This exercise is one of my favorite
"quick setup but very BRUTAL" abdominal exercises.
You don't need really any setup time at all but how you set
your body makes ALL the difference in the world compared to
normal supported leg raises and knee raises.
This exercise dramatically increases
the tension on the abs as you do the leg raise exercise because
it also forces the abs to work to support and stabilize your
body on the hanging chair. This increased demand on the abs
really increases the effectiveness of the standard hanging
chair leg raise exercise.
This exercise generally requires
use of a Hanging Leg Raise Chair but it can be adapted to
other pieces of equipment. It looks just like a standard leg
raise but with an important twist - rather than supporting
yourself with your upper arms vertical so that your shoulders
support your bodyweight, you will be dropping down and forcing
your abs to work to support your bodyweight as well.
Hanging Chair Version
First, set yourself in the chair
as you normally would. Now move yourself forward on the forearm
pads so that your back is away from the pad and you're resting
only on your elbows. Now angle your hands in towards each
other rather than having them going straight forward (your
fists and knuckles can be touching in the middle or your hands
can be free). You'll look like you're punching your fists
together.
Now remove your feet from the
steps and support yourself only on the bottom-most portions
of your forearms down by your elbows. When you first do this
exercise, keep your upper arms fairly vertical. This will
give you an idea of how it's done. Do a leg raise (with legs
almost straight) or knee raise (with knees very bent and in
towards your chest) in that position.
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Start
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Finish
(Knee Raise) |
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Finish
(Legs Straight Out) |
The key with the leg raise is
to roll the hips up and around, bending from the waist rather
than only raising the legs. Since one of the major functions
of the abs is to bring the rib cage closer to the pelvis,
if you simply raise the legs by bending only at the hip joint,
you'll only use the abs isometrically (without moving). By
rolling and raising the hips up and around, you will more
strongly involve the abs and you'll get a more effective workout.
Now I'm going to show you how
to increase the tension on the abs.
Get into the start position
as explained above. Now, instead of keeping your upper arms
fairly vertical, drop your body down while keeping your elbows
where they are on the pads. The drop will happen only at the
shoulders. The further down you drop, the more your abs will
be forced to take up the tension. Just be sure not to drop
down so far that you actually lose tension or let your feet
touch the ground.
Notice in the pictures (using
the red line as reference) how that instead of the upper arms
being vertical, they are now at an angle. The flatter your
upper arms are, the harder this exercise will be.
Arms Angled
Down (harder)
Arms Vertical
(easier)
This angle at your shoulder
causes a great deal of isometric contraction in the abs while
you're also using them to raise your legs. This dramatically
increases the total tension on the abs, making it a far more
effective workout.
How to do
it without a Hanging Chair - Much Harder!
If you don't have a Hanging
Chair available or if you simply want to give an even tougher
version a try, here's how it can be done. All you need is
a flat railing or bar to support yourself on.
I've used the safety rail on
the power rack, set to about chest height for this one and
it works quite well (especially if the safety rail has a flat
top surface rather than being an actual round rail). Anything
that has a straight, flat surface on top and room to get your
legs underneath will work for this one, making it a tough
ab exercise that can be done in a wide variety of places.
First, set your entire forearms
on the top surface with your elbows wide and your fists pressed
together. Keep your chest in close to the rail, tighten up
your abs and lats then lift your feet off the ground. You'll
instantly feel the tension shoot into your abs.
Now do a leg raise or knee raise!
The tension you will get on the
abs when you do this movement is tremendous. It's definitely
an advanced exercise and requires good total upper body strength
to be able to perform it properly for even a few reps.
By supporting yourself with
your forearms in this fashion, you force the abs to take up
the task of supporting almost your entire bodyweight. When
your arms are at an angle like this, the increased tension
is extremely strong - even stronger than the Hanging Chair
version.
If you can do more than 2 or
3 reps the first time you try this one, you've got very strong
abs!
Common Errors:
1. Swinging your legs up
Like any leg raise movement,
you don't want to swing the legs up to do the movement. It
should be a deliberate muscle contraction, not a swing. The
momentum from swinging decreases the tension and can put stress
on the lower back.
2. Not rotating the hips
up and around
As explained above, be sure
to originate the leg raise at the waist, rotating and rolling
your pelvis up and around. If you simply raise your legs by
bending at the leg/hip joints, you'll only be working the
abs isometrically.
3. Upper arms are too vertical
As you get stronger with it,
you'll definitely want to drop your body down. If you keep
your upper arms too vertical when you're stronger, you won't
get the full effect of the exercise. Experiment with how far
you drop down every time you do the exercise so you know exactly
what your abs are capable of.
Tricks:
1. Increasing resistance
If dropping down in the chair
is not enough, you can also hold a dumbell in between your
feet to increase the workload on the abs. Start with a very
light weight as it doesn't take much weight at the end of
your legs to really increase the resistance on the abs at
that point. Adding resistance with a dumbell can be done on
both the Hanging Chair version and on the "railing"
version.
2. Decreasing-resistance
sets
Start with the hardest position
of the Forearm Supported Leg Raise (body fully dropped down).
As you fatigue with that, gradually lift your body up, decreasing
the angle at the shoulders, making the exercise easier (because
the abs won't be forced to support as much of your bodyweight).
To really finish the abs, sit back into the chair as you normally
would for the traditional chair exercise (body fully supported
on the forearms with upper arms vertical and back against
the pad) and finish with knee raises til failure.
3. Use a towel for padding
When doing the harder version
of the forearm-supported leg raise on the flat surface (like
a straight bar or safety rail in the rack), you can set a
towel on the surface to improve the padding on your forearms
and make the exercise more comfortable.