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The Most UNDERRATED Lower Ab Exercise

The Most UNDERRATED Lower Ab Exercise

by | Dec 3, 2023 | Blog, Core, Exercises

No you don’t have a lower ab muscle.

But you CAN target the lower portion of your rectus abdominis or your LOWER ABS to a greater extent based on the moves you include in your workout routine.

And one great way to target that area is with lower body crunches.

They’re simple and effective…if done correctly.

There are also a variety of ways you can regress and progress this move to match your needs and goals.

However, how you do this amazing move can really impact where you actually feel working and the benefits you get from it.

That’s why in this video I want to go over how to properly do this movement and some amazing ways to really feel those lower abs working.

But first I wanted to discuss two areas we often feel compensating during this exercise that can end up overworked and injured, leading to this fabulous move being hated on…

And they are our hip flexors and lower back!

Do you ever feel your lower back or hip flexors taking over when you do a lower body crunch? 

This is because you aren’t properly bracing your abs!

While yes, any exercise that involves hip flexion (that bending at the hip) WILL work your hip flexors… 

So often we rely on our hips over bracing our abs which ultimately ends up with us only feeling our hip flexors or lower back during this ab exercise! 

To prevent this from happening, there are a few things you want to focus on….

Focus On These Tips:

#1: Set up bracing your abs, tucking your hips slightly up toward your ribs. 

This posterior pelvic tilt will help you feel those abs engage and even engage your glute max a bit.

This glute max engagement inhibits your hip flexors from taking over as much.

#2: Initiate the crunch of your lower body through spinal flexion. 

Too often this move will be cued just as tucking your knees in which leads to us only bending and extending at the hip to raise our feet up off the floor and lower them back down.

But really we want to curl in from our SPINE. This spinal flexion is what engages our abs to power the knee tuck up.

#3: DO NOT SWING OR USE MOMENTUM. 

Slowly roll to tuck in and then, one vertebrae at a time, lower back down.

Do not release that ab brace at the bottom.

Keep your abs engaged as you touch your feet down! 

By focusing on this ab engagement and spinal flexion you not only protect your lower back, preventing it from arching up, but you disengage your hip flexors through that glute max engagement and use of the abs to curl in over just bending at the hip.

Building off of this focus on engaging your abs even before you start the movement…

I wanted to go over some tips to implement this basic lower body crunch properly before I then dive into some fun modifications and variations to match your needs and goals.

How To Do The Lower Body Crunch:

To do the lower body crunch, you want to set up lying on your back with your hands down on the ground beside you or behind your head.

To help you brace with the posterior pelvic tilt, pushing your palms and arms straight down beside you into the ground can help.

Bend your knees and curls your heels in toward your butt. This active curl in as you flex your feet should even help you feel your hamstrings engage to further prevent your hips from compensating.

Tilt your pelvis, drawing your hip bones up toward your ribs. Press your arms down into the ground.

Then think about curling your ribs up toward your hips as your knees curl in toward your chest.

Do not let yourself just flex at the hip. Really focus on curling your spine to lift your butt up.

Move at a controlled pace, then roll back down to tap your heels down.

Do not fully release engagement of the abs at the bottom.

Then curl back in.

Focus on that exhale as you curl in to help you engage your abs!

Then repeat the move, again focus on that curl starting from your spine over just your hips bending!

Keep that heel pulled in tension to help you avoid only bending at your hips!

Struggling? Try These Modifications!

If you’re focusing on these cues and struggling with getting your abs to engage there are two things I like to do with clients that can help…

#1: Hold on to something overhead. 

#2: Use a roller squeezed between your calves and hamstrings. 

I’ve even combined these two things as a variation to really isolate those abs. 

By holding on overhead as you perform the lower body crunch, you can help engage your lats, which can lead to better glute engagement as well.

This can help you create tension through your backside that protects your lower back during the move.

This pull down can also help you crunch your ribs slightly down toward your hips to better brace your abs.

It can also give you more control as you curl your knees in toward your chest.

And the roller can help you maintain that hamstring engagement to prevent your hip flexors from taking over.

By having to squeeze that roller into your legs, you prevent yourself from extra movement at the hips as well.

Combining both of these techniques may prove a killer combo even to really target those lower abs with a slow curl in and lower back down!

And the great part about this basic movement is there are so many ways you can change it up to match your needs and goals!

If you’re feeling really in control of this lower body crunch, you may still find the modifications provide progression through the same but different.

They can even help you isolate those lower abs in new ways.

Try These Progressions:

But you may also find you want to progress to a double leg lower with your legs straight or even a leg lower plus. 

That bonus spinal flexion at the top of the basic double leg lower is a great way to work those abs extra as they are worked by that flexion of the spine!

You can even just simply add weight to the basic lower body crunch. 

The benefit of adding weight is not only that the resistance makes it harder but also that, by holding a weight between your legs, you engage your adductors.

Because of the connection of your hip flexors to your pelvic floor, and your adductors are also a hip flexor, you may find that by squeezing a medicine ball between your legs you even feel your core working more with very light weight!

And if don’t have weight and want to work your upper body more, you can even take this lower body crunch up off the ground with hanging leg raise variations or even dip hold leg raises. 

But with all of these variations, you want to make sure you target your lower abs by bracing those abs with the posterior pelvic tilt and actually flexing at the spine as you lift.

