Can anyone give tips on how to work my upper abs? My lower and obliques are fine, but I have no upper abs. It's like a crater between my rib cage. I've been doing abs everyother day for about 1 1/2 years.
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Can anyone give tips on how to work my upper abs? My lower and obliques are fine, but I have no upper abs. It's like a crater between my rib cage. I've been doing abs everyother day for about 1 1/2 years.
I'm no help at all, but I did always think that the upper ones were the easier to work than the lower. Unless I am thinking of something different.
The rectus abdominus is all one muscle that runs from your ribcage to your pubic bone, so technically, if you're working that muscle out, then you're working the whole thing!
I'd suggest cutting back to 2 or 3 days a week and perform exercises that involve using external resistance other than bodyweight- like weighted sit ups and leg lifts or (if you go to a gym), ab machines. You can also use an elastic band attached to something for resistance.
Just like any other muscle, you need to increase the difficulty if it starts getting too easy, and, try to keep the reps under 15 (ok, maybe 20 if you HAVE to, but you're better off adding more weight).
One thing that I noticed when I started having massages (and being taught ALL about the muscles in my body) was that my hip flexors being contracted or not strong enough affected me all the way up my spine and rib cage, almost felt like side stitches. It's a complex system... the psoas connects in the lumbar which made me THINK it was my obliques when it was in fact that thing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_flexors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psoas_major_muscle
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