OK, situps work PART of my abs. If I do enough situps I get that nice "I did something" twinge in a band just below my belly button. What works the sides? What works the upper area between my belt and my ribs?
Rectus Abdominus (the six-pack): flexes the spine, bringing the ribs closer to the pelvis. so, try this: on your back with feet flat on the floor. inhale, then while exhaling, try to make your ribs touch your pubic bone. don't try to sit up, and keep your arms crossed in front of you. see if you can lift yourself up just at the chest.
Internal and External Obliques: laterally flex the spine in the direction of their side, and rotate the spine (IO to the same side, and EO to the opposite side). so, try this: on your back with feet flat on the floor. inhale, and while exhaling, arms crossed in front, lift one side of your body and try to make it touch your knee. a diagonal sit-up, if that makes sense. when you do this sort of sit-up/crunch to the left, for instance, you are working the internal oblique on the left side and the external oblique on the right side.
Another good one is to lay on your side and lift your torso to the ceiling. that contracts the internal and external oblique on that side.
Finally, the obliques compress abdominal contents, to if you 'suck in your stomach' you'll be exercising them, too. try this: seated, inhale, then as you exhale, compress your abdomen in very slowly, holding it while you exhale. relax on the inhale, compress on the exhale.
If you exhale twice as slowly as you inhale while you are doing these exercises, you'll be really working those muscles.
You're welcome. I recommend a book, Women's Strength Training Anatomy (http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FStrength-Training-Anatomy-Frederic-Delavier%2Fdp%2F0736048138%2Fsr%3D8-2%2Fqid%3D1164173686%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks&tag=broadwaybearsboo&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325) by Frederic Délaviér to my female clients. It's a great resource - it's fully illustrated and describes the exercises well.
Thanks! I'm curious why there needs to be a female version; do women's muscles really go to different bones than men's? (I wouldn't be completely shocked. We're messed up in so many OTHER ways.)
I think the author just wanted to do a book with female illustrations - But also, women's bodies are somewhat different physically. I wouldn't say messed up in any way, just different.
I will have to look up some of the sets our yoga teacher taught us, they can be done without ever leaving the floor. It was a kind of yoga called kundalini yoga, and included a lot of what he called "navel point" work, which means abs and muscles in that area.
They included things like the dreaded and evil V seat.
Lie on your back. Raise your legs to about 60 degrees from the floor. Sit up and then open and close your legs. Again and again. While they are at that 60 degrees from the floor.
Then, lie on your back. Flat on the ground. Raise one leg, 60 degrees from the floor. Lower it. Other leg. Do again and again.
Or, there is the one where you bring your legs in toward your chest, and then extend them back out. Repeat. Die of soreness if you are me.
There are more, and I found them challenging but fun.
Ohhhhhhhhh yes, the V seat. Dear Lord I hate that. I used to be able to do it, but then I used to be functional. Yikes but that's a mean exercise. So is that last one, presuming it's the one I'm thinking of where you're lying on your back and you're not supposed to let your feet touch the ground in between.
I bet I could get a lot stronger in a lot of ways without standing on my feet or using any equipment at all.
But... here is the thing. I went to one kundalini yoga class at Yoga Mandala, a studio near me. I finished the class and was sore for two solid weeks - laughing hurt, and both of my partners took too much pleasure in being silly and making jokes so they could watch me laugh and go "Yeowch!" (It was consensual. But man, what a workout.)
Then I took a smaller and much slower class where we learnt the same exercises and things went much better. I like these exercises, but would ramp up slowly.
I've been assigned to do planks, on all four sides, every night. A plank is pretty much what it sounds like: hold your body as straight as you can, as close to horizontal as you can get it, with your weight supported only at your feet and shoulders. I've been told that if I can get to three minutes on a side, things are very good -- right now I can manage two minutes without too much trouble. This is to deal with lower back pain, which I've had more or less continuously for over six months now.
One of the girls on my roller derby team taught us these weirdo crunches to work the obliques (the side you refer to). You lie on your back, with your knees bent 90 degrees and your feet in the air. Put your hands behind your head. Then, instead of crunching up like a situp, you kind of make your body into a "c" shape, bring your right elbow and your right foot together (well, not together, but toward each other). Then center, and repeat on the left side.
At first they feel like nothing, and just make you look silly. Then you realize the muscles are working and ouch. But good ouch.
In addition to everything else already provided, there's the "reverse crunch". Same setup as a normal crunch, but bring knees to nose instead of nose to knees. :-)
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Rectus Abdominus (the six-pack): flexes the spine, bringing the ribs closer to the pelvis. so, try this: on your back with feet flat on the floor. inhale, then while exhaling, try to make your ribs touch your pubic bone. don't try to sit up, and keep your arms crossed in front of you. see if you can lift yourself up just at the chest.
Internal and External Obliques: laterally flex the spine in the direction of their side, and rotate the spine (IO to the same side, and EO to the opposite side). so, try this: on your back with feet flat on the floor. inhale, and while exhaling, arms crossed in front, lift one side of your body and try to make it touch your knee. a diagonal sit-up, if that makes sense. when you do this sort of sit-up/crunch to the left, for instance, you are working the internal oblique on the left side and the external oblique on the right side.
Another good one is to lay on your side and lift your torso to the ceiling. that contracts the internal and external oblique on that side.
Finally, the obliques compress abdominal contents, to if you 'suck in your stomach' you'll be exercising them, too. try this: seated, inhale, then as you exhale, compress your abdomen in very slowly, holding it while you exhale. relax on the inhale, compress on the exhale.
If you exhale twice as slowly as you inhale while you are doing these exercises, you'll be really working those muscles.
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They included things like the dreaded and evil V seat.
Lie on your back. Raise your legs to about 60 degrees from the floor. Sit up and then open and close your legs. Again and again. While they are at that 60 degrees from the floor.
Then, lie on your back. Flat on the ground. Raise one leg, 60 degrees from the floor. Lower it. Other leg. Do again and again.
Or, there is the one where you bring your legs in toward your chest, and then extend them back out. Repeat. Die of soreness if you are me.
There are more, and I found them challenging but fun.
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I bet I could get a lot stronger in a lot of ways without standing on my feet or using any equipment at all.
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But... here is the thing. I went to one kundalini yoga class at Yoga Mandala, a studio near me. I finished the class and was sore for two solid weeks - laughing hurt, and both of my partners took too much pleasure in being silly and making jokes so they could watch me laugh and go "Yeowch!" (It was consensual. But man, what a workout.)
Then I took a smaller and much slower class where we learnt the same exercises and things went much better. I like these exercises, but would ramp up slowly.
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At first they feel like nothing, and just make you look silly. Then you realize the muscles are working and ouch. But good ouch.
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