How to engage your abs | Activation exercises for effective ab workouts

Are you doing endless series of crunches, sit ups, leg raises… and not really feeling anything in your abs?
Do you end up with soreness in your neck or pain in your lower back?

It means that you’re not engaging your abs properly and letting other muscles, such as your hip flexors, do the work. Which makes your ab workouts… ineffective!

The good news is, you can learn to engage your abs so that you activate the right muscles!

Engage your abs properly with these 3 movements

These videos are not a "six pack ab workout". What I’m showing you here is a series of “’pre-ab workout” activation exercises, just like you would activate your glutes before training legs. Keyword here: CONTROL!

1: Use a band to control the movement. Round your spine to flex your abs.

2: Heels on a chair, knees bent (a bit more than 90°). Slightly lift your bum off the floor (you should be able to slide your hand between your lower back and the floor). Keeping the tension in your core, slightly lift your shoulders as if you were going to do a crunch. (Credit to Mindpump for this one, check out these guys for useful tips)

3: Use sliding discs or take your shoes off. Slide your heels until your legs are pretty much extended but keep your lower back in contact with the floor. This will really engage your lower abs.

How to incorporate these core activation exercises?

If you struggle to feel your abs, you can do these daily for a few minutes until your body “memorises” how to engage your abs.

But I’d recommend performing at least one of these just before any ab workout to make sure you activate the right muscles.

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