zakruti.com » Sport, fitness, workout » Jeff Cavalier

5 Red Flags for Weak Abs (FIX THIS)

video description

Rating: 4.0; Vote: 1

t matter whether you have visible abs or not, the strength of your core is not something that can be assessed by how they look in a mirror. In this video, I-m going to show you 5 specific things you can look for that will act as red flags to alert you to an ab weakness that you are going to want to correct. For instance, something as simple as getting off the floor from your back (the right way) can be challenging if you don-t have strong enough abs. Let-s dive in. One of the first things you will want to look for is whether you feel your hip flexors fatigue before your abs do when you do any ab exercises. For instance, the ab scissor is one of the classic ab exercises that people of all levels of strength and ability will perform. It involves laying on your back and crossing your legs back and forth over each other for time. When the abs are weak however, the person doing this ab movement will unfortunately feel it in their legs and hip flexors leading to them having to stop because they can-t hold their legs up. Not good. Instead, you want to make sure the abs are properly engaged by curling your shoulders off the ground before starting the scissor. This will act to engage the abs and stabilize the spine so that the hip flexors can work as assistance muscles and not the primary movers. Having strong abs will only make this easier in the long run. Next, if you get low back pain during any ab exercises you need to stop and assess your strength. This should not happen. The reason it does however, goes back to the overactivity of the hip flexors. When the psoas pulls unopposed or in a highly imbalanced way, it will act to tug down and forward on the lumbar vertebrae because of its attachment to them. This has the effect of creating enormous amounts of stress and force on the low back which can lead to unnecessary pain. To fix this you want to assess how you are hooking your feet during certain ab exercises like the sit-up and make sure you instead place the heels over something and pull back. This will engage the hamstrings and help to minimize the overactivity of the hip flexors. Also, by thinking about peeling your back off the floor one vertebra at a time and placing it back down the same way (as if you are rolling paint on the wall) will greatly assist in getting rid of the pain. Bracing during the big lifts (bench, squats, and deadlifts) is something that is necessary to the proper performance of these exercises. That said, it is something that should be happening automatically almost as a background action. If you find that by consciously trying to brace you don-t just improve the efficiency and bar path of the movement but feel as if you could add significant weight to the bar, then your abs aren-t inherently strong enough to begin with and it is something you are going to want to work on. The ability to activate the transverse abdominis muscle is crucial as well. This muscle runs horizontally around the waist (much like a weight belt does. When you lack the ability or control to contract it you wind up getting lower abs that tend to protrude despite the fact that they could even be ripped and defined. Learning how to activate this muscle is critical to having strong abs. Finally, control in all three planes of motion is also crucial. I show you three tests that you can do to identify your ab strength in each. To boot, I show you how the simple act of getting off the floor the right way depends on having good core and ab strength. See if you can do it yourself and share it with your friends to see how they do. For a step by step workout and nutrition plan to not only get your abs showing year round but make sure they are strong enough to do anything you want to do with them, be sure to click the link below and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. See how training like an athlete can get you looking and feeling like one in no time with me coaching you every step of the way
Date: 2022-04-22

← 6 Biggest Back Workout Lessons Learned (HOW HE DID IT)

How to Get a Strong Low Back - DO THIS EVERY DAY! →

Related videos

Busting Cardio Myths Everyone STILL Believes

• Jeremy Ethier

Most Men Over 40 Can't Pass These Basic Fitness Tests (can you)

• Muscle Monsters

I Tested 3 Muscle Building Diets, Only 1 Was Worth It

• Jeremy Ethier

Building Muscle After 40 Is Hard, Until You Do This.

