^ Congrats.
Hey guys and gals, my trainer has been having me do some exercises for the lower belly trouble spot most tend to have and I thought I would share. My belly complains that it works and that's reason enough to share lol.
Okay, there are a couple lower difficulty ones for those who don't have much strength to do the higher difficulty ones yet. With any of these workouts it is advised to do a set of 25 situps as a warmup.
-The first is to take a 5 ft long PVC pipe or something along those lines. Grab it by the ends or nearby and place it behind your shoulders at the pivot point of the shoulders. Next you look at something stationary straight ahead of you and keep your head pointed at it. Then you twist your torso as far as it will go one way then as far as it will go the other. You want to keep a slow pace and focus on control and positioning and you'll probably want to flex your stomach muscles to keep them tight through the whole process for 25 repetitions. According to my trainer the reason you focus on the stationary object is so you don't twist too far and hurt your back. This is more of a workout for the sides of the belly than the lower belly but it still works the core muscles that will be needed.
- The second is to lay down with your head up against something that you can hold onto for balance. A couch would probably work just fine for this. lay down stretched out then lift your feet up off the ground and keep going until they touch the couch cushion or until you reach the farthest you can safely stretch. It is perfectly fine if your hips come up off the ground in this process. After touching the couch cushion,
slowly bring your legs back down. The slower and more controlled your movement goes, the more the muscles will benefit from the workout.
Too easy? Not getting the results you're looking for? Try this combination:
- lay down on the ground or yoga mat/pad/whatever and place one of those peanut shaped yoga balls between your feet and your feet would be in the middle of the hourglass shape area and the ball as far towards the feet as possible. With your hands placed stretched out below your butt for leverage and your legs stretched out holding the ball between the feet, lift the ball up in the air and slowly bring it back down until about an inch before it touches the ground before lifting again. This is meant for 25 reps but don't be too surprised if you need to break it up into 3 sets of 8 or whatever works best for you.
- Next exercise you put the ball away and lay flat on your back again stretched out with your arms stretched out to the side palms down. Bring your feet up into the air and once you are stable, slowly tilt your legs to one side as far as you can go without losing your balance then go back to the straight up pose and tilt to the other side for the same process. Congratulations, you've done one rep. 24 to go.
- Again on the back and arms down for leverage this is probably the most stressful exercise (at least it is for me). Again lift your feet up in the air only this time you flex your stomach muscles to pull your hips about an inch off of the ground. The key here is to work like your are stretching your feet/legs
straight up into the air. Hold the pose for as long as possible or until a count of 100. What makes this hard is the fact that you are in a position that doesn't make breathing easy at all let alone controlled breathing in addition to the tendency to tilt the legs up and over the body/head in this kind of position when they should be straight up. Also be careful of cramping.
- People might think you're getting ready for a nap with how much you'll be on the floor because the last exercise is again, on the back stretched out. After you've taken some time to recover from the previous exercise, place your hands under your hips to prop them up about an inch off the ground. lift your feet up a little bit then lift one of your legs up in the air about 35 degrees from the ground. As that foot comes down lift the other foot up for the same way all while never letting your feet touch the ground. This should be similar to how you kick your feet when swimming and your goal is 100 reps. Don't be too discouraged if you end up having to split it into 4 sets of 25 because your capabilities will increase with practice and training.
Remember, it only hurts for 48 hours. Happy training!
