3 Movements to a Trim Waistline
Discover the best lower ab exercises for targeting the lower abdominal area. You can’t really spot target your abs because the rectus abdominus is one entire muscle. You can target areas, but it’s really hard to spot train. However, you can target muscle activation to a specific location and today, we are targeting the lower ab region. Focusing on this area helps to develop a small waist, resulting in an awesome looking V tapered 8 pack.
Three Movements You Can Do Anywhere
These movements really aren’t that hard, but there are some keys to getting the activation in the lower abdomen region.
The first thing you’ve got to do is really loosen your hips. A lot of people have a lot of tension when they are doing an ab workout. You may want to avoid creating tension in the hip flexors or legs. So, you really want to loosen up the pelvic region so you are contracting your abs instead of using the muscles in the legs.
Hanging Leg Raises – Best Lower Ab Exercises
The Hanging Leg Raise is a great exercise for targeting the lower abs. I have some important tips here for what not to do. The most common mistake you see people doing in the gym is wasting their time just swinging the legs real fast and bringing the feet up real high. What you want to do is start with the hands about shoulder width apart on the bar. First, shake out your hips to loosen them up. Just by hanging there, you should start to feel the tension on your lower abs. What you want to do is lift your legs slow and controlled, using your abs to lift. You don’t want to bring your legs up high because we are just focusing on your lower abs. By being in a hanging position, your lower abs are activated and you just have to raise your legs slowly to use the hip flexors to loosen up your legs. Do sets of 10 to 15 reps. For a little bit of added resistance, put a 2 and half or 5-pound dumbbell between your feet. You don’t need a ton of weight for this to be effective.
Bench Reverse Crunches – Best Lower Ab Exercises
The next exercise that’s great for developing the lower abs is the Bench Reverse Crunch. If you are a beginner, it’s probably best to start on a flat bench to get used to the movement. If you are more advanced, you can do this exercise up on an incline bench. The key here is to loosen up the hip flexors by stop using the legs. You don’t want to create momentum because you just want to use your abs. Start by getting a good grip on the bench and sticking your legs straight out. You should feel your abdomen holding your legs up, you don’t want to be using your legs. Let the lower back flatten out a little and you are just going to curl up. Do the movement slow and control so you are using your abs. Everything is relaxed except the abs. Do sets of 10 to 20 reps. These are called reverse crunches and can be a little harder on an incline. To make it more difficult, you could add in a hip thrust at the top of the movement.
Hip Thrusters – Best Lower Ab Exercises
Once you have mastered the Hanging Leg Raise and you’ve mastered the Reverse Crunch on a flat bench and you’ve done some inclined reverse crunches… it’s time to move on to the Hip Thrusters. For this exercise, you can incline your bench and take the same type of grip as the reverse crunch. Just let your hips touch the bench and go back up. You can do sets of 10 reps. Hip Thrusters are really tough to do and target the lower abs really well which leads to a small tight waist resulting in 8 pack abs.
Some people naturally have a really tight 8 pack. Some people have a 4 pack with a long slender abdomen where they don’t have those well-defined abs. That’s genetics. However, you can work at it and become more defined in your lower abs. These 3 exercises are the best way to do it.
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