• Muscle Monsters

Why 90% Of People Never Get Lean (It's Not Genetics)

• Jeremy Ethier

12 Exercises That Completely Change The Human Body

• Jeff Cavalier

Comments and reviews: 10

Big
Great info. will incorporate this into my ab workout. I especially like the fifth ab-check with the cable. but all of these pointers are great. Will never apologize for being the one guy who spends the most time in the ab room. Strong abs benefit every aspect of your workout regimen. I gained my first functional (not just for show) 6-pack at 51 y/o. almost 53 now with an 8-pack, even with lifelong rheumatoid arthritis, 24/7 mind-numbing pain, and replaced shoulders AND hips. Yet I make it (sometimes crawling) to the gym 6 days/week and I humbly look and feel incredible, regardless of the adversity with which I-ve been dealt. Don-t ever say, -I can-t. -
reply

Marc
For anyone having issues with hip flexors. I injured my hip flexors a few years ago, they've been terrible. They often hurt during ab exercises, tho I don't have any of the other issues. Probably worth noting incase you have strained your hip flexors, potentially your abs might not be overwhelmingly weak, but maybe a mix of the two or not at all. Years of stretching haven't done an awful lot to help. Just started running regularly the last few weeks and going for long walks and they've improved to almost normal in just a few weeks. don't know if this is helpful to anyone but it's been a bit of a nightmare for me so hopefully it helps someone.
reply

Bliznade
I just learned seriously so much from this video. My hip flexors ALWAYS give me problems. I thought I just strained them. Turns out I've been wasting time with all these ab workouts and doing them wrong, and I know that to be true because my lower abs have always carried more weight than my upper, and even now as I get back into it, my abs are mostly back except for the lower ones. Definitely going to apply this to future exercises and I'm excited to finally understand and be able to fix those problems that have always nagged me. Makes so much sense now.
reply

Jeemeli
I cant hold the cliffhanger plank and I have anterior pelvic tilt. How do I fix this? What should I change? I work out my abs regularly, I used to do it wrong which is why I have tight hip flexors. Now Ive been doing it correctly, keeping my lower back to the ground at all times but it hasnt really done anything to fix the issue, although now I can feel my abs contracting a lot better during the exercise and likely have gotten a lot stronger there. I just dont know how to work around this specific weakness, what do I do?
reply

Tomb4
I got a question for you Jeff of -Athlean-X I am trying to strengthen my abs by doing planks and I'm slowly increasing the time and/ or adding another set. I just did this earlier I did three sets of planks elbows bent and on my feet 1st set 1min. 2 set 45 sec and third 30 sec about 30 sec to a min rest in between on my last one once done my abs stomach area became extremely tight to the point it caused concern is that how it is for weak abs or is it something else?
reply

Chow
I'm late to the party, but this is probably the most well thought out and informative video on this subject of all time. I have been to numerous physiotherapists who might have each explained or recommended parts of this video in isolation, but without the clarity and ability to really paint the big picture at the same time.
I learned that I have missed the point of many things, but also that they can be fixed with only minor tweaks. Amazing.
reply

RulerGukguk
I have a weak mid section but i can get off the ground without my hands if i role over my right knee. I have metal and 6 screws in my left knee. When i try to go up over my left my brain fears pain in my left knee. And i can feel my recurring left hip flexor pain come out. Is this because of my knee issue. If i could role onto my left knee im pretty sure i could get up but concerned about twisting my bad left knee. Any tips?
reply

You
My problem with sit-ups is that I have -raised/elevated spine- (I couldn't find a proper English name for it, basically, my spine is visible along its entire length even when I stand straight and when I arch my back even slightly, then significantly -raises/elevates- above the rest of my back (and I'm definitely not super skinny) and so it's extremely painful to lay on something like the floor or even gym mat.
reply

Ghostflame92
2minutes in, Jeff answers a question better than any personal trainer I-ve ever had. I always burn my legs before my abs and I never understood why. Everyone always told me -well yeah you-re gonna feel it in your legs too. - Which never made sense to me, cause if I-m doing ab exercises, why would it burn my legs more? Wish I had seen this video years ago
reply

Atlas
I noticed the weak abs after I had open heart surgery. I figured I would loose my bench but it was easier to get back than my dead lift and squats. I seen this video while I was searching for core and abs training exercises. Great stuff thank you. 7 months into recovery and making progress your videos truly help.
reply

Add a review, comment