-
Lower Abdominal Exercises
-
For conditioning, I've always found reverse sit-ups to be the best exercise for the lower abs. By reverse sit ups, I mean the kind where you lay on your back on the floor, and lift your legs and then butt into the air. Try doing them in a straddle, too. You can also do this hanging from a pull-up bar or holding onto your pole. Another possibility is to do triple sit-ups, where you lay on your back on the floor, then do repetitions of three different sit-ups: a tuck, where you lift your upper body off the floor, arms extended at your sides, and tuck your legs up at the same time; a straddle, where you do the same thing, but legs in a straddle (try reaching your arms between your legs on this one), and a pike, where you lift up with your legs straight.
-
A women's BF should not really stay under 10% for any legth of time. Bodybuilders/fitness competitors will get down into the single digits for comp but do not stay at that level. Typically they will try to maintain above 12-15% off season.
-
That pooch is for baby making. Leave it there. It's normal and healthy.
-
Chemgoddess is correct. Bodybuilders will go 10% Figure and Fitness about 12% and Bikini competiors will go about 15 – 16%. Not only is it extremely hard to get to these numbers, its not sustainable at all. Essential Body fat for women is 12%, going lower than that or even staying around that can create many health issues. Average body fat is considerd 25 – 30 with the 18 – 24 being "athletic".
If you are low in weight and still have a pooch, then you are carrying a higher rate of body fat and not enough muscle. No amount of dieting will get rid of the pooch until you gain muscle mass. And you dont have to have extremely low body fat to habe flat abs, most women will see the flatness in the 18 – 24 range, depending on how much muscle they have and where they carry their fat.
The ladies that i know that compete are never more than 10 – 15 pounds off their stage weight. But even they dont look stage ready all the time.
-
But that’s what bugs me. I’m 18% bodyfat so it just looks out of place. I don’t want any babies anytime soon. Maybe I just need to focus on my diet more.
-
if your 18% body fat truly, and still have a pouch, then you need to look at posture. and muscle.
If you have low lean body mass, then it wont matter how low you go in body fat, you still will not have flat abs. You will start to look stringy and sickly. Instead you will need to build overall muscle mass and bring up lean body mass.
I have flat abs at about 23 – 24 % but i have put on about 15 pounds of muscle over the years and i dont carry much fat around my abs, so they show sooner.
Like i said, it all boils down to how much muscle you have and where you carry your fat.
-
Taking a look at what pics you have up, i would say you are higher than 18% and you dont have a whole lot of muscle going on. You look pretty tall, and its harder to put muscle on a taller frame, but its easier to carry weight. You look to be in the lower 20's for body fat, its hard to tell with the pics you have up but that would be my guess.
It looks like you carry the most weight in your abs, so for you, it would be the last place for fat to drop off. However, you look like you are at a weight and body fat level where you should be concentrating on putting on muscle and not worrying about the fat.
-
I carry my weight at my belly so truly the only time my abs are flat is 100% due to diet. I know many girls that have a higher BF than I do that have flat stomachs (they carry it on their hips), so it really is going to be genetics and diet.
-
In order to determine body fat, what does anyone suggest? I have had multiple caliper tests (mostly because its by far the easiest) but on the same day different people can come up with different numbers. Are calipers the only easy option?
-
I'm not saying it is for immediate use for making babies. It is from your girly hormones. That little pooch is very feminine and is gonna be highly dependednt of genetics and hormones. I can guarantee that it does not look out of place on you. I see thin girls with it all the time! It's normal and healthy.
-
Calipers are the easiest and cheapest, but widely inaccurate. They can give you a ball park estimate but never take it as "gospel"
The best way, though expensive, is a DEXA scan, they are not available in every area and can get pricey.
http://www.leighpeele.com/body-fat-pictures-and-percentages
leigh peele has a great blog about it, very informative and a good place to start, if the link doesnt work, google leigh peele body fat and it should come up.
After that, you can research dexa scans and compare known scans and eventually you will come to have a good understanding and be able to evaluate body fat.
-
Also at minimum you should do a 3 point, better if you can do a 4 or 7 point. This is a fairly decent site. http://www.linear-software.com/online.html
If I calculate my BF just from a suprailiac measurement I get one figure and something totally different even doind a 3 point. As I said, I carry my BF at my belly so that is not the best place for me to measure to get an overall BF.
Calipers are highly subjective because it is going to differ how much someone "pinches" you to get the measurement. They are good for overall watching to see if you are going in the right direction but that is about it. Even the accucheck caliper that I ahve that "clicks" at the right tension still gives me different readings each and every time. I typically take 3-5 measurements at each site and then average them.
-
This is kind of interesting.
-
Oops! Sorry- abcollins already posted that link!
-
abcollins1- I just had my bodyfat percentage done and it was 18%. Some of my photos are from over the summer. My arms are pure muscle as are my legs and back. I do tend to hold fat around my core. I have wide hips and a huge ass. Which I won't complain about because it's my best asset, no pun intended. 🙂 I'm 5'6". I weigh 150 lbs but I wear a size 2-4 depending on the brand.
I work at a strip club 2-3 days a week for 7 hrs per day. Obviously physically strenous. I work 2 days a week as a nurse which is also very physically strenuous and I pole and do cardio on top of that. So I guess chemgoddess is right. Genetics…ugh. I guess I'll just have to learn to live with it because my ice cream addiction cannot be cured! lol
Log in to reply.