Muscle Group: Abdominals

This post is for you, my running friends! And anyone else who has short, tight hip flexors…

The exercise above is called boat pose. Many people practice variations of it to strengthen the abdominal muscles. A common variation is double leg lowering, where the legs are lowered and raised. This pose can work to strengthen the abdominals, but when we feel this pose mainly in the muscles on the top of the thighs, the hip flexor muscles are doing the work.

Why might this be the case?

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Let’s talk about abdominal strengthening! As I mentioned in my last post, core stabilization exercises are very popular these days. Strong abdominal muscles are valued for their function in protecting the back as well as for purely aesthetic reasons.

Unfortunately, it is confusing to figure out how to improve abdominal tone. There are so many opinions on which exercises are the best. Where do we begin?

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Core stabilization, trunk stabilization, pelvic stabilization. What does it mean? Are you doing lots of “core stabilization” exercises? If so, you are not alone. It is a big deal these days. They are highly recommended for preventing back pain. But in order for them to work properly, we need to fine-tune our approach.

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