Craig McPherson asked:


If there was just one area on your body that you could change, what would it be? If you are like the majority of people, it would be the lower portion of your abs (around your belly button level). Droves of “lower ab bulge” sufferers have been trying to lose that extra bit of fat that sits stubbornly on their lower abs. Before I show you three aspects of an actual abdominal program, I want to clarify a couple of points first.

Anatomically speaking, there is actually no such thing as “upper abs” and “lower abs”. In fact, the entire region that we consider the “six pack” is made up of one muscle, called the rectus abdominis. The rectus extends the whole length of the front of the abdomen. Whether or not it is possible for a particular exercise to train just one region of the rectus is a highly controversial issue amongst fitness experts.

I will now put an end to that heated controversy once and for all! The truth is that no ab exercise can totally isolate and train just one section of the rectus muscle. However, some recent research shows that you can put greater emphasis on a particular area of the rectus, based on your exercise selection.

The researchers who discovered this fact used EMG studies to measure muscle fiber activity during different abdominal exercises. Their findings were interesting. They discovered that abdominal exercises involving more hip flexion (i.e. reverse crunches) activated the lower portion of the rectus more than ab exercises that involved more trunk flexion (i.e. crunches).

Before we go any further, let me give you a brief definition of what a “hip flexion dominant” exercise is:

Hip Flexion “Lower Ab” Exercises – Hip flexion dominant movements involve bringing your thighs towards your trunk. These movements primarily work your rectus abdominis (and more specifically target the lower portion of it). For years now, bodybuilders have claimed to get more sore in the lower portion of the abs when performing hip flexion dominant exercises. The scientific studies I just mentioned support this claim.