Reverse Tilt Exercise for the Beach

Video Transcript

"The next exercise I'm going to show you is called the reverse tilt. This exercise is going to work your lower abdominals a little bit more. What I mean by lower abdominals, there's not a specific lower abdominal muscle. However, you will feel this exercise in the lower abdominals a little bit more than you would the upper. What I'm going to have you do is go ahead and lay back down on your back. I'm going to show you two variations as well. Get comfortable, hands at your side, head resting back. What you're going to do is lift your feet off the floor, knees bent at 90 degrees. You can also cross if that is more comfortable for you. I want you to focus now on using your ab muscles to lift your hips up off the floor, and then back down. You go to the gym you'll see a lot of people doing this exercise and they're swinging and rocking. We're focusing on working the ab muscles not the hip flexors, so I don't want your knees in towards your chest. It's not necessary, wasted movement. What I want you to do is think about lifting your knees up toward the ceiling. So, knees up as you're lifting your hips just slightly. They should only come off the floor maybe an inch or two. I'm going to do about five repetitions for you. You're really thinking about using those ab muscles to lift those hips off the floor. That's one version. I want to show you the next version which will involve your legs being completely straight. It's a little bit more advanced. Legs are completely straight. Once again, you're flexing your ankles and you're going to think about lifting those heels up towards the ceiling. Once again, not rocking or wasting your energy on movements that are not necessary, thinking about working those abs. Do not rock back or forth, that's not necessary. It's a very small range of motion. You'll feel that abdominal exercise a little bit more in the lower abdominal region."