Posted by Jeanne Schmit on Sun, Aug 02, 2009 @ 05:03 PM
Here's a key point to assure you're getting everything possible from your abdominal
exercises. I'm assuming you're going for the flat belly look. If you're not actively using your pelvic floor in every ab exercise you do, it's extremely unlikely you're getting the flat belly you dream of and you're most likely wasting your time with ineffective ab workouts.
It's not the exercise itself that's the waste of time. It's your abdominal exercise technique.
5 Steps to a flat belly:
1. Start by pretending you're peeing (no pelvic floor engagement).
2, Now STOP! You feel muscles engage (that's your pelvic floor, or Kegel muscle).
3. Take that sensation and lift it like an elevator upwards toward your waist about an inch or so.
4. Zip up. Pull your belly in, as if you're trying to get into a pair of pants that won't quite zip up. While you zip up those imaginary pants,
5. Draw your pelvic floor elevator upwards even more after zipping up.
Now you've got your deep abs working. You should feel a connection/contraction feeling between your belly button and pubic bone. You've connected to the muscle (transversus abdominus or ta) that holds in and flattens your belly.
Practice these 5 steps a few times daily until you get really good at connecting with your deep abdominals.
Find how to apply this to all your ab exercises for better results in Flatten Your Belly (part II and III).