When working abs

Klytus · 19 Oct 2006 at 19:09

delbuenno said:
Lehman, G.J. and McGill, S.M. (2001) Quantification of the differences in electromyographic activity magnitude between the upper and lower portions of the rectus abdominis muscle during selected trunk exercises.
Physical Therapy, 81, (5) 1096-1101

Found the abstract of this^ and interestingly enough the authors conclude that they found NO DIFFERENCE between exercises for upper and lower abdominal activation! :confused:

As its an abstract there is not much to rate the quality of the study on, one thing they do say is that they only had a very small sample (11). Ideally, need to find some current good quality evidence.

Klytus · 20 Oct 2006 at 12:26

Ok, after a bit more reading it appears that the consensus is that you CANNOT isolate the upper and lower abdominals (this is because of the all-or-nothing principal of muscle contraction). By isolate this means you cannot just work the upper abs without SOME lower ab activity and vice-versa.

However,

Some research shows that abdominal exercises which incorporate the legs MAY increase the activity and contribution of the lower region of the abdominal muscles, [as well as the oblique muscles] ie. leg raises, reverse curls etc.

So there you have it, Some research says leg raises will stress your lower abdominals more, some research says they don't. As clear as mud! I love reasearch!

egt · 20 Oct 2006 at 14:14

It's a little like working the pecs. The pec is just one muscle but inclines, flat, declines etc seem to stress different portions of the muscle.

Bottom line is: Use a variety of exercises to train your abs...its all good

Klytus · 20 Oct 2006 at 15:14

egt said:
It's a little like working the pecs. The pec is just one muscle but inclines, flat, declines etc seem to stress different portions of the muscle.

The difference with the pec major is that its a 2 headed muscle (clavicular head and sternal head) so you do stress the different heads in different positions, like you do with your bicep (2 heads) and tricep (3 heads) exercises etc.

but yeah...

egt said:
Bottom line is: Use a variety of exercises to train your abs...

Styles · 20 Oct 2006 at 22:47

delbuenno said:
Ok, after a bit more reading it appears that the consensus is that you CANNOT isolate the upper and lower abdominals (this is because of the all-or-nothing principal of muscle contraction). By isolate this means you cannot just work the upper abs without SOME lower ab activity and vice-versa.

However,

Some research shows that abdominal exercises which incorporate the legs MAY increase the activity and contribution of the lower region of the abdominal muscles, [as well as the oblique muscles] ie. leg raises, reverse curls etc.

So there you have it, Some research says leg raises will stress your lower abdominals more, some research says they don't. As clear as mud! I love reasearch!

Very interesting read, thanks.

rotters · 21 Oct 2006 at 01:22

dont flame me as im trying hard and loving getting fit currently but please give me tips on crunches for a fat lad. i want to do them but find my flab for want of another word gets in the way? does this make sence at all, at the moment im doing lots of leg raisers as i find the positioning easer but still a good work out on the abs, i know most of you would say lose the flab and there is no problem, im in the process but dont want to wait to when i get slim to exercise my abs.

any ideas?

rotters

FeFiDoh · 21 Oct 2006 at 10:18

what about just sit ups for now? maybe weighted or something? Would imagine that to be easier as you arent bringing ya legs up into it :confused:

AJUK · 22 Oct 2006 at 18:04

rotters said:
dont flame me as im trying hard and loving getting fit currently but please give me tips on crunches for a fat lad. i want to do them but find my flab for want of another word gets in the way? does this make sence at all, at the moment im doing lots of leg raisers as i find the positioning easer but still a good work out on the abs, i know most of you would say lose the flab and there is no problem, im in the process but dont want to wait to when i get slim to exercise my abs.

any ideas?

rotters

Try some of these bad boys, when you get tired you can rest the gut on the floor.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4480846520091336519

You could also try hanging leg raises by hanging from a chin up bar and bringing your legs or knees up as high as you can. COncentrate on losig the excess pounds first and then you will find that ab exercises come easily after that.

Zip · 24 Oct 2006 at 13:40

delbuenno said:
Weak pelvic floor muscles can cause this. Google pelvic floor exercises and you should find loads you can do to strengthen it.

thanks