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I fail at holding in my abs
So every exercise progam I've ever been in – strength training, yoga, Zumba, pole – has emphasized the importance of tightening your abs when you do pretty much anything. I've heard "pull your navel towards your spine" more times in my life than I can count. And yet I still utterly fail at it, and I feel like my abs are weak because of it.
Unless I'm doing a specifically abdominal workout or exercise, I'm rarely thinking about my abs and tend to let them just hang loose and do whatever they want. It's only when the instructor goes "make sure you're pulling in your abs" that I'm like, Oh yeah, abs, shooooonk…. but I guarantee you by the next move in the routine, I've forgotten about them again, until she goes "Abs tucked in!!" Oh yeah…. shooooonk… (Incidentally, it's the same thing with Kegels. I never ever think about them until I see or hear the word. I'll spare you the sound effects on that one.)
Making a habit of holding in my abs would probably be a good thing all around for me. I also have pretty poor posture because I work a full-time desk job and am top-heavy. I am constantly hunched and leaning forward, and when I do try to sit up straight with good posture, it hurts. I feel a major imbalance developing as my back core muscles, which are quite strong, overcompensate for my loosey-goosey abs.
I've recently become aware just how weak my abs are by trying, and failing, to do ab exercises like crunches (they give in after 5-6 reps), and by practicing yoga inversions, where you pretty much need to have those abs tight tight tight to keep your balance. I am typically the first to say to anyone else "keep your expectations realistic" but at the same time, I feel like I should be able to do more than 5 crunches and I feel frustrated and ashamed when I can't. I hate to say it but it puts a big chip in the picture I have of myself as a strong, sexy woman.
So this is part venting, part pleading, part fishing for sympathy, part asking for advice (abvice?). I'm tripping over my own frustration here.
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13 Replies
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I feel this is something that you will need to really train yourself to do. It is super important as you progress and being unable to control the core will start holding you back when inverting etc. it’s about repetition and training yourself. Every time you do a move go through a sequence and follow it every time, for example to do a straddle invert from the floor say out loud to yourself the steps eg. Stand with hips in front of the pole, hands to face or neck height on the pole, activate core, bring knees to chest etc. repeat the move several times using the same vocal cues, do this every time, and think about consciously activating you core for every move you do. One tip I got which helped me get the position correct was to I imagine you are a ballerina wearing a tutu and you don’t want the audience to see your bottom when you dance, that means you have to think about moving your bum and tum so the tutu stays down at the back,
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I do feel like I engage my abs when I'm actually on the pole doing tricks, because, well, you pretty much *have* to in most tricks. I mostly notice it if I'm following a yoga or cardio DVD, following along and concentrating on the muscles actively being used, or the form of the yoga pose, and then suddenly the instructor says "abs" and I'm thinking, s**t, how long did I have them relaxed? I'm supposed to be doing this all along! And then I get distracted by the next sequence.
I think that's the part that confuses me – I can invert from the floor and from up on the pole, and do a number of other inverted tricks with little difficulty, so why do my abs just cave in so easily when I do actual ab exercises? It's a vicious cycle. I hate working my abs because I'm not good at it. I'm not good at it because I don't work on it enough. I don't work on it enough because I hate it.
I am //begrudgingly// starting to actually focus on my core, and to try to get over my personal barrier of dislike for core exercises. I guess I was wondering if anyone else has similar issues with their abs.
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Try Pilates – I teach Pilates and the things that you have said sounds to me like Pilates is what will help. In particular, you need to find someone that can show you how to engage your transverse abdominus and pelvic floor properly. This is what "drawing your navel to your spine" is supposed to do. Unfortunately, to a lot of people, these words just means to suck in your belly, but it's not that simple. It's about tightening that whole lower ab area and making your belly flat, not hollow. As AngelVonSpin said with the tutu analogy, you may need to tuck your tailbone under slightly – but this would depend on your current posture. A lot of people tilt their pelvis too far forward (and stick their bums out) which makes it harder to activate these muscles. If you can tuck the tailbone under slightly while still have a little curve in your lower back, it'll be easier to activate these muscles.
I was exactly like you – I used to hate ab exercises, your 'vicious cycle' was exactly what I had. I ended up just refusing to do them. Until I started learning tricks where I had no choice but to strengthen it. I tried just doing ab exercises but didn't see fast results until I did the instructor course for Pilates and realised what I was doing wrong. My core is now a lot stronger and my posture is a lot better (I also work in an office all day). So my recommendation is to try Pilates 🙂 Also… don't do any Pilates classes where they do fast jerky movements, try to find one that focuses on control. A one on one is best… but usually a bit expensive…
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Pankake, you are not the only one. I have similar issue and thank you for this post. Thanks to Trickivix for the clarification on how to engage the abs! I did Pilates some time ago and will try to implement it each time when I do the inverts, hoping it will really help to make the progress I want…
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Trickivix, are there any DVDs you can recommend for Pilates? At this point, I have neither time, budget nor energy to add more in-person classes, but I am looking to replace some of the DVDs in my collection that have become too easy for me. Also, from what I've seen, Pilates involves a lot of props – do I *need* those?
