Muscle Question

[SportyShorty89]

Why is it so difficult for women to have muscle definition of the internal obliques and what are some good workouts to build these muscles?

I'm a fan of these lower abdominal muscle on men as well as women (some feel they are not feminine), the singer Pink is an idol of mine for many reasons and she has always kept her abs a top priority.


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/CherryReefer/Pink/15.jpg

http://news.softpedia.com/images/news2/Pink-In-a-Bikini-Warning-3.jpg

[banda]

I think the most important thing is body fat percentage...you need less fat in order to have visible abdominal muscles, especially around the lower part of the abs/rectus abdominis and the obliques. It doesn't help that that tends to be one of the hardest areas from which to lose fat.
I'm not sure that there is an exercise that only targets the internal obliques. They have the same function as the external obliques and since they are underneath the external obliques, you probably couldn't see isolated effects of exercise on them anyway.
So IMO, I think diet is first as well as oblique exercises to get them bigger and stronger.

[Amanda76]

A big part of it is bodyfat percentage. But mine first started showing up (not as well as Pinks!) when my upper body was too weak to do hanging leg raises so I started weighting captain's chair raises by holding a DB between my feet (I'd do drop sets and finish with bent leg bodyweight). They got sore and started showing up a bit more when I started doing traditional deads and reverse hacks. The trick to fully engaging your obliques (both internal and external) through both those exercises is to make sure to complete the movement by pushing your hips forward and standing up all the way (will also hit your glutes better that way too).

You're supposed to do "twisting"/knee to opposite shoulder movements to hit obliques since they're there for rotation. Every so often, I can get my internal obliques sore by doing straight leg raises off a ball with a hip thrust superset with floor windshield wipers (straight leg). But it doesn't do it for me as often as those heavier lifts do (even though they wear my abs out during the set). Also try twisting hanging leg raises. Think about keeping slow and controlled and about hollowing that area out as you pull and I think you'll have better luck feeling them work.