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Lower Abs Workout: 3 Moves You Must Add to Your Core Routine

We loved Dave Smith’s guest posts and workouts so much that guess what? We’ve made him a regular contributor! Read on for his first “official” post as a Fit Bottomed Dude, and get ready for a freakin’ fantastic lower abs workout!

core-workout

There is a big problem with many of the lower abdominal exercises you might be using as part of your core workout routine.

Some of the most common “lower abs” workouts don’t actually target your lower abs at all. They target your hip flexor muscles.

Are You Really Doing a Lower Abs Workout?

The hip flexors are a group of muscles that crosses the front side of your hip joint. When these muscles contract, they cause your thigh to move toward your stomach, closing your hip joint like a hinge. This just so happens to be the exact movement that many people use when they attempt to train their lower abs.

Look at the picture below of a typical leg raise exercise. The arrow points at the hip flexors, which are the main muscles causing your straight legs to lift off the floor as the hip joint shrinks (i.e. the hip is closing like a hinge).

lower abs workout

Maybe you’ve done this exact exercise before thinking it would help strengthen your lower abs.

Did you notice your hip muscles were tired or even sore afterward? (Hint: Since it’s your hip flexors doing most of the work they will fatigue long before your lower abs ever will!)

The same is true for any lower abs workout that involves using your hip joint as a hinge as you swing your legs. These types of exercises are simply NOT effective for training your lower abs.

How to Effectively Target Your Lower Abs

The solution for more effective lower abs training is to choose a movement that is created when your lower abs contract. We know that hinging at the hips is controlled by the hip flexors, so what movement will target your lower abs?

It’s all about curling your lower spine.

When your lower abs contract, they pull your tailbone toward your stomach, creating a curl in your lower spine. Look at the picture below to see how a reverse crunch produces this movement.

lower abs workout

To effectively target your lower abs, you need to replicate this movement — your tailbone must curl toward your stomach.

Other Exercises You Can Do to Accomplish This?

One is a mountain climber with a twist. Instead of simply hinging at the hips like you might do with a standard mountain climber, rotating your knee to touch your opposite elbow creates a much stronger lower abs contraction.

The image below points out the lower spine curl that is created by adding this twist to your mountain climber:

mountain-climber lower abs

Another option is a tuck-in. In this move you begin in a straight-arm plank position and jump both feet up toward your hands. Simultaneously you can turn your tailbone down, which creates that same lower spine curl and activates your lower abs.

tuck-in lower abs

Building Better Workouts For Lower Abs

So far we’ve learned that swinging your legs is NOT an effective lower abs workout since it recruits your hip flexor muscles to do most of the heavy lifting. Next, we looked at three great exercises that actually target your lower abs muscles.

How can you put those into a quick and effective lower abs workout program? Like this!

Lower Abs Workout

Repeat this circuit 3 times.

  • Reverse Crunch Pulses: 10 reps
  • Mountain Climber with a Twist: 10 per leg (alternating)
  • Tuck-Ins: 10 reps

Watch the video below to see a demonstration of each recommended lower abs exercise and to learn how these three can be used together for a great workout:

Do you feel the difference? Crazy, right?! Knowledge (and the right exercises with the right form) is power! —Dave

FTC disclosure: We often receive products from companies to review. All thoughts and opinions are always entirely our own. Unless otherwise stated, we have received no compensation for our review and the content is purely editorial. Affiliate links may be included. If you purchase something through one of those links we may receive a small commission. Thanks for your support!

Comments

4 Comments
  1. Deb E says:

    I’ll add the tucks at the end, otherwise I do the first two already. Leg raises kill my back and I never do them. As an aside, the light flashes between exercises in Dave’s vid are super annoying to me and can trigger migraines in some people. Just FYI to people.

  2. Paolo U says:

    I remember doing the leg raise whenever I was at the gym before, but I don’t see much results so I don’t do any lower abs exercises no more. I think that I would go back dion some lower abs exercises, especially that I am able find something that works.

  3. Great post, Thanks!

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