Danielle had us do some exercises on the pole on Tuesday that I'm going to continue using at home – Chopper Curls (invert into a chopper, squeeze abs so you can hold the legs up, and try to pull your upper body to the pole with your biceps) and one that I dubbed the Inchworm, doing the caterpillar motion with no hands. It's very funny looking – upside-down humping the pole, LOL.
I'd love to know of more Core exercises that I can do using the pole. I dropped Veena's lessons so I could justify getting a membership to my local studio, and now I'm wishing I would have at least looked through the strength lessons first and tried to memorize them. I try to compartmentalize my practices a bit (a freestyle practice, a tricks + spins practice, a floorwork practice, etc.) and if I can have a good enough repository of exercises, I can start doing strength practices too. Danielle also said that focusing on perfecting her invert really helped with core strength, so that should probably be part of my routine too.
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Really, I am open to any alternatives to crunches! Crunches are evil! I always feel like I'm barely moving an inch when I try them, which might be because I have a pretty short torso and a roll of belly fat that I'm trying to work off, so while I can do lovely backbends, my forward range of motion is minimal.
Excuses, excuses, excuses…
When I try to do crunch-like exercises, I feel like my abs sort of "lock up." They squeeze tight for the contraction but then don't release when I come back down to the floor. If I try to push through it (it's not a really painful sensation, just makes the moves difficult), they just get more and more tense. Earlier this week when I did them with a DVD, I had to lie there for a few seconds after and let them unwind. I often find myself involuntarily holding my breath during these exercises, so maybe that's part of the problem. I don't know if that tense "locking" feeling is normal, or a sign that I'm doing something wrong. I hope I explained it well, it's a weird sensation.
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Studio Pilates have some electronic DVDs you can buy online. The intro of each DVD explains the engagement of the TA and pelvic floor. They call it the 'T-zone'. For each exercise she will say 'T-zone' a lot so it's hard to forget about it. When I was taught, the "check" that you can do is to lightly press with two fingers just on the inside of your hip bones. When you switch on your T-zone, you'll feel it tighten under your fingers. So if you're ever not sure, just check by lightly pressing that area.
You won't need any props. They do crunches in the DVDs but you'll learn to like them https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif The key is to keep your belly flat and not let it bulge out (this is quite tricky at first). If it starts to bulge out, it generally means your T-zone has let go and you are focussing too much with your rectus abdominus (6 pack). These muscles are more powerful, but do not have the endurance so they will get worn out a lot faster and I'd say that's why you feel like you're cramping up.
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Trickivix, that makes a lot of sense! I can definitely feel the difference between squeezing and not squeezing that T-Zone. Although keeping my belly flat would be easier if I had a flat belly to begin with, LOL. Between belly and boobs I have a very bulgey upper body! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif Sometimes I wish I could squeeze myself like a tube of toothpaste and redistribute things to where they're just right. (Don't we all….)
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When you say pelvic floor, are those the same muscles that are used for Kegel exercises? The term sounds familiar.
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Haha I know what you mean – I accummulate fat around my belly, would love to push some of that fat to my chest and to my butt.
Yes, Kegel exercises are for the pelvic floor.
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So I was going to freestyle tonight but am still sore from my class on Tuesday and decided to suck it up and do a core workout, using a mini-session from my normal strength DVD, and then an assortment of exercises using my balance ball that I looked up online. I really focused on that T-Zone thing, especially when I started to feel my six-pack abs choking up, and it helped a lot! I was able to do more than one set of some of the exercises. There was one called "Birddog" especially for targeting the TA that I definitely felt the burn on, I think I'll be doing that one a lot. http://www.fitlink.com/exerciseHelp?exercise=27&popup=1
So I want to say thanks for pointing me in the right direction, because I definitely didn't hate this workout as much as I've hated doing core stuff in the past. I'm curious to see how sore I'll be tomorrow. 🙂
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No problem at all Pankake. Glad I could help https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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A tip for your desk at work-
Write a note and stick it somewhere that you'll look at often (phone, drawer.. something) and have on it something to the effect of "Shoulders down and back, stomach in" so you're constantly reminded to check and fix your posture.
It's definitely helped me. 🙂
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