It is tempting to just let the movement only occur at the hip when you fatigue without your abs engaged.

Remember this will just lead to your hip flexors working, not your abs getting the benefits you want!

So regress if you feel yourself starting to cheat!

Using these tips you can really target your lower abs with the amazing and oh so simple lower body crunch.

Perfecting basic moves like this can help us see better results faster and really target those stubborn areas we want to work!

Try This Ab Burner:

And for a quick and killer burner using this move, try this 100 Rep Ab Burner…

This is great to use once a week in your workout progression.

Completing 1 round through the circuit.

CIRCUIT:
20 Heel Raised upper Body Crunches
20 Lower Body Crunches
20 per side Oblique Crunches
20 Full Body Crunches

For more killer workouts, and even ab burners, join my Dynamic Strength App!

–> LEARN MORE

Target Your LOWER ABS – The Best Lower Ab Exercise You Aren’t Doing

Target Your LOWER ABS – The Best Lower Ab Exercise You Aren’t Doing

by | Mar 13, 2022 | Blog, Bodyweight, Core, Exercises, Functional Fitness, Workouts

Now my favorite comment I get any time I post anything to work the lower abs is…

“You don’t have lower ab muscles.”

And that’s true. There is no specific lower ab muscle.

But you CAN target that lower portion of your rectus abdominis to a greater extent with specific moves, especially bottom up exercises.

Just like you can target the upper portion more as well with more top down focused moves.

So if you’re looking to target that lower portion of your rectus abdominis while even strengthening your pelvic floor and TVA more, I want to share a movement variation I think is often under utilized.

But before I do I do just want to mention a few bonus tips to help you really achieve that lean, flat stomach.

That lower abdominal region is an especially stubborn one to lose fat from.

And 100% diet is key. And consistency in dialing in our macros past the point we often want to quit as losing that last little bit of stubborn belly fat is hard.

But if you truly are struggling with losing that last little bit, this tip may be the missing piece from your training routine.

And it does involve something we’ve been told is impossible….

Spot lipolysis aka SPOT REDUCTION! GASP!

Yup. You can spot reduce an area…not in the way we’ve always tried to, but it may be that key little tweak when you’ve got everything dialed in.

How do you do this?

Try including this underrated ab exercise, or an exercise for the stubborn area you want to target in your strength workout. Include it even as part of a finisher.

When we work a muscle, we mobilize more fatty acids from the surrounding tissues.

So if we do this focused ab work to mobilize the fatty acids in the surrounding tissues and then include low intensity steady state cardio after, we can utilize the mobilize fatty acids.

Aka we can help ourselves lose more fat from our lower abdominal region!

(For more on Spot Lipolysis, clic HERE!)

If you’ve been struggling with that last little bit of stubborn fat and want to strengthen your lower abs, try this Hanging Posterior Pelvic Tilt with Squeeze as part of your workout finisher even adding in a nice walk after to cool down!

How do you do the Hanging Posterior Pelvic Tilt with Squeeze?

Hanging leg raises and knees to elbows are both great lower ab exercises. Yet too often we use them in a way that only ends up overworking our hip flexors.

It’s because we ignore the essential component that makes any leg raise movement really target our lower abs – the posterior pelvic tilt.

That’s why I love this hanging ab exercise – because it focuses on that essential pelvic tilt component.

And by adding in the leg squeeze, which in turn engages your adductors, you can even help yourself better activate your pelvic floor and lower portion of the rectus abdominis.

To do this move, start hanging from the bar from a ball or block between your upper thighs right above your knees. Grip the bar hard with all of your fingers evenly and engage your back to help you stabilize, slightly depressing your shoulder blades.

Then, squeezing the ball or block, tuck your pelvis toward your ribs. You’re basically rounding your lower back.

Your legs will come forward but you do not want to really bend at the hips.

You’re using your abs, and even your glute max to perform that slight spinal flexion to tuck your pelvis under.

Squeeze the ball hard as you tuck.

Think about pulling your core in as you tuck. You’re not just drawing your belly button toward your spine but even thinking about pulling your pelvis in toward each other as you tuck toward your ribs.

To help you really brace, focus on that exhale as you tuck.

As you do this move, focus on that exhale to expel all the air you have and contract that core as you perform the pelvic tilt to feel your TVA even engaging as a corset around your middle to brace.

Really pause with each tilt to focus on engaging your abs as hard as you can before slowly relaxing.

To help you really avoid too much swing, grip the bar hard and engage your lats.

This is a very challenging move as simple as it may seem.

To modify the fully hanging variation, keep your toes down as you hang, even losing the block or ball squeeze to be able to better focus first on the tilt.

If you have any upper body issues or simply can’t yet fully hang and control the exercise, you can also modify by doing this off the ground, holding onto a pole overhead or on a bench holding onto the end.

To progress the move when you’re fully in control of the posterior pelvic tilt, you can keep the squeeze and start to do even the full knees to elbows. But only progress as you can fully control the move and feel that mind-body connection being used to create that ab shakeage!

SUMMARY:

Remember you need to focus on feeling your lower abs working to get the full benefit of this move. If you instead only feel your lower back or hips, you need to modify.

Sometimes we need to regress to progress!

The 3-Step Fat Loss Formula if you’re ready to reveal those abs…

–> 3-Step RS Formula