Is there a good lower ab exersice that doesn't use your hip flexors all that much.
Can you only work your lower abs or do you just work them all in genrel.
|
Closed Thread
Results 1 to 30 of 40
-
04-30-2005, 07:42 AM #1
- Join Date: Mar 2005
- Location: Edmond, Oklahoma, United States
- Age: 43
- Posts: 202
- Rep Power: 346
lower abs without the hip flexors
-
04-30-2005, 08:05 AM #2Originally Posted by miche13
Nope, all work together."Something witty and humorous"
-
04-30-2005, 08:16 AM #3
Hip flexors won't work if you keep your hips stiff (crunches).
-
04-30-2005, 10:56 AM #4
your going to have some sort of pull on your HF"s in EVERY exercise, nothing can completely take them out of the eqautition, that being said for lower ab work, shorten your ROM and if doing any hanging exercise do it with an anterior pelvic tilt
Chicks dig big calves
-
-
04-30-2005, 11:15 AM #5
One of the best exercises to isolate the abs is laying on your back with one leg straight and the other flexed and to place the hands behind the lower back and then only crunch up until you begin to feel the pressure on your lower back. This makes sure you are minimizing the hip flexors.
-
04-30-2005, 11:28 AM #6
Why would you want to cut a muscle group out of an exercise? The more worked, the better! If you want your lower abs to do more work, just work them more...
-
04-30-2005, 12:27 PM #7Originally Posted by aiwassChicks dig big calves
-
04-30-2005, 12:53 PM #8
- Join Date: Mar 2005
- Location: Edmond, Oklahoma, United States
- Age: 43
- Posts: 202
- Rep Power: 346
I'm big on Isolating I really only want to feel it in my abs
-
-
04-30-2005, 03:51 PM #9
Perhaps some partial ROM leg lifts?
That's all I could think of, maybe sitting on the end of a bench to help keep your hips from moving around much.Last edited by Josiah; 04-30-2005 at 04:07 PM.
something clever and witty
-
04-30-2005, 04:15 PM #10Originally Posted by Josiah
thats really the only way, anyone that tells you you can take the HF's completely out of the movement is an idiot, partial rom's and anterior lepvic tilits when doing leg raisesChicks dig big calves
-
04-30-2005, 04:28 PM #11Originally Posted by bigpump23
-
04-30-2005, 04:51 PM #12
You actually can isolate the lower abs from hip flexors. You have to know the dynamics of the region. The hip flexors actually work against the rectus abdominus. When your abs are weak, or your hip flexors too dominant, it will pull your pelvis forward, by way of pulling the spine forward. This will result in a sway back. Strengthening the rectus abdominus, and actively promoting good posture habits will pull the pubis bone toward the sternum, aligning the spine back to a normal lordosis.
Flexing your hips to 90 degrees, and then performing the anterior pelvic rocks that BIgpump alludes to will isolate the lower abs from the hip flexors. My lat pulldown ab exercise absolutely excludes the hip flexors by locking the hips in place. I could be an idiot , but in this instance, I have to claim that I know what I talk about.
If you do a search for reverse crunches, I give a description of that exercise that excludes the hip flexors.www.revised-training.com
Training got better
-
-
04-30-2005, 06:12 PM #13
I find most people don't curve their backs/abs enough into a rounded shape when doing abs. Almost everyone incorporates flexors ways too much. Put a visual image of curving your back/abs and actually curve them as you crunch too.
-
04-30-2005, 06:18 PM #14
- Join Date: Jul 2004
- Location: United Kingdom (Great Britain)
- Posts: 18,877
- Rep Power: 19620
when i do hanging leg raises, i try to imagine that i'm ****ing the ceiling.
i dont think of them as leg raises, but hip tilts. doing them this way reduces most of my hip flexor involvement
-
05-01-2005, 06:52 AM #15Originally Posted by ATrainer
Isolate yes but AT, wouldn't you agree that it is impossible to take the HF's out of ab movements?Chicks dig big calves
-
05-01-2005, 07:42 PM #16Originally Posted by bigpump23
Take my ab exercise. You are sitting in a lat machine with your feet planted on the ground below your knees. Your hips are at 90 degrees, under traction from the resistance that is pulling the torso upward. In order for the HF to contract, the lower spine has to travel forward toward the femur, decreasing the 90 degree angle.
However, my movement has the spine travel backward, flattening as it were, the tailbone backward onto the seat. This doesn't actually happen, but the pelvic articulation that does take place moves the sacrumbackward, causing the 90 degree angle of the hip to open up (extend). The hip flexors must then by necessity lengthen.
