Channel: SaturnoMovement

Category: Sports

Description: Abs training? 🤔 Knee / leg raises -done correctly- are probably one of the best exercises we can do to strengthen our abdominals. It’s also a movement that translate pretty well to skills such as L-Sit and Press to HS. Additionally, indirect grip work is never a bad idea. That said, there are various ways to perform this exercise based on the target muscle we are trying to work. Let’s explore them 1 by 1… 🎯 Hip Flexors: as the name implies, this group of muscles flexes the hip. Regardless of the variation we do, the hip flexors will work (especially during the first phase of the movement when legs get to 90 degrees). If Hip flexors are your target muscle, keep the back as flat as possible and just raise the legs. 🎯 Abs: for the abdominals to work we need to flex (round) our spine. Initiate the movement from the core and not the legs. Keep a strong PPT and round as much as possible as you bring the legs up. 🎯 Lats: this muscle extends the shoulder joint. If you want to target this, simply close the shoulder angle as shown in the video. Keep a strong depression as you do this to avoid shoulder complications. The main reason I make this post is because sometimes we want to target our abs, but we use too much lats, or we don’t flex the spine at all. Or we want to target the hip flexors but we round too much. Knowing our intent and modifying accordingly is key. 📝 Additional Notes 👉🏽 If you really want to focus on the hip flexors, use a stall bar (not shown) to “block” the shoulders in full flexion and eliminate any use of the Lats (shoulder extension) 👉🏽 Keep shoulders fully opened and scapulas elevated (passive hang) if the target is the abs/hip flexors in order to avoid the engagement of the lats. 👉🏽 If you really want to focus on the lats, just do a Tuck Front Lever raise as shown here. Activating the Lats “just a bit” will simply make the exercise way less effective for all 3 areas. So either open the shoulders, or close them (like a lat pull down) 👉🏽 Abs and Hip flexors can be work together, but if the goal is abs, round more (a lot more) Questions bellow! I appreciate each & everyone of you. With Love, Gabo . . . #absexercises #coreexercises #calisthenics #LegRaises