3 Exercises To Light Up Your Lower Abs So You Can Finally See Those Stubborn Bastards

Man, that four-pack looks great on you…as long as you hike up your pants real high. Don’t feel bad because everyone knows that the lower abdominals are the hardest part of the body to develop this side of the calves. All this means is that you have to isolate them and not just assume that your average every day ab movements will hit the entire abdominal wall…because they won’t.

But that’s not the entire solution, of course. You need to eat a low fat diet and do cardio to burn fat to see any level of your abs. So let’s say that this is merely one third of the strategy, but it’s a vital one.

HANGING LEG RAISES

A great overall exercise for the abs, hanging leg raises will put extra tension on the lower part. The bottom half of the rep is the key here and you don’t even need to use weight (in the form of ankle weights or a balanced dumbbell) for added resistance. But the key is to do each rep in a slow and controlled manner.

The best way to do this is to NOT go toes-to-bar. Yeah, that’s correct. A lot of people will tell you that the ONLY way for hanging leg raises to be effective is to use a range of motion that goes all the way up and all the way down. But we are going to give you a different strategy that makes total sense when you break it down.

When you go toes-to-bar, you are actually taking the tension away from the lower abs once you go higher than a 90-degree angle with your legs. That’s when your hip flexors and, more importantly, momentum take over. Going 90 degrees, you are working your top abdominal muscles and then bringing your legs back down will hit the middle and then lower abs.

If you do these correctly, it will be hard to do more than 10 reps per set. If you can do more, then good for you. But be sure to do them slow enough to feel each row of abs working.

LYING LEG RAISES

Do these with your palms facing down and your hands under your ass cheeks to prop them up slightly and point your toes down. Raises your feet simultaneously approx. six-to-12 inches and pause slightly before bringing them back down…but DO NOT touch the floor. This will keep the tension on the lower abs throughout the entire set.

This is an exercise that you can do in one of two manners  – reps or timed. Try doing 15-to-25 reps a set or do them for a full minute. You’ll feel either and know what amount you can handle for each.

REVERSE CRUNCHES
Get into the same position as you would for a regular set of crunches (lying down, hands behind your head, knees bent and feet crossed). But instead of lifting your head, lift your butt off the ground and curl your knees towards your head. You’ll have to bring them back to the starting position instead of keeping them slightly off the ground because you’ll begin to rock back and forth.

This is a movement that has a short – but effective – range of motion. So what you should do is sets of higher reps.

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