hello welcome to wild body now I'm Evan
your trainer and I'm glad you're here to
get a great tip to help you avoid
increasing the lower belly pooch so a
huge factor in that has to do with your
hamstrings your hamstrings are a group
of muscles that connects your hip to
your leg and so you have these muscles
connecting here when they get tight they
could our stay kind of a little bit more
contracted right and when they contract
it forces you to kind of crunch here and
when you crunch there it forces that
pooch to stick out more which is what we
don't want whereas when we can keep them
nice and inflexible in lengthened you're
able to have proper posture you stand up
taller and you can avoid that pooch
poking out even more so traditional
crunches meant most of the sit-ups and
crunches that we do involve using those
hip flexors and keeping them contracted
and and having a flexed forward position
so you're probably wondering if I can't
do sit-ups and crunches what should I be
doing to have strong abs and avoid an
extra lower belly coach sticking out
well you just need to counterbalance it
with some hip flexor stretching
exercises so our do I avoid sit ups and
crunches all together no I don't have
every now and then but it's all about
balance so I'm going to show you three
of my favourite abdominal and core
strengthening exercises that combine
some hip flexor stretches so that you
can be strong here and have proper
alignment so that you look nice and
toned and trim and flat and you can
avoid that pooch are you ready so the
first one is a Pilates exercise and
we're going
being a sideline position so go ahead
and lay down rest your head right there
on your forearm now you want your
shoulders stacked you want your hips
stacked beautiful your ankles are
stacked and now I want you to squeeze
your abs and your obliques so much so
that there's space between your
waistline and the floor this is relaxed
we don't want that squeeze everything
you can already feel your abdominals are
working to keep you balanced use that
front hand to help you stay nice and
firm and balanced we lift that top leg
flex the foot okay what you're going to
do is you're going to swing it forward
and pull it back point and pull it back
exhale it forward beautiful so you can
feel your abs working to help you stay
stabilized and right there there's your
hip flexor stretching there so you're
working those core muscles those posture
muscles and you have that element of a
hip flexor stretch so that you're going
to have strong abs and nice flexible hip
flexors so that you can have proper
posture to avoid punching out that lower
abdominal region beautiful and you can
go forward forward back back and what
you're doing is your abs are so tight
that you are avoiding rocking and
rolling your hips you're trying to keep
your shoulders and your hips stacked the
whole time beautiful so roll over this
is monkey my dog monkey I don't know him
so much the second exercise is going to
be a plank exercise so roll over onto
your forearms planking is awesome for
your entire core region especially your
lower abs so I want you pulling your
belly button up and in squeezing your
legs together push those shoulders
coming back and then just hold it now
extra booty work and hips are stretching
I want you to lift one leg you feel it
stretching your hip flexors and just
hold for ten nine eight seven six five
four three two one beautiful and again
other side you are avoiding rocking and
rolling keep your hips Square to the
floor squeeze that tush as you lift that
leg and you're stretching the hip flexor
beautiful one more each side hold for
ten nine eight seven I know you feel
those abdominals working six five four
three two one other side you got it five
four three two one okay
so third and final exercise I love this
one it's great for your entire core
region and you have that element of
stretching and strengthening your back
and your abs and getting those hip
flexors nice and stretched - so we're
going to go from a Superman then we're
going to roll into a hollowed out
position so the Superman here's where
you start to stretch those hip flexors
lift those legs lift those arms now just
using your abdominal strength try to
avoid using your leg or your arm to help
you get over roll over to the side nice
and balanced come to your back and
you're using those ABS right there arms
are extended legs are extended beautiful
and then roll back go to the side and
beautiful now if you have more room you
can roll the other way I'll run into my
couch but we'll do it again so nice and
controlled pause on the side balance
come out to that hollowed out position
beautiful and I'm going to come forward
to you so I get to go the other way
there we go there we go and back again
nice and controlled here we go to the
side and here's your Superman stretch
those hip flexors use those back muscles
more time to decide to that how about
position awesome so there you have it
those are three awesome abdominal
strengthening exercises that will help
you avoid having an exaggerated lower
body poot thank you so much for joining
me here at well body now if you enjoyed
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you out of a fabulous day and always
remember no excuses no regret just sweat