Abdominal Muscles:  Curl Ups

·        Here, you are strengthening your upper abdominal muscles. 

·        Lie on your back with your knees bent in front of you comfortably.

·        Fold your arms up across your chest and hold them there throughout the movement.

·        Keep your back flat against the floor. 

·        Keeping your arms in place, curl up as much as possible.  You only need to lift your shoulders and your head off the ground. 

·        Hold this position for about two to four seconds, if you can tolerate it.  Then, slowly lower back down to lay flat.

·        Repeat.  While you should not do more than you can handle, try to do a total of two sets with ten repetitions in each set. 

·        If you have any type of pain in your neck, you can place your hands behind your neck for support, but do not force your head up with your hands, as this could cause injury.

Another exercise to help strengthen your lower abdominals (in comparison to the last which was for the upper abdominals) is that of this one.

·        Lie on your back and support your head with a pillow or comfortable cushion that is not thick.

·        Keep your arms at your sides, flat on the ground.

·        Bend one of your knees in front of you while the other is lying flat on the ground.

·        Tighten your abdominal muscles so that you can feel the muscle without over straining.

·        Raise the straight leg from the ground up about a foot in the air.

·        Keep your back and shoulders flat against the floor throughout this movement. 

·        Hold this position for about ten seconds without straining.

·        Lower the leg to the floor. Repeat again with the other leg.

·        Perform two sets of ten repetitions.

·        Over time, increase the time that you hold this exercise to twenty or thirty seconds.

Any of these exercises can be done over the space of time and whenever they are needed to improve the amount of pain that you are facing.