Hi all you fit people. Please can someone tell me the best stomach exercises for me? I want to strengthen my tummy muscles for two reasons: I have a very weak lower back and it should help, and, since having my daughter 13 years ago (whoops!)my tummy wobbles like a badly set jelly! All help appreciated.
0 ·
Comments
My wife teaches it, and she's got abs of steel now. She always has people in her class with back problems, and you must make the teacher aware that you have had them, then she'll alter the moves you are doing for safety.
Darn - she was gonna give me a class last night, but we forgot and watched TV instead !
the S@ss
The Swiss ball is said to be very good. I'm going to give it a try with the personal trainer - my abs aren't bad strength-wise (the kids like to headbutt me in the tum and bounce off), but my posture needs a bit of work.
I had an ab rocker but gave it to a charity shop because it didn't justify the space it took up in the house. It's a device to make sure your head, neck and shoulders don't do all the work when you're doing sit-ups.
Try to stand straight and look at yourself sideways in the mirror. Do you slouch, with rounded shoulders? Bad posture makes your stomach seem worse, and pushes the small of your back in. Try relaxing, dropping your shoulders back and down and straightening your spine. You might have heard of the 'piece of string at the top of your spine', imagine it's pulling you upwards in a straight line. Now hold your stomach in and tense your muscles a little.
I try to remember to maintain good posture like this, and holding my stomach in, you probably automatically do this while you're running.
This has the advantage of not taking any extra time, and is good enough in my book!
Laura, you started so well by saying: 'Try to stand straight and look at yourself sideways in the mirror'. Isn't that enough ?! Isn't that what most people do in the gym ?! Then you went on and started talking about spines, muscles, ...etc. Bah !