When working abs

Conrad11 · 17 Oct 2006 at 22:36

Hi there,

I am currently working the abs, just trying to increase the muscle around there.

I have been doing this casually but its mounting. I have been doing this by situps.

I have the feeling that my top abs are growing faster? than the others?

Is this normal? or am i doing the situps incorrectly?

Thanks.

FeFiDoh · 17 Oct 2006 at 22:52

leg raises? believe these help with the lower half

Morba · 17 Oct 2006 at 22:56

indeed leg raises for the lower abs

Mark A · 18 Oct 2006 at 11:04

What are leg raises?. Also everywhere i look on the net people say that situps give you back pain in later life due to the bones grinding together, is there any truth in this?. Ive been doing crunches as Ive heard these don't put any strain on the lower spine but they only seem to work the top of the abs.

Zip · 18 Oct 2006 at 11:13

Working my Abs make me feel like im gonna wee, Is there anything that will stop this?

I hate my stomache muscles

egt · 18 Oct 2006 at 11:21

Mark A said:
What are leg raises?. Also everywhere i look on the net people say that situps give you back pain in later life due to the bones grinding together, is there any truth in this?. Ive been doing crunches as Ive heard these don't put any strain on the lower spine but they only seem to work the top of the abs.

Leg raises are performed hanging from a bar and simply lifting your legs up.

Crunches definitely isolate your abs better than situps.

FeFiDoh · 18 Oct 2006 at 11:29

i do 3x15 crunches and 3x15 leg raises every other time i goto gym to work abs does them all round and im definately getting an improvement in them!

Conrad11 · 18 Oct 2006 at 22:28

Crunches never seem to do anything for me though?

People say they do 15*3, but i do 45 in one go and dont really feel anything?

Conrad11 · 18 Oct 2006 at 22:30

egt said:
Leg raises are performed hanging from a bar and simply lifting your legs up.

Crunches definitely isolate your abs better than situps.

so i am holding my weight on the bar and i lift the legs up, keeping them straight?

Morba · 18 Oct 2006 at 22:39

Conrad11 said:
Crunches never seem to do anything for me though?

People say they do 15*3, but i do 45 in one go and dont really feel anything?

do them weighted then.

Hlebio · 18 Oct 2006 at 23:03

Or do them properly..

You do 45 crunches correctly and you'll be feeling it, believe me.

egt · 18 Oct 2006 at 23:43

Conrad11 said:
so i am holding my weight on the bar and i lift the legs up, keeping them straight?

You can do them by bending your legs or keeping them straight.

Follow this link and scroll down to "washboard abs" then "hanging leg raises" for a basic demo

AJUK · 19 Oct 2006 at 09:24

There is no such thing as the upper and lower abs, there are just abs. The reason that a lot of people think that their so called 'lower' abs are less developed is because the muscles are thinner at that part than they are higher up. All abdominal excercises will excercise all of the abdominal muscles.

There is nothing wrong with your training if your abs are developing, just keep it up and everything will sort itself out over time.

Klytus · 19 Oct 2006 at 11:44

AJUK said:
There is no such thing as the upper and lower abs, there are just abs...

Anatomically this is correct. Your abs (rectus abdominis) are one muscle.

This muscle is often classified into two parts, upper abs (supra-umbilical portion) and lower (infra-umbilical portion).
The initial part of a regular sit-up ie. the trunk curl portion of the exercise places more stress on your upper abs, exercises like the leg raises have been shown to create only slight activity in the upper abs but work the lower abs much more than a sit-up does.

Zip said:
Working my Abs make me feel like im gonna wee, Is there anything that will stop this?

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

AJUK · 19 Oct 2006 at 12:07

You are confusing the mobilisation of different muscle groups with partial stress. It is impossible to tense only part of a muscle and as such it is impossible to stress different parts of the same muscle. When a leg raise is performed most of the work is being done by the hip flexors and the stress on the abdominal muscle is less. There are two muscles, one on each side, and there sole purpose is to move your pelvis and rib cage closer together. Any exercise that makes you do that will provide stress to those muscles and therefore will work.

Klytus · 19 Oct 2006 at 13:10

AJUK said:
You are confusing the mobilisation of different muscle groups with partial stress. It is impossible to tense only part of a muscle and as such it is impossible to stress different parts of the same muscle. When a leg raise is performed most of the work is being done by the hip flexors and the stress on the abdominal muscle is less. There are two muscles, one on each side, and there sole purpose is to move your pelvis and rib cage closer together. Any exercise that makes you do that will provide stress to those muscles and therefore will work.

You obviously have a good knowledge base and I agree 100% with most of your last post. However, for the rectus abdominis different exercises do stress different portions of the muscle more than the other.
This has been long-since established from EMG studies of different abdominal exercises.
I don't know why you can :confused:

because like you say muscle fibres contract on an all or nothing pricipal. I will try to find out and I will try to find the reference for the EMG studies.

AJUK · 19 Oct 2006 at 13:15

delbuenno said:
You obviously have a good knowledge base and I agree 100% with most of your last post. However, for the rectus abdominis different exercises do stress different portions of the muscle more than the other.
This has been long-since established from EMG studies of different abdominal exercises.
I don't know why you can because like you say muscle fibres contract on an all or nothing pricipal. I will try to find out and I will try to find the reference for the EMG studies.

I would be very interested in that study. The more knowledge the better.

Klytus · 19 Oct 2006 at 16:14

Found it, its:-

Lipetz, S and Gutin, B (1970) An electromyographic study of four abdominal exercises. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 2, 35-38.

Whilst looking I stumbled accross another reference in the back of a book which sounds as if it may explain why it is, I'll see if I can get hold of it:-

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

Styles · 19 Oct 2006 at 18:43

Conrad11 said:
Crunches never seem to do anything for me though?

People say they do 15*3, but i do 45 in one go and dont really feel anything?

you're doing them wrong then. crunches are all about the contraction.

A2Z · 19 Oct 2006 at 19:07

i hope you are doing lower back exercises as well