How to Train Your Lower Abs for a Stronger Core

FOR YEARS, THE six-pack has been the pinnacle symbol of a super fit body. The midsection’s muscles are a signifier for many, and achieving the washboard look is a common goal. The question is, how can you train for abs—especially around the pesky lower portion of the muscle group, where definition can be particularly difficult to achieve?

The answer isn’t exactly straightforward. Belly fat can be stubborn, especially the kind that sits on your lower abdomen. There’s more to chiseling out your lower abs than a simple workout—especially since we know that losing fat in one spot doesn’t really exist. Your success will largely hang on diet and lifestyle choices, not performing one magic exercise. You’ll need a number of smart moves to go along with a solid structure to accomplish your goals.

“The way your core is built, there’s simply no specific muscle group you can hit to ‘target’ lower abs,” says Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., MH fitness director. “Your best bet is to focus on exercises that train spinal flexion, because that insures you’re challenging your rectus abdominis, which is essentially your ‘six pack’ muscle.”

Here are four exercises that will train the muscles you want, as well as what to consider when training in this pesky area.

4 Best Lower Ab Exercises

Mountain Climbers

Why: Mountain climbers are great for a variety of reasons, but when the focus is on the lower abs specifically they’re best served slowed down. Add some sliders to create a higher demand for stability and allow you to focus on creating meaningful contractions and maintaining your mountain climber postures better.

How to Do It:

• Set up in a high plank (pushup) position, with your hands stacked directly below your shoulders, elbows turned out, and feet just wider than hip-width apart. Your shoulders should be higher than your hips. Think of this as an athletic position.
• Squeeze your shoulders, core, and glutes to create full-body tension. Look down at the floor, keeping your head in a neutral position.
• Drive one knee up high to your chest, as if you were running. Return your leg to a straight position. Repeat with the other leg.
• Continue alternating reps, working to keep your torso in position with your shoulders higher than your hips. Brace your core to stay level.

Sets and Reps: Set a timer for six minutes. Do 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest. Repeat until time is up.

V-Ups

Why: You’re getting some spinal flexion here as you raise your legs up high. Similar to mountain climbers, V-ups are great for targeting the lower abs when they’re slowed down.

How to Do It:

• Lie down on the floor with your arms over your head.
• Simultaneously lift your legs and torso up off the floor, peeling each vertebrae off the ground one at a time. Aim to touch your hands to your toes by bending at the hip.
• Slowly lower back down until you are laying on the floor again.

Sets and Reps: Do 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps.

Hanging Leg Raises

Why: The hanging leg raise will light up not only your lower abs, but your whole body. Take your time and tighten the body to prevent swaying forward and back.

How to Do It:

• Start by grasping the bar tightly, with your palms over the bar instead of holding on with your fingers. Don’t jump up and adjust your hands; if you need, step up from a box to make sure you get a good grip.
• Lift your legs off the floor and pull your shoulders down, squeezing to engage your upper back. Turn the pits of your elbows forward to activate your lats. Squeeze your abs and glutes. Your legs should be slightly in front of your torso.
• Bend your knees slightly, then curl your legs up. Think about showing your butt to someone standing in front of you.
• Lower back down to the starting position.

Sets and Reps: Do 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps.

Decline Bench Iso-Hold

Why: This ab series is the perfect core-focused finisher to round out any of your days in the gym. You’ll get a healthy burn to your whole core—not just the lower abs.

How to Do It:

• Lie on a decline bench, light weights held in your hands directly above your shoulders, torso parallel to the ground.
• Keeping your hips and shoulders square to the ceiling, extend one arm directly over head and the other arm out to the side. Hold for 3 seconds. Keep your abs tight and do not arch your back.
• Return your arms to directly over your shoulders, keeping your abs tight.
• Repeat on the other side.
• Repeat this pattern for 60 seconds. Then rest 45 to 60 seconds.

Sets and Reps: Do 3 sets of 60 seconds of work. 

The Principles of Lower Abs Training

Simply adding an exercise or two to your lower abs workouts without a strategy is not a recipe for training success. If you can remember these lower abs training principles, then you can be much more effective with your training.

1. Understand Basic Core Anatomy

The days of thinking that just the rectus abdominis make up the core are long gone. The body’s core is composed of multiple muscles and muscle groups that all work together to promote maintenance of the body’s posture, center of mass, and overall stability.

So while, yes, the rectus abdominis (the front-facing ab muscles) is a large part of the core, it’s not the only muscle group that we should think about and train. This type of thinking runs especially true as we try to shift our emphasis on the lower abs. By understanding that the core is composed of multiple muscles, then we can then disadvantage other muscles to promote a heightened emphasis on the lower area that we’re after.

Remember, when we train the core, we’re never really “isolating” any one area. Multiple muscles will be working at all times during core exercises and what we’re really doing is shifting higher and lower levels of work to various muscles.

2. Acknowledge That Breathing and Bracing Matter

When training the core, how do you breathe and brace? In some cases, lifters breathe and brace during core movements similarly to how they breathe and brace during exercises that use heavy loads. This is problematic. How we breathe and brace for core exercises needs to be different than we would breathe and brace for a movement like a back squat.

If we circle back to the point above about core muscle anatomy, then we can consider the idea of how many of these muscles are designed to function, then implement correct breathing and bracing strategies based on the task at hand.

Look at the rectus abdominis as an example, and break down its function. The primary function of the rectus adominis is torso flexion, and it works in synergy with other muscles to compress the abdomen and increase intra-abdominal pressure. If we’re constantly taking a traditional high-threshold brace that we use for squats and implement it on something like a plank or cable crunch, then we’ll naturally limit our rectus abominis’ ability to produce force and move through its natural range of motion.

When programming core exercises, it can be useful to categorize them into different categories that require different breathing and bracing strategies. A popular means of doing so is to place exercises into high- and low-threshold core training buckets.

3. Implement Variety

Different trainers and coaches will have their go-tos when it comes to exercises for training the core and more specifically, the lower abs. However, something that is generally agreed upon by all fitness professionals is that variety is both useful and important for building a dynamic and well-rounded core.

Simply performing the same core exercises day-in and day-out can limit your success. Implement exercises that work to produce a variety of adaptations. For example, core exercises that work anti-bending, anti-flexion, anti-extension, flexion, rotation, and be strategic with your exercise selection.