Working your Abs – what, when, where, how?

Getting abs... Everyone wants a flat and toned mid-section right? Guys want a six-pack and girls want to feel confident to wear a bikini this summer! But HOW do you get a great mid-section? You may have tried all sorts of programmes without much success or you may be new to exercising. Maybe you have tried programmes and they have worked and now you want more.

This issue is for you! This month we are talking about how to get and keep great-looking and feeling abs. Get in shape this spring and be ready for summer!

Unfortunately I can’t offer you a magic pill that is going to take away all your belly fat and replace it with sexy lean muscle overnight. What I CAN do is help you to lose the fat, tone your body and maintain the result. If you want a magic fix, stop reading this newsletter right now and go make an appointment with a cosmetic surgeon. If you want to know how to sculpt sexy abs and keep them for life, keep reading!

We are not going to talk about nutrition this issue, but it is a very important part of any fitness programme. At least 80% of the results you do or don’t get will be dictated by how you eat. For a quick guide to effective eating, look at page 1 of your free report. Download the report here.

So, time for a bit of education about what your abs or your ‘core’ actually are, how they work and what this means for your workouts.

There are technically speaking three groups of muscles that make up the group commonly referred to as ‘abs’. The deepest and I would say most important abdominal muscle is the Transverses Abdominus (TVA). I say it is the most important because most people do not activate this muscle properly, and it is possible to use your other abdominal muscles and not active this muscle along with them. So for many people this is a very weak muscle. Your TVA runs horizontally around your middle, and acts as a sort of ‘corset’, holding your belly in and helping to stabilize your spine when you move.

On top of you TVA is the rectus abdominus. This is your ‘six-pack’ muscle. This muscle runs vertically from your rib cage to your pelvis. This muscle has the major job of pulling your ribs towards your hips in a straight-ahead position. Because of the way it can be worked (think crunches) it is often the strongest abdominal muscle, but it must work with all the rest of the abdominal muscles to be helpful. There’s no point in having a six-pack but still not having any spine stability or functional movement patterns.

The next group of muscles are the obliques. You have both internal and external obliques, and the internal ones are under the external ones (as their names would suggest). These muscles run diagonally across each other and attach from the rib cage to the pelvis. They are responsible for twisting movements of the torso.

All these muscles must work together to achieve proper spinal stability and control, as well as helping you to have great posture! (And a sexy flat belly).

How do you know when you have ‘activated’ your abs?

A really good way to help to understand activating your core is to think of gently pulling the base of your ribcage together. If you push your finger into the triangle of muscle between the base of your ribcage, it should feel firmer when you ‘pull’ your ribcage together than when you are just relaxed and ‘hanging out’. 

When you are on your back, you should think of drawing the belly down towards the floor. A way to check this is to try to slide your hand under your lower back. You shouldn’t be able to get your hand under; it should be stopped by your back against the floor.

Don’t overdo ab activation though! You still need to be comfortable and able to breathe.

I highly suggest coming to a pilates intro class or making an appointment with an experienced fitness trainer who can assist you with learning how to activate your core properly. If you have had incorrect posture for a long time, or have had any kind of back pain, it is a good idea to get some professional advice. This is because the body learns the ‘wrong’ kind of movement patterns and it takes time and careful planning to reprogramme your brain to the ‘right’ movement patterns again. You don’t want to learn core activation ‘wrong’ because you have done it by yourself and programmed it into your brain in the wrong way.

Pilates intro classes are FREE for everyone who signs up for any of my fitness classes.

First of all it’s important to be totally sure you can activate your core properly. This is important because if you can’t do this or are doing it in the wrong way, you run a much higher risk of injuring your back when trying to work your abs.

The best way to work your abs is with total body exercises such as plank variations, slow mountain climbers, and general all over exercises like push-ups, lunges and squats.

These are pretty advanced exercises, so first we have to start working the abs by making it a bit easier for them and just focusing on them by themselves. The best way to build a good base of strength in your core is to do pilates for a few months. This teaches you how to use your core and remain stable through a range of movement challenges. You can then perform the more advanced all-body exercise in a safe and effective way.