Reverse ab crunch is what I do. He has his legs raised, now lower your legs so your heels bearly hit the ground and then go back up. I don’t raise my legs as high as this guy, maybe 1/2 the way, but it should work either way.
You said you want to add weight? Clench a dumbbell between the arch’s of your feet, that should do the trick.
Some people in these threads have severe superiority complexes.
I’d do leg raises on a decline with a band ?
[quote]napalmit wrote:
Reverse ab crunch is what I do. He has his legs raised, now lower your legs so your heels bearly hit the ground and then go back up. I don’t raise my legs as high as this guy, maybe 1/2 the way, but it should work either way.
You said you want to add weight? Clench a dumbbell between the arch’s of your feet, that should do the trick.
[/quote]
Thanks! I’ll try that. I knew about the leg raises but did not think to add a weight between my feet. This is perfect!
PS: Love the name!
[quote]bpeloquin wrote:
Some people in these threads have severe superiority complexes.
I’d do leg raises on a decline with a band ? [/quote]
Wow, that might actually work really, really well. I’ll have to try that too. Thanks!
Does anyone else’s hips pop in/out or crack when doing hanging leg raises? Dont know what’s going on with that but if anyone else has experienced this let me know what to do thanks
[quote]LilDaDDyDreW wrote:
Does anyone else’s hips pop in/out or crack when doing hanging leg raises? Dont know what’s going on with that but if anyone else has experienced this let me know what to do thanks[/quote]
My left leg does that all the time and used to do it really bad when I was doing Palates and Power Yoga. I’m not sure what causes it but it really is a terrible feeling and I can totally sympathize with you. It was the reason I stopped going to Palates.
I think mine was from a college football injury. Did you ever take any damage in that area?
[quote]Sgt Subterfuge wrote:
Thanks! I’ll try that. I knew about the leg raises but did not think to add a weight between my feet. This is perfect!
PS: Love the name![/quote]
This is what I do and it works quite well!
And for the hip popping question, I have that prob all the time. More just getting really sore, but not to an intolerable level.
umm…how do you KNOW that you have 8 visible “abs”, rather than just 6 visible abs…not everyones abs look the same shredded, and that includes shape size thickness and number.
by the way,even very lean i know my lower two are not very noticeable, shredded i “technically” have 8 visible, but there is no way i could hold that body fat percentage to maintain that appearance, because they dont have nearly the depth, or resistance strength (ie to a punch as stated above)
OP: You come into a body-building forum and wonder why everyone has the perspective of aesthetics rather than strength, and you’re confused about it and act like an arrogant shit?
Anyway, an attempt to significantly hypertrophy the “very” lower abdominals is irrelevant. They will be working substantially during most other exercises. A number of studies have shown that in supposed “targeted” exercises, the lower abs are no more recruited than the more upper muscles. Selective recruitment is a non-issue.
Furthermore, the abdominal musculature naturally tapers off in anatomical cross sectional area so the absolute level of thickness that low is VERY small, and I’m talking mm of thickness. The potential for any form of significant absolute hypertrophy in these muscles is not worth the focus. Your issue seems more to do with technique and muscle recruitment patterns than it is hypertrophy…but anyway you should stop wanting to talk to us yucky unfunctional bodybuilder type people…
OP, when you do leg raises make sure your pelvis is posteriorly tilted, there was a good article on here recently called “the dead bug series” or something like that, google it. As for changing the insertion point, try the ab wheel movement in reverse, with your feet moving instead of your arms, you will need a special ab wheel for this or a swiss ball (the swiss ball version is alot easier)
dragon flags. do 3x8-10. then do a final set and hold yourself out there for as long as you can.
There is debate about whether the rectus abdominus contracts as ONE muscle group? Why? …and to those handing out exercises, why ignore the fact that there is likely nothing wrong with his abs but his own perception of what is supposed to happen?
The phrase lower abdominal implies one abdominal wall muscle, rectus abdominus, is lower than the others. This is not true. Each has attachment sites on the pubic bones. No one of them is any lower than the others. If the words lower abdominals refer to the lower half of the rectus abdominus, it implies the lower half of a muscle can contract without its upper half being affected. This is impossible due to the structural construction of muscles.
