2023-05-19 08:28:00
The question of the day is: are your abs really weak or is that just what you think (perhaps wrongly)?
Here’s how to find out and what you can do regarding it if it really is.
There are few exercises to isolate the abs!
The first thing to know is that there is ultimately few abs exercises that don’t involve other muscles (such as the hip flexors, to name a few).
We talk a little more regarding it in our guide: The 20 best bodyweight abs exercises ranked from worst to best.
But let’s take a few examples for you to understand.
Example of the straight, suspended leg raise
Hanging on a bar, this exercise that you have already seen consists of bringing your legs straight towards your chest.
If like the vast majority of people, you cannot complete this exercise because you can’t keep your legs straight or to raise them, it does not necessarily mean that you lack strength in the abs.
For example, you might have the slightly stiff hamstrings where the rectus femoris muscle (one of the four quadriceps muscles) too weakresulting in the inability to straighten the legs properly.
This is all the more likely if you feel your quadriceps burning/cramping before your abs!
You have a lack of mobility / flexibility, welcome to the club! You can work this with this great little exercise under the side: the pike pulse.
To eliminate this problemyou might also opt for hanging knee raises, but once more, you have to be sure to focus the movement on your abs and not your hip flexors.
If you feel your hips flex first, that’s a sign that you’re involving them more than your abs.
A very clear sign to spot for this problem of dominant hip flexors (which therefore steal work from our abs, which we don’t want), is the combination anteversion of the pelvis and arched lower back.
To bring attention back to the abs, be sure to tilt your pelvis backwards as much as possible (therefore retroversion of the pelvis).
Of course, this hip flexor problem can also occur on the ground with straight legs and lead to back pain !
In fact, you need abdominal stability to protect your spine, especially during these kinds of exercises with high leverage.
The same rules apply to exercises like the plank, the dragon flag or the ab rollout.
These exercises, too, involve other muscles such as the back muscles and the triceps.
Even if you are able to do these exercises with the correct back position, other muscles may tire first.
If you feel more tension on the shoulders, chest or arms during an ab wheel for example, don’t blame your abs!
To isolate your abs as much as possible, you can opt for the following two exercises.
The candle
The goal of this exercise is to lift the legs with the strength of the abs only, tilting the pelvis backwards.
Because the legs are aligned vertically, there is no leverage (as in barre leg raises) and therefore almost no hip flexor muscle involvement.
However, do not be fooled by this apparent ease, it is an exercise that will give beginners a lot of trouble.
If you have mobility issues, you can do the exercise with your knees slightly bent.
Hollow body crunch
The second exercise is a variation of the excellent one: hollow body.
As with the previous exercise, we are not going to involve the hip flexors here, but it is perhaps more accessible to beginners than the candle.
In this movement, not only will you lift your pelvis off the ground, but also your shoulder blades.
So you have a maximum contraction between the origin and the point of insertion of the rectus abdominis.
That being said, these two exercises shouldn’t be the only ones in your arsenal!
Leg raises, knee raises and core lifts (and especially their advanced variants) are all great exercises when done correctly.
The fact is you have to be aware of your weaknessess and work to fill them.
Try to correct the errors seen earlier in the article and nothing will stop you from developing strong abs.
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