The same thing happens when reverse crunches are performed correctly. I've done extensive research into postural alignment, and many of the problems arise from incorrect lower ab exercises that concentrically contract the HFs instead of the lower abs. I rarely, if ever, see proper lower ab training.www.revised-training.com
Training got better
-
-
05-01-2005, 09:08 PM #17
Pavel has a version of the lying crunch that takes the hip flexors out of the movement. It involves contracting the antagonist muscle group, causing a forced-relaxation of the hip flexors. It's in one of his books; I can look it up if anyone's interested.
-
05-01-2005, 09:26 PM #18Originally Posted by aiwass
-
05-01-2005, 09:31 PM #19
If you're doing your work right, only 2 hip flexor muscles will be working: major and minor psoas. And you can't isolate lower/middle/upper abs. They all work together. You can isolate obliques though.
-
05-01-2005, 09:38 PM #20
Dudes, I don't get it. Why this dispute on how to take the HF out? Do some form of leg raises (lying or hanging) until your abs are in flames and you can't possibly pull on more leg raise off and you've solved your main problem (working the lower part of the abs) regardless of the effort by your hip flexors.
-
-
05-01-2005, 10:11 PM #21Originally Posted by sqeeze hard
-
05-01-2005, 10:11 PM #22
Leg raises don't work your abs (only to stabilize), they work hip flexors. Abs might be burning, but what you want is to isolate them with concentric movements. Good way to know if your abs are working: what's the center of rotation? When you move your legs, your center of rotation is your pelvis/hips. You want your center of rotation to be higher: lower back. If your upper body isn't flexing and your back stays stiff, there's no ab work there.
-
05-02-2005, 02:54 AM #23Originally Posted by wiggles
Instead of fighting on how to take out the HF out you could go to the gym and do some leg raises and find out if you have what it takes to train smart.
Originally Posted by Business
The rectus abdomins is attached to the pubis:
http://www.exrx.net/Muscles/RectusAbdominis.html
When you raise your legs the center of gravity of the legs moves forward creating an imballance. Stabilizing the position requires the rectus abdomins to exert a force in such a way that the overall force momentum to be null. Meaning the abs actually work.
-
05-02-2005, 04:39 AM #24
As I said, abs do work as stabilizers when doing leg raises. That's why they burn so much. However, you're better off doing some direct work.
-
-
05-02-2005, 05:33 AM #25
- Join Date: Dec 2004
- Location: Concord, California, United States
- Age: 37
- Posts: 1,985
- Rep Power: 1455
Yeah, I noticed that when I do high reps of situps and crunches, my thighs start to burn, but I dont want to tone my thighs; I do situps to train my abs.
"I SAID... WHAT I SAID!" - Linnethia M. Leakes
IG: @enigmatic.devourer FB: Deactivated it because fb is horsecrap.
Represent USN - Country Boy Crew - Halleluja Team
-
05-02-2005, 06:12 AM #26Originally Posted by ATrainerChicks dig big calves
-
05-02-2005, 06:13 AM #27Originally Posted by Jotun
pleaseChicks dig big calves
-
05-02-2005, 07:59 AM #28Originally Posted by bigpump23
According to Pavel, the psoas are the culprit in situps/crunches and take much of the work away from the abdominals. In order to minimize their action, you must contract their opposing muscle group: the knee flexors (hamstrings). Doing so will cause the forced-relaxation of the psoas, allowing the abdominals to do a majority of the work involved in a crunch.
How is this accomplished? One way is to assume the traditional bent-knees position on the floor. Have a partner place their hands on the back of your calves and pull, while you try to resist and pull your lower legs in (thereby flexing the hamstrings). It should be a static contraction; no movement. While flexed, your psoas should be deactivated enough to allow better targeting of the abs.
I believe Pavel sells a device he designed to allow you to perform this method of crunches without a partner. It is important to note that he feels simply pressing your feet into the floor and trying to drag them inward is not a sufficient way of performing this exercise; the resistance needs to be behind the calves.
-
-
05-02-2005, 08:05 AM #29Originally Posted by Jotun
hmm i'll try tomorrow and let you knowChicks dig big calves
-
05-02-2005, 12:12 PM #30
Contracting the "opposing" muscle group doesn't mean that the psoas is not contracting. Best example: both your quads are hamstrings are working pretty hard during squats or leg presses, and they are opposite.
Bookmarks