To understand the abdominal muscles it is vital to understand the basics of skeletal muscles. A muscle has at least two ends. These ends attach directly, or by way of a tendon, to at least two separate bones. Each muscle crosses at least one joint. When the muscle contracts it either causes the joint between the two bones to flex (bend) or extend (straighten). One end of the muscle, referred to as its origin, is usually stable and doesn’t move. The other end, called the insertion, usually moves when the muscle contracts.
The meaty part of the muscle is made of fibers which stretch from the origin to the insertion. The long fibers in the abdominal muscle go from the origin (on the ribs and xiphoid process) to the insertion site (on the pubic symphysis). A concentric contraction, in curl-ups or sit-ups, is performed as the two ends move close together. For full range of motion to occur on each repetition of the exercise, the muscle relaxes and allows its two ends to move apart and regain resting length.
THE ALL OR NOTHING PRINCIPLE OF MUSCLE CONTRACTION
The two ends of the rectus abdominus move toward each other, or one end can hold still while the other end moves. They may switch duties, or they both may move toward the middle. But the entire length of the muscle fiber is always involved no matter which end is mobile.
The all or nothing principle pertains to the length of a muscle fiber, not to all the fibers of a muscle. One fiber may contract while a nearby fiber is not, but the fiber which is contracting is committed along its entire length. A muscle fiber cannot contract along only half its length.
Imagine a stretched rubber band representing the rectus abdominus. As the rubber band shortens to its resting length the entire band is involved in the shortening process. This is similar to the way the muscle contracts along its entire length. For one end of the muscle to move, it must be pulled upon from the anchored end at the origin site. Hence, the lower end of the abdominal muscle cannot contract without affecting the rest of the length of fiber.
As for exercises, if you are training sport specific to prevent “someone getting you in a gut hook and they easily overcome your lower abs.” Mimic as best you can the movement patterns, add some resistance and see what happens. There’s a reason when I was training for shot put I did a lot of push press, squatting and shoulder press, and of course throwing. However, I didn’t spend much time doing bicep curls. Don’t waste your time on cute crap that won’t help you achieve your goal if you’re training sport specific.
Watch these and hopefully it will jumpstart some brainstorming.
The “abs” are comprised of 4 muscle:
How did you determine that the Rectus Abdominus is the weak link? How can you measure that IT is the weak link and not the other 3?
Consider it jumpstarted.
TNT
[quote]brian.m wrote:
umm…how do you KNOW that you have 8 visible “abs”, rather than just 6 visible abs…not everyones abs look the same shredded, and that includes shape size thickness and number.
by the way,even very lean i know my lower two are not very noticeable, shredded i “technically” have 8 visible, but there is no way i could hold that body fat percentage to maintain that appearance, because they dont have nearly the depth, or resistance strength (ie to a punch as stated above)[/quote]
Not sure what you are asking here… Is there any way to get the depth or resistance strength I’m looking for?
[quote]Sgt Subterfuge wrote:
brian.m wrote:
umm…how do you KNOW that you have 8 visible “abs”, rather than just 6 visible abs…not everyones abs look the same shredded, and that includes shape size thickness and number.
by the way,even very lean i know my lower two are not very noticeable, shredded i “technically” have 8 visible, but there is no way i could hold that body fat percentage to maintain that appearance, because they dont have nearly the depth, or resistance strength (ie to a punch as stated above)
Not sure what you are asking here…[/quote]
Yeah, that’s pretty clear. It is also clear you don’t understand how that muscle works. The question now is whether you will listen or keep acting like the rest of us are clueless.
I want to know why he came into a BODYBUILDING forum, then got mad we assumed he wanted to change the way his abs looked.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
There is debate about whether the rectus abdominus contracts as ONE muscle group? Why? …and to those handing out exercises, why ignore the fact that there is likely nothing wrong with his abs but his own perception of what is supposed to happen?[/quote]
IMHO: They are handing out exercises because that is what I asked for. I don’t like the fact that people are questioning my perception. I didn’t ask, “Is my perception correct that my lower abs are weaker?” I asked for exercises targeting the lower abs or isolating them. That being said, the quote below, I think, really straightened me out. The rest of you that are questioning me instead of answering my questions should learn to post like this person and maybe more people would find these forums actually useful. If I’m not the customer here please correct me but I do shop here and am a Level 4 buyer so for those of you who moderate this site, don’t alienate people like me.
