Help, Lower Belly buldge!

[DAA 0]

I seem to be loosing pretty good since my surgery in Feb. 244/208/150. Its a slow loss but im still loosing. I need to work on my below the belly button pouch. this is the worst for me. Any advice on what I should do or should not do? thanks

[Jachut 487]

Anything that targets the lower abdomen will be good - you need to think in terms of curling the pelvis up. So when you do crunches, lift your knees at the same time, but dont just raise the legs, curl from the pelvis. You need to focus on not using your hip flexors to raise your legs.

The key to this is to try to press the small of your back to the floor and not let your back arch, this by definition keeps your pelvis tilted up and requires you to suck your stomach muscles in hard. One good exercise is to lie on your back and bend your knees then raise your legs from the hips to 90 degrees. Keeping the small of your back pressed hard to the floor, slowly lower one leg from the hip, keeping the knee bent till your foot just touches the floor, then raise it and repeat with the other leg. Its quite difficult when you do it properly - you'll feel your back wanting to arch and the effort comes from resisting this, not from the raising and lowering of your leg.

If you have access to a gym, you can get on the power tower, the one where you rest on your elbows and hang, and you bend your knees and raise your legs to your chest by curling from the pelvis.

You can also lie on your back with your legs straight up and raise your hips and backside off the floor, again by curling the pelvis, not just "throwing" your legs upwards. It will be a tiny movement but very effective.

And static bridges are really really good too, get in a full push up position, only rest on your elbows, not your hand, and just hold for as long as possible keeping your torso straight in line, dont let your back arch and sag and dont poke your bum up in the air to make it easier. This works every single section of your abs.

Finally, its a case of do what I say, not what I do since I rarely pull my finger out and do any of that, lol.

[ljones4521 4]

Have you considered Pilates. The exercises help to strengthen your core muscles (lower abdomen) which also helps with any lower back pain you might have.