Tranversus Abdominus excercises

[Fit_4_Life]

Hey~~~
Does any know any tranversus abdominus excercises. (The lower part of your stomach under your belly button. The muscles that lie beneath) Ones that work the area hard.

DO crunches & side crunches working the obliques work this area?

I do know of the vacuum. I have heard it is very affective. I will be trying this. Have anyone of you tried this? Did you like it?


Thanks

[jallen]

uh, transversus abdominus is the abdominal muscle that lies deepest (below 2 sets of obliques), and expands from the hip to the ribs, with fibers running horizontally(lateral to medial, if you know what that means), it doesn't really impact much of anything below the belly button(inferiorly that is, not deep). But uh yeah, beyond the technical junk, why do you want to target these muscles? Most all exercises that target the obliques will target these transverse muscles as well. They pretty much just do linear rotation about the spine.

i don't know what you're looking for, this is just a funny question. I don't know if you know exactly what muscle group you're talking about

[CF-OC_gal]

Hi fit 4
The TA is not something you are necessarily going to feel a hard workout in as you do when you target larger muscle groups. It is wise of you to include it in your workouts though.

Check out these links regarding the TA:

http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv...th/?msg=7003.2

http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv...th/?msg=3976.5

http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv...th/?msg=6486.4

http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv...th/?msg=7161.9

You do not work the TA when you do crunches--it does NOT flex the spine. In fact the TA when contracted hard INHIBITS flexion of the spine! Get in the habit of using the TA when you do all kinds of exercises--bicep curls, push ups, squats, washing dishes.

In order for the abdomen to look flat, other abdominal muscles need to come into play. The Transverse Abdominus is the major player here. It basically attaches to the RA in the front of you, your spine in the back of you, and when it contracts it pulls the belly toward the spine (toward it's attachments). The obliques also do some compression of the abdomen and help to achieve this flat look. There is nothing wrong with doing crunches! But when you do, pull the belly toward the spine with effort. This will help stimulate these muscles and will cause the belly to look flatter with time. The biggest improvement that I have made in the past couple of years in my training has been to incorporate the use of the TA by doing things like forearm planks, and tricep plank hovers, while using the TA to pull the belly up away from the floor. Pilates for Abs will teach you the use of these muscles so you will get stronger, have a flatter ab profile, and have better body awareness and better core strength. Moving Through Menopause has some Pilates flavor to the strength training portion. Finally, in order to have good core strength, you have to find ab exercises which will challenge you. Once you can do 12 or 15 crunches, it's time to add some more intensity. One way to do this would be to put your knees over your hips, with your feet as high as your knees, while lying in a crunch position. Pull your knees towards your chest just for a second to notice how your low back is on the floor. Now, push your knees back out over your hips until you feel like it's getting slightly difficult to keep your low back on the floor. Try a set of crunches here, not letting your knees creep back toward your chest--keep them out over the hips. You will find this variation a lot harder, and will get a better strengthening effect by adding this intensity, rather than adding more reps. As you get stronger, just push the knees further away from your center little by little, mindful that your low back needs to stay down and NOT arch.

[Fit_4_Life]

Thank you for your replies.

Sorry, for my bad description of where the muscles lie & mis spelling. I had a LONG day yesterday. My brain was next to shutting down when I wrote the letter. I just didnt feel like putting in the time & effort of re-reading my letter. My bad.

Thank you Brat for replying. I love hearing your input. You are very knowledgeable.

Jallen~~~ Thank you for your cocky reply. A little pissy-ness just pipes up my day. For your information. I know exzactly where they are at. I have researched Them. I have diagram lay outs of exzactly where they are located.

[jallen]

haha, sorry, i didn't mean to come off like an ass, i've just never even heard of someone wanting to specifically target the tranverse obliques. From your description, it sounded like you wanted to work the area below your belly button, the "pooch" or what have you, then i just assumed you were one of those people trying to "spot reduce", OMG JEEZ I"M #$%^%# SORRY!! DUDE, LIKE JEEZ GIMME A BREAK!! K?!?

[Fit_4_Life]

Jallen~~~

Ha ha ha. Your forgiven. : Besides, I was just as much an *ss in my last letter. So, I apologize as well. Your right! It was my bad. It was a pretty bad description! ha ha ha---- wasnt my brightest moment!