Transverse Ab Exercise Tips

Video Transcript

This next exercise is one of the most effective exercises for the whole abdominal core area. If you were to hook up an EMG or a light switch, you're going to see everything just turn on here with the whole core working together. You can hear it called a bicycle, a criss-cross in Pilates, different ways to do it. We're going to come down and stabilize our back to the floor. Now the best way to find out where your active range of motion is and your stopping point in order to keep a neutral pelvis, and that triangle, I want you to think of it as a bowl in a triangle shape and you don't want to spill it. So you're going to leave it, it's nice and still. And then find your active range of motion. If I take my feet any further past here and I feel that back come off the mat, boom, exercise is over. I'm relying on back more than I am abs. We're going to come up where we've got head in line with the spine, about a fist's width between the chin and the chest. If it bothers you to put your hands back here, if that's too advanced, then by all means bring them here because we're going to initiate the movement with the oblique?s, that's lateral flexion, muscles on the side; one of the most important muscles of the core to stabilize. It's the girdle of the spine. I'm going to bring my hands right here. I'm not going to pull or excessively tip back. I'm going to have my head nice and neutral and I'm just using my fingers to rest my head in. Then I'm going to think of pulling with my obliques. It's going to look like my shoulder's leaving, but I'm really using these side muscles to lead in, crunch, exhale, inhale, exhale. And again, I'm initiating the movement from the waistline but the further down I put my toes, the more I have to stabilize the levers, which is going to get the rectus abdominus, the lower part. And I'm also using the top part here of the rectus abdominus or commonly known as transverse abdominus. And exhale. But for those of you out there who don't care about all those muscle names, just do this one because it effectively gets your whole core. Again, the most important thing is to think of rotation in the side. Upper body stays pretty nice and still. It's only going to move as a result of contraction in the oblique?s lateral flexion. And make sure you exhale and keep breathing. And again once you feel that back come off the mat, exercise is over. You might want to take your feet, raise them a little higher. If you start getting fatigued and letting that happen, it's got a short range of motion, but you are going to have the work load where you need it. And that's one of the most effective abdominal exercises that you can do.

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