According to Gray Cook, founder of Functional Movement Systems, developing strength in your lower body will make your upper body stronger because strength is derived from the ground up, not the other way around. When you train your legs and abs, work them together. Not only will you get stronger, but also burn more calories and build muscles in less time.
Anatomy
Your abdominal muscles are made up of two basic units: inner and outer. The internal muscles provide stability and balance of the spine, hips and other joints, such as the transversus abdominus, multifidi, and deep hip rotators. The external muscles provide movement, and these include the rectus abdominus, obliques, and erector spinae.
Your thigh muscles (quadriceps) are made up of four muscles that work together as a group: the rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus medialus, and vastus intermedius. They function as a leg extensor during acceleration of movement, such as running, jumping up and squatting up. The thighs also work with your hip and leg muscles as a movement decelerator when you slow down your sprint or walk downhill.
Function
Your thighs and ab muscles work together to produce a variety of movement. When you run or hike up a hill, your thighs and other leg and hip muscles produce movement while your abdominals keep your spine and hips stable and upright to prevent injury and excessive stress upon your spine.
Misconceptions
Most people who work out on their legs and abs wish to decrease the size in those areas. However, your body does not burn body fat in specific areas, since the fat burning process involves your entire body. In fact, doing repetitive exercises with resistance can cause the muscles to increase in size, resulting in bigger thighs and waistline.
Sample Strategy
You do not need to isolate or target your thighs and abs in order to get them stronger or firm up. If you do a few exercises consecutively that integrate them with the rest of your body, you will get stronger and burn more calories in less time.
If you want to improve muscular strength and endurance, try circuit training. This is where you do three to eight exercises that train a movement pattern without rest between exercises. For example, you can do three exercises that emphasize the trunk and legs and do another three exercises that emphasize elsewhere, such as your back, shoulders, hips, and chest.
A sample circuit could include body weight squats, pull-ups, lunges, push-ups, kettleball swings and jump roping.
Expert Insight
If you want to save time and maximize calorie expenditure, do an exercise that trains mainly the lower extremities, such as squats or lunges, first followed by another exercises that trains mainly the upper body, such as push-ups or pull-ups. That way, one muscle group rests while the other works, which reduces recovery time.
Also, according to Gray Cook, whenever you lift, push, pull, run, or rotate, you are also training your abdominal muscles. Therefore, you do not need to isolate your abs for conditioning.
References
- "Essence of Program Design"; Juan Carlos Santana; 2004
- "Athletic Body in Balance"; Gray Cook; 2003
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