Lower back pain when doing particular ab exercises

[pepperr]

Hi all,
This pain happens every time I do these exercises after the 15th rep.

Ones like "Plate Twist" or ones in which I have to balance on my butt. What's up?

[brianhorne3]

Try adding some lower back workouts and stretches into routine and see if that helps...deadlifts in particular have worked well for me.

[pepperr]

Try adding some lower back workouts and stretches into routine and see if that helps...deadlifts in particular have worked well for me.

Okay, will do. I just haven't gotten around to watching the P90 vid for that yet. I also have a general question that is a bit off topic: When doing crunches or core exercises, this fellow on youtube said it is better to do an exercise slowly while exhaling, as opposed to doing it as fast as possible. He made the statement that doing 10 perfect ones was better than doing 100. I'm sure that 10 perfectly executed reps are better than 100 but he placed special emphasis on exhaling. I've tried this and I can only do a rep while exhaling slowly.

Is what he says true? I certainly feel the strain.

[brianhorne3]

Breathing is important in general with all exercises, you will generally want to inhale on the resting movement and exhale on the exertion (i.e. exhale as you crunch, inhale as you lower back to the ground). Try to get this rhythm down slowly and then speed it up, to the fastest pace you can still execute perfect movements.

[easy_z]

Same thing happens to me when I do situps. I dont know what it is, but once Im done, the pain immediatly goes away.

[FuzzeWuzze]

Same thing happens to me when I do situps. I dont know what it is, but once Im done, the pain immediatly goes away.

What type of flooring are you sitting on?

Even doing the P90x ab excersises on carpet i find i need to sit on a soft pillow(so it doesnt affect my form) to keep my tailbone/lower back from hurting...works great.

[Slow-N-Steady]

Ensure that you are utilizing proper form and focus on MMC. With the abs, it is very easy to mistakingly let your back do some of the work. It sounds like after a certain amount of reps, your abs may be tiring and you may be letting your back do just that.

[joenj07087]

I get the same pain also, it starts around rep 13 and it intesifies as the set progreses, however I do not get it often, but once in a while, but I get it doing lying down leg raises.