[quote]Rumble Fish wrote:
The phrase lower abdominal implies one abdominal wall muscle, rectus abdominus, is lower than the others. This is not true. Each has attachment sites on the pubic bones. No one of them is any lower than the others. If the words lower abdominals refer to the lower half of the rectus abdominus, it implies the lower half of a muscle can contract without its upper half being affected. This is impossible due to the structural construction of muscles.
To understand the abdominal muscles it is vital to understand the basics of skeletal muscles. A muscle has at least two ends. These ends attach directly, or by way of a tendon, to at least two separate bones. Each muscle crosses at least one joint. When the muscle contracts it either causes the joint between the two bones to flex (bend) or extend (straighten). One end of the muscle, referred to as its origin, is usually stable and doesn’t move. The other end, called the insertion, usually moves when the muscle contracts.
The meaty part of the muscle is made of fibers which stretch from the origin to the insertion. The long fibers in the abdominal muscle go from the origin (on the ribs and xiphoid process) to the insertion site (on the pubic symphysis). A concentric contraction, in curl-ups or sit-ups, is performed as the two ends move close together. For full range of motion to occur on each repetition of the exercise, the muscle relaxes and allows its two ends to move apart and regain resting length.
THE ALL OR NOTHING PRINCIPLE OF MUSCLE CONTRACTION
The two ends of the rectus abdominus move toward each other, or one end can hold still while the other end moves. They may switch duties, or they both may move toward the middle. But the entire length of the muscle fiber is always involved no matter which end is mobile.
The all or nothing principle pertains to the length of a muscle fiber, not to all the fibers of a muscle. One fiber may contract while a nearby fiber is not, but the fiber which is contracting is committed along its entire length. A muscle fiber cannot contract along only half its length.
Imagine a stretched rubber band representing the rectus abdominus. As the rubber band shortens to its resting length the entire band is involved in the shortening process. This is similar to the way the muscle contracts along its entire length. For one end of the muscle to move, it must be pulled upon from the anchored end at the origin site. Hence, the lower end of the abdominal muscle cannot contract without affecting the rest of the length of fiber.
As for exercises, if you are training sport specific to prevent “someone getting you in a gut hook and they easily overcome your lower abs.” Mimic as best you can the movement patterns, add some resistance and see what happens. There’s a reason when I was training for shot put I did a lot of push press, squatting and shoulder press, and of course throwing. However, I didn’t spend much time doing bicep curls. Don’t waste your time on cute crap that won’t help you achieve your goal if you’re training sport specific.
Watch these and hopefully it will jumpstart some brainstorming.
This is the kind of post that should be posted to people like me trying to find out beter ways of doing things and maybe not knowing the whole picture. This guy could have come in here and questioned me, called me names, or told me how much better than me he was but he did not. He presented his statement with facts, information, and backed it up with citations. This is really good stuff! Thanks Rumble Fish!
[quote]GluteusGigantis wrote:
OP: You come into a body-building forum and wonder why everyone has the perspective of aesthetics rather than strength, and you’re confused about it and act like an arrogant shit?[/quote]
As for this guy, did you read the entire thread? I am not the one being arrogant! I asked a fucking question and most of the posts are people fucking with me rather than answering the fucking question. You are way off base man. Read the rest of the thread! The rest of your info is good but I could have really done without yet another person fucking with me.
It seems to me this site could really benefit from getting rid of all the Level 0 trolls and allowing people like Rumble Fish to really help people. Form a purely business perspective it would save on bandwidth and disk space and reduce the amount of bull shit exponentially.
A big thanks to those of you that answered my question and explained to me what I was looking for. It was very beneficial and poignant.
It’s like a bunch of slap dicks in here. One asking a slap dick question, another slap dick answering the OSD, and all the slap dicks slapping each other’s asses and saying, ‘Thanks bro.’
All while everyone that actually is trying to educate the slap dick is being told by the slap dick they have no clue what they are talking about. Even forlife doesn’t sound like a slap dick in this, yet he’s dismissed and asked if he lifts weights. Which makes the Original Slap Dick a homo, who asks another dude if they lift weights?
reverse crunch