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I was watching an infomercial and they talked about working your upper, middle and those hard to reach lower abs. I don't know what anatomy classes they took but in my anatomy class there are only two types of abdominal tissue. The rectus abdominals: these are the ones on the front of your body (the whole front from the top to the bottom). There is no division between this muscle. Then the obliques on the sides that help us twist. The only reason why you don't see the lower section of the rectus abdominals is because they are covered in fat. The leg raises that we do to help develop the lower abs actually work the hip flexor muscles. This is what raises the legs. What does happen is the abdominal muscles stabilize the legs as they are being lifted. They do this by contracting.This is called an isometric movement. Doing more ab exercises will not get rid of the fat on your stomach. Keep reading and I will tell you more this week.
God bless!
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I think most people refer to the lower abdominal muscles as a "different" or "separate" becuase they have a different innervation. Sometimes because of this they do require a different exercise to target them. But I agree whole heartedly that isometric is how those muscles are used and building core strength is the most important part of working your abs. Targeting abs will only make those muscles stronger not help you loose fat from that area. Keep on giving good advice!
ReplyDeleteAlisa,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the comment. It is difficult to fully activate the whole rectus abdominal muscle. One good way is to do decline crunches and my favorite hanging ab exercises bringing the knees to the chest. A study showed that this actually engages the most muscle fibers.
God Bless,
Angela