...and yes, you CAN target the lower abs by shifting focus to them using body position.

You just have to know how to do it...

(and just to be clear, I'm not saying you can ISOLATE the lower abs...that's not physically possible)

The muscles on the front of your stomach (the rectus abdominis) are a single sheet of muscle and connective tissue that contract as a unit. However, because muscle fibers don't run the full length of a muscle, you can utilize angles to focus more tension on specific areas.

Ok, boring anatomy lesson over...

Here's the Lower Ab Plank exercise.

If you're not familiar with the Plank, you basically hold your body in a stiff, horizontal position on your forearms and toes (on the floor), maintaining a straight body position for as long as possible. It's a great exercise you can do anywhere.

THIS exercise is a version of the plank where instead of holding your body in the horizontal position, you'll instead be holding it an angle.

This change in angle and body position shifts the tension to the lower abs and can be very effective for tightening the lower abdominal area, especially if you're looking for that sexy "V" look down through the obliques (once you get your bodyfat low enough, of course).

This exercise could also help get rid of that "pooch belly" bulge by tightening up the specific muscles that control that area of the abs...when these fibers don't have "tone" (in this case lack of tone means they relax too much, not the other "tone" that just means training with light weights and getting zero results ;)...

...so as I said when these fibers don't have tone, they just let the internal organs push outward, causing that bulge, even if your bodyfat is low. This exercise can help correct that.

I've got it set up in the rails of a power rack, but you can very easily do it between two benches or chairs if you don't have a rack to work with (or a bench for your forearms and something else a few feet off the ground to hook your feet over - you'll see what I mean).

So to do this one in the rack, set your rails a few feet off the ground, then stand facing one side. Set your forearms (near the elbow) on the rail then hook your feet on the other rail. Now just hold your body in that position, keeping your hips just a bit bent (not completely straight like the floor version...because your knees are lower, you need to keep some bend in your hips to keep pressure off the lower back) and stable as you can.

Here's the view from the other side.

It's easier to see the bend in the hips from this view. Keeping the hips bent is really important...if you straighten the body, you'll immediately throw a lot of stress onto the lower back. This is different from the standard plank where you want to keep the hips straight and locked.

Once again, though, nice exercise for targeting the lower abdominal area and you can do it on benches or really anything else you can set your forearms and feet on. Hold the position for as long as you can, staying short of complete failure and strive to increase the hold time in your next workout.

You can do this exercise first in your abdominal routine, which I usually recommend doing after the rest of your training is completed. I wouldn't do it first in your workout, though, as it will temporarily weaken the area. Which means if you do this exercise then a set of heavy squats, your squats will suffer.

That being said, if you're doing a cardio training session, you can do it before or after cardio, since that doesn't require the same level of stabilization in the core.

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Want more core and "flat abs" training like this?

Then you'll definiltey be interested in my book "The Best Abdominal Exercises You've Never Heard Of."

This book is packed with unique ab exercises, just like this one, that will help you strengthen, tighten and develop your core FAST.

Nick Nilsson
The "Mad Scientist of Muscle"