Beebleblog

Ah the sit up, is it a good exercise or is it bad? Does it work the abdominals properly? Does it make your stomach stick out? These are all questions that surround this exercise which I feel makes the whole thing very confusing and might result in people not doing the exercise. This would be a shame as it is a very good exercise for the abs when it is completed with good technique.

What is it for?

You can guess this one! Yes, it’s for the stomach muscles: mainly focusing on the upper portion of the Rectus Abdominus (the 6 pack – Beeble) and also the Transverse Abdominals (the belt like stomach muscle that sits underneath all other stomach muscles and creates core strength high-lighted in red – Beeble). It also works on your Hip Flexor muscles, (positioned on the front upper thigh and are used to raise your thigh up – Beeble) you can’t see them in the diagram but I have marked out their position.

Technorati Tags: abdominals, Abs, crunches, Exercise, fitness, sit ups, situps, stomach, workout

Your "core" is a word that is used a lot these days without really any understanding of the muscles involved and how to use them. Today I want to explain which muscles make up your core, where in the body they are found and how they are, or rather should, be used.

When most people talk about the core they are mainly referring to the stomach muscles which although not wrong does not give the complete picture. For example there are many pieces of equipment out there that help to strengthen your stomach muscles and as part of their advertising they will talk about “building a stronger core.” This is partly true, but obviously it would be more accurate to say that it “helped towards building a stronger core” as if you just used this piece of equipment you would miss out the other muscles that make up the core.

Technorati Tags: abdominals, Abs, Core, Exercise, fitness, muscles, stomach, strength, workout