An important and sometimes neglected step in stomach exercise routines is isolating particular muscles within the abdominal group. One such set of muscles which needs isolation in order to be exercised properly are the muscles in the lower stomach. There are a number of stomach exercises which isolate and work these muscles. As with any workout routine, be sure to consult a professional before beginning and always warm up properly to avoid injury.
Crunchless Crunch
This first exercise is fairly simple but can also be fairly difficult. Essentially, it involves trying to pull the belly button in towards the spine. This can be tricky, as it involves using muscles which you may not be used to activating. To start, either lie or on your stomach or kneel. You might want to try both ways and see which helps you feel the exercise better. Relax your body as much as possible, then try to use only the lower abdominals to move your belly button toward your spine. Hold for ten seconds. If holding for ten seconds feels easy, hold for a longer period. The goal is to hold the contraction until you either cannot feel it, or you feel other muscles working harder than the transverse abdominus. When you feel this, let the contraction out.
Alternating Toe Touch
You will need to lie on a flat surface for this stomach exercise. The floor works best, using a mat or towel to cushion the spine. Lie on the floor and put your feet up in the air. Extend your right arm and use your lower abdominals to lift your shoulders off the floor. Touch your left toes with your right hand, then lower yourself back down. Switch hands and repeat. Keep your knees straight throughout and maintain a space between your chin and chest.
Sit-Up Hold
While you are still on the floor, try this stomach exercise. Bend your knees so your feet are flat on the floor and position your hands behind your head. Keep your elbows back so you cannot see them-- do not put them alongside your head. Use your lower abdominals to lift your shoulders off the floor. Hold for ten seconds. You may increase the number of seconds you hold as it gets easier. Be sure to lift with your abdominals and not with your arms or neck.
Lower Back Flatten
This stomach exercise is a good natural progression from the sit-up hold, as it starts from the same basic position: lying down, knees bent, feet flat. You may have noticed when you did the previous exercise that there is a natural space between your lower back and the floor, created by the curve of your spine. In this exercise, you want to use your lower abdominals to push your lower back toward the floor and eliminate this space. Try to focus on pushing with only your lower abdominals and not your legs. Your pelvis will rotate slightly, which is fine so long as the lower abdominals are doing the work. Once you have got your back flat to the floor, hold the contraction for ten seconds. Again, you should continue to build on this time as your stomach muscles gain strength and endurance.
Exercises for the stomach like sit-ups can be done daily or at every workout session. Abdominal exercises are some of the easiest you can perform, not only because they target a portion of the body often missed by other traditional exercises, but because you can perform these exercises so often.
Strengthening exercises for the stomach, should always be followed by a full range of stretches designed to lengthen and tone the muscles. The best abdominal exercises are those that combine aerobic exercise with spot training, but it is a myth that abdominal exercises are all you need to have a flat stomach.
There are four abdominal muscles that form a multi-layered multi- directional girdle around the trunk or core of the body. When doing your stomach exercises concentrate on your obliques, the stomach muscles that run up the side of your stomach and around to your back. These are exercises usually involving a twisting crunch. In this way you'll exercise your central abdominal or core area for 'free' as you go.
The stomach is always a problem area and unfortunately exercises for a particular area don't result in weight loss from that specific area. For best results with stomach exercises, remember to eat a healthy diet and perform aerobic exercise 3 times a week as well as doing your in addition to abdominal exercises.
The abdominals are some of the most resilient muscles in the body, which makes abdominal exercises one of the few workouts that can be practiced daily without injury to the body. Because of the resilience of abs, a dedicated person can do stomach exercises daily, helping them see results far more quickly than is possible with many other areas of the body.
Abdominal exercises, if practiced frequently, can provide rapid and easily seen results, which is greatly encouraging when you exercise. One of the best things about stomach exercises is that many, if not all of them, can be done at home. Equipment such as crunch machines, specialized crunch benches, and medicine balls can all enhance the abdominal exercises you do in your own home.
Don't make the mistake of doing hundreds of repetitions of stomach exercises in the hope of getting a flat stomach. Only when your body fat has lowered sufficiently, can your abdominal muscles become tight and visible. A recent study showed that the classic sit-up is not the best exercise for stronger, flatter stomachs. The best abdominal muscles in the world may be hidden by a stubborn layer of body fat. This is because we are all of different body types.
Some people store fat more readily in the hips, buttocks, and thighs, others store fat excess in the arms and upper back and still others store their fat in the stomach and waist area.
There is no way around it: if you want that trim, defined torso that is so desirable in todays world, you are going to have to do stomach exercises. This is where you need a routine consisting of exercise for lower abdominal muscles. Such a routine helps you define and sculpt the lower abdominals, giving you that chiselled look.
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