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Great lower ab exercises
The hardest part of your midsection to tighten up is the lower ab. Exercises for this often-neglected part of your body are hard to find, and when you do find them they are frequently hard to do just right. For that reason, finding fantastic lower ab exercises should be one of your main goals when working toward that six pack.
When you work the lower abs, you'll notice a few things: first, those muscles are feeling more tension than any other part of your midsection. This is a very obvious sensation, as these muscle groups are the least-used of all your abdominal muscles. Second, you may find your lower back hurting. If ever you feel pain in your back, STOP. That means you're doing your lower ab exercises wrong. A good lower ab workout will cause the muscles below your bellybutton to work hard, not your back.
Exercise for Lower Abs
Your most important exercise for lower abs works by using the legs as a counterweight. This is like a leg lift, except you are focusing specifically on your lower abs. Get those tight abs by lying down on your back and, using only those front muscle groups, slowly raise your legs to about a 45 degree angle. Hold for about ten seconds, then lower slowly to the ground. The most important word is "slowly." When you make quick movement,this will allow momentum and other muscle groups to work; slow motion forces those lower abs to do the work they're supposed to do.
Leg lifts are not the only lower abdominal exercises. Another thing to try is to lie on your stomach or get on your hands and knees, then use the lower abdominal muscles to pull your bellybutton as tight toward your spine as possible. This may seems harder than it sounds. Hold the position as long as you can, then slowly relax and repeat. When you're holding it for at least a minute and a half, you're doing the exercise properly.
Another modification of lower ab exercises is a hanging leg lift. Do this exercise by hanging from a bar and, using your lower abdominal muscles, lift your legs as straight out in front of you as you can. This is very difficult, and it's something to work up toward. When you've gotten up to holding your legs straight out for a minute, you should be well on your way to toning your lower abs.
Once you've gotten used to isolating these muscle groups in the above exercises, you can start working on exercises like the pelvic tilt that use your gluteus maximus muscles as well. If you seriously want to flatten lower abs, however, you should learn how to do these exercises first. Most people use their gluteus maximus to do all the work in pelvic tilt and leg lift exercises, which robs your lower abs of the exercise they really need to be toned and trim.
These three lower ab exercises are only the beginning of what you need to know about how to get lower abs. All three should be added to your regular regimen of situps and crunches so that your abs can all get into shape at the same pace.
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