That said, these muscles are worked hard by the kind of complex movements with heavy weight which are recommended elsewhere in these pages as they have a vital role to play in all of these movements.  Front squats, one-legged Romanian deadlifts, hanging snatches and clean and jerks will all give the lower abs a great workout, as well as stimulating the body’s natural fat burning processes which are essential if you’re ever to see that elusive “six pack”.

However, there’s no doubt that for a really flat stomach specific lower ab workouts can be of great use, and fortunately there are numerous simple exercises which target this area and can be added with benefit to the kind of high intensity, whole body, workouts described above.

Here are just a few examples:

Lying scissors – lie on your back, legs straight, arms by your sides and lift your feet a few inches.  Spread your legs until you feel the pull in your hip flexors and then bring your feet together to cross your ankles.  Repeat for as many reps as you can.
Seated scissors – as above, but sitting on the floor and crossing your arms as well as your legs.  The sitting position really intensifies the pull on the lower abs.
Leg raise with roll-back – lie on your back, keeping your arms by your sides and pull your knees to your chest.  Roll slightly backwards allowing your knees to touch your chin and repeat, keeping your feet always off the ground.  Shoot for 25 or more reps.
Sit-ups with knee lift – lie on your back, arms by your sides, and sit up while lifting your knees towards your chest.  Repeat as many times as you can, keeping feet off the floor.  It’s important to keep your hands down towards the floor and not behind the head; this position makes the exercise far more intensive than the traditional sit up or crunch.
Hands behind head bicycling – sit on floor, legs extended in front, hands behind head, lift feet a few inches and mimic a cycling action, pulling each knee alternately to chest.
Hands behind head leg lifts – sit on floor, legs extended in front, hands behind head, lift feet a few inches and hold, lift one leg at a time as high as you can, scissoring up and down – as many reps as you can to muscular failure.

Knees to chest with arms overhead – sit on floor with legs extended in front and stretch arms overhead, fingers interlocked.  Lift feet a few inches and pull knees towards chest. 

Stretch legs forward, feet remaining off ground, and repeat.  Do as many reps as you can until muscular failure.

These exercises may seem superficially similar but are in fact hitting the abs, the lower abs in particular, in subtly different ways.  There’s no need to go through them all; in fact you’d struggle to do so, but choose just a couple for each time you train and you’ll be giving yourself incredible lower ab workouts each and every time.  You can vary your routine from time to time, or from workout to workout as you like; secure in the knowledge that by including just a few of these drills you’ll be getting one of the best possible lower ab workouts.

You can find out much more about lower ab workouts when you pick up a free copy of Insider Secrets For A Lean Body. The secret is to train not harder but smarter and you can discover many more ways by getting this 65 page guide.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/muscle-building-articles/dont-neglect-your-lower-abs-when-working-out-5054827.html

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