Absolutely Struggling With Abs Workout

[FrozenBeak]

Laying Bicycles, Knees to Chest, V-ups, Wipers, and Planks, as well as Sit-ups Im struggling with. My lower back ALWAYS hurts and puts me in agony and I have to rest every few reps. I cant work my abs and today I just felt like bawling my eyes out and walking out. The lower back pain has prevented me so much. All I can do is knees to elbows and heel touches. But even these 2 arent making my abs sore so I feel like its not working or Im doing something wrong.

The v-ups I struggle to lift my back up off the ground. Same for the sit ups. I just cant do anything :’/

[cornman99]

What else do you do? and is the lower back pain only while doing this routine? Seems like serious overkill

[CommitmentRulz]

Laying Bicycles, Knees to Chest, V-ups, Wipers, and Planks, as well as Sit-ups Im struggling with. My lower back ALWAYS hurts and puts me in agony and I have to rest every few reps. I cant work my abs and today I just felt like bawling my eyes out and walking out. The lower back pain has prevented me so much. All I can do is knees to elbows and heel touches. But even these 2 arent making my abs sore so I feel like its not working or Im doing something wrong.

The v-ups I struggle to lift my back up off the ground. Same for the sit ups. I just cant do anything :’/

Are you following the advice here that you got more than a month ago to get on a "rea"l full body novice workout like Fierce 5, or are you still just doing your own thing on machines? The squats and deadlifts should be helping to strengthen your core...

[cornman99]

Are you following the advice here that you got more than a month ago to get on a "rea"l full body novice workout like Fierce 5, or are you still just doing your own thing on machines? The squats and deadlifts should be helping to strengthen your core...

I suspected he was a beginner trying to do way too much.

[FrozenBeak]

Lately Ive been doing deadlifts and rack lifts with my personal trainer, as well as lower back extentions. And no thats the only ab workouts I do :/ could there be ones that are really effective which wont bring my lower back in to play? I’ll be honest, I find it very hard to keep my lower back flat on the floor and I dont know why. Just never goes flat.

[OldFartTom]

... ALWAYS hurts ... in agony ... I cant work ... bawling my eyes out... lower back pain... I feel like its not working ... Im doing something wrong... struggle...

Just reading between the lines here, I think I'm picking up a hint that something might not be right.

OK.. imagine you can't run 5k today (3.5 miles) but want to run a marathon next summer (26 miles/42km). What if I suggest today you run 26 miles but take it easy, rest day two, and run another marathon the next day and keep running marathons every other day until you can do it fast - plus if you feel injured just keep going anyway and grind yourself into the ground. Wouldn't that be the world's worst training program?
That is sort of a bit like your abs training approach.

Rest for a few day, or a week or whatever it takes for back and abs to heal and recover. Start small and gentle. Very gradually build up the exercise. Under no circumstances go to one of those abb workout classes at a gym. Whatever effort you spend on abs you need to spend similar on back (hypers, dorsal raises, bird dog, etc).

Lastly what rabbitj says is true, if you are doing loads of heavy compound you don't need to spend lots of time on abs. Opinions differ and I believe a little extra for abs and back is good, but I mean a *little* bit, the big lifts should mostly cover it.

Rest, recover, build up slowly, take it easy. Injury is not progress.

Lastly, why on earth isn't your personal trainer telling you this stuff??? Either you aren't talking to your trainer (you got to tell them or how can they help) or the trainer isn't listening (in which case save your money and don't book any more sessions)

Enjoy...

[FrozenBeak]

Lastly, why on earth isn't your personal trainer telling you this stuff??? Either you aren't talking to your trainer (you got to tell them or how can they help) or the trainer isn't listening (in which case save your money and don't book any more sessions)

Enjoy...

I have done before so we started doing turkish get-ups but kept the other ones in my plan too. But I just cant seem to do them.

So let me get this right, ppl dont always do ab workouts to achieve abs? They do squats and deadlifts to get them? And you say if I really wanna do them, I have to strengthen my lower back? Is that basically it?

[FaIIen]

I have done before so we started doing turkish get-ups but kept the other ones in my plan too. But I just cant seem to do them.

So let me get this right, ppl dont always do ab workouts to achieve abs? They do squats and deadlifts to get them? And you say if I really wanna do them, I have to strengthen my lower back? Is that basically it?

You'll get abs by being lean. That's honestly all that it requires.

[LactoseTolerant]

So let me get this right, ppl dont always do ab workouts to achieve abs?

I would say a minority of people with visible abs actually do ab exercises regularly.