Cavaliere suggests changing your anchor point to pull back against something to engage your hamstrings instead, since you'll end up taking your lower back out of the equation.Ībs don’t just work when you’re targeting them. Fixing your form will again get this exercise focused on the right muscle group. If you need to anchor your feet, if your shoulders trail when do the movement, and if you slam your back down to the floor after each rep, you have weak abs. Cavaliere points to situps as a key example: If your lower back starts to hurt with as you perform reps, it’s again because your hip flexors are doing the work instead of your abs, which in turn puts stress on your lower back. To be clear, you should not get back pain from ab workouts. That’ll help build a stronger set of abs in the long run. Cavaliere says that to fix a movement like ab scissors, curl your shoulders off the ground, engaging the abs and making your hip flexors work as assistance muscles rather than the primary target of the exercise. Your legs are driving the movement instead of your abs-so you need to fix your form. If you’re doing ab exercises-say, ab scissors, laying on your back and crossing your legs over one another-and you feel fatigue in your legs and hip flexors, that means you’re working the wrong muscles.

Athlean x abs