bent at the knees. Raise your hips off of the floor. Not rolling them towards you though . You'll be doing well if you can raise your hips about a half an inch. Another would be from the same position, drop on leg at a time(still bent) without arching your back. Once you are connected with your lower abs, then slowly progress to more advancd exercises.
It sounds like your ab issue is more of a body fat issue.

[mrmuscle43a]

Diet, Diet!! Leg Raises Leg Raises!!
I think you have got the point by now.