why do I not feel ab exercises?

[Sunnyskies2283 23]

I've been working with a personal trainer for a month now and I've found whenever we do exercises that I should feel in my abs I don't feel it or not as much as I should. She said something like maybe the muscles are really loose from surgery still? I tried testing this by doing straight crunches and still don't feel it like I should. Anyone experience this? I'm 8 weeks out.

[B-52 7,113]

What are you looking to feel? Muscle Pain?

[VSGAnn2014 12,992]

Not saying you're doing this, but when a lot of people "do abs" they're really lifting their torsos with their backs.

A good trainer can help you assess if this is the problem or not.

Good luck.

Edited September 1, 2014 by VSGAnn2014

[esskay77 785]

And sometimes some people just don't feel that pain. I used to work with a personal trainer and very rarely felt any pain. He didn't like to have me overdo anything and doing stretching afterwards helps keep some of the pain away. You might be fine. Of course, as someone else said, you may be using your back more than your abs. I remember years ago in high school, the gym teacher would have a guy lay back on the bench and lift the barbell weights up. He would show how the guy kept his back on the bench. Then he would have one of the gals do it and every time, each gal would arch her back to use her back muscles to lift the weight. Sorry if that sounds weird but it was his example to show that we tend to use our backs and have to relearn how to use our abs.