If, like me, you’re on the hunt for a defined midsection, leg raises are an exercise that can help. I personally incorporate leg raises into my gym routine once a week. I’m certainly not a slave to them, but on the other hand, I could definitely push myself to do more of them in my ab workouts.
Leg raises are exactly what they say on the tin: they’re an abdominal exercise that involves lowering and raising your legs, using your core muscles and hip flexors. As I understand it, there are three different types of leg raises. — lying leg raises, hanging leg raises, and then leg raises done with the Captain’s chair frame, that weird-looking machine you’ve probably seen at the gym.
In an attempt to really focus on the movement and work my abs, I opted to do 50 leg lifts a day for two weeks. In the name of good journalism, I mainly focused on hanging leg raises, as they are the most challenging variation. Read on to find out what happened.
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How to do a leg raise
Let’s start with leg raises that are done on the floor, lying on a mat, with your arms by your sides and your legs together. To do the leg raise, slowly raise your legs toward the ceiling, keeping them straight, until they are at a 90-degree angle to your body. As you do this, keep your back pressed against the floor by tilting your pelvis up. Then slowly lower your legs back down.
There are also hanging leg raises. As the name suggests, these involve hanging, usually holding on to a high bar, and lifting your legs up and out in front of you. The key here is to keep a tight core and back, keeping your torso still, while your core drives your legs (which remain straight at all times) up. I usually lift my legs to a point where they make a 90 degree angle with my torso, although to be honest I find it difficult, so often my knees are bent when I lift my legs.
Finally, Captain’s Chair Frame Leg Raises: Most of my leg raises for my experiment were done on this one. Here, your forearms rest on the arms of the chair, supporting your body, your back is pressed against the Bosu ball, and you engage your core to drive your legs up. It’s much easier to maintain control with this machine, plus if you don’t have good grip strength, this allows you to work your core, without worrying about hanging on the bar.
I Did 50 Leg Lifts A Day For 14 Days – This Is What Happened To My Abs
Is 50 leg lifts a day the secret to my dream six pack? This is what happened when I moved in for 14 days.
My hip flexors felt stronger
Hanging leg raises are great for working your hip flexors, the muscles at the front of your hips that help you bend your leg toward your body. During leg raises, especially if you manage to keep your legs straight at all times, your hip flexors are activated in a big way as you lift your legs.
Doing 50 leg raises certainly perked mine up, and I found my barbell lunges to be a bit easier by the end of two weeks, an exercise that requires hip flexor strength.
Leg lifts are not easy
Do leg raises on the floor, good. Hanging Leg Raises: A whole different story. After a few reps, my legs struggle to stay straight and my hands scream at me as I grip the bar. If you’re new to hanging leg raises, I recommend you don’t go straight to 50 a day. Instead, if you have the option, opt for leg raises in the captain’s chair; although they are still difficult, they are not so uncomfortable.
You can cast many variations.
Are you bored? Try mixing things up with some leg lift variations, like around the world (where your legs stop at different points from top to bottom), hanging wipers (legs move side to side in front of your face), and toes. of the feet on the bar (where your legs reach the bar) are just three examples.
They’re all brutal: I can handle about three dangling windshield wipers before my body wants to collapse. The other two variations are totally unacceptable in my opinion, but if you’re up for a challenge, give it a try.
my grip improved
When performing hanging leg raises, both hands need a solid grip around a bar. To increase gripping power, many people use chalk, which is placed on the palms of the hands to keep them dry. My gym didn’t have any chalk handy, so I just grabbed the bar with my bare hands, eventually getting some calluses in the process. But, after a week, I noticed that my grip strength was improving and the bar was easier to hold.
To begin with, I would do about six leg raises before I had to go down and give my hands a break. This meant that 50 leg lifts took a long time, so the captain’s chair became very useful at this point. However, by the end of the two weeks, he was doing 12 hanging leg raises with no breaks.
My lower abs burst
I don’t tend to train my abs every day, but instead do some ab moves at the end of my workouts once or twice a week. Going all out and doing leg lifts every day got my core muscles firing, big time.
After just a few days, I noticed that my abdomen was noticeably more toned. However, I will add that my body fat percentage, while it could be lower, is low enough that some of my abdominal muscles are already showing. (Here it is how to calculate body fat percentage and why it matters).
I did 50 leg lifts a day for two weeks – this is my verdict
This is one of the hardest challenges I’ve ever accepted to do, mainly because I was only able to accomplish about 10 hanging leg raises before having to get down and back up. Not wanting to stick to lying leg raises, I switched between hanging or captain’s chair leg raises, so 50 reps a day took some time.
That said, the hard work paid off: my abs have certainly woken up and I feel like I’ve strengthened other areas of my body, like my grip strength.
Would I recommend this challenge? 100% – You will definitely see the benefits in your core. That said, if hanging leg raises are too challenging, I’d advise starting with lying leg raises and doing one or two reps of hanging leg raises at the end of the session. Or, if your gym has one, the captain’s chair will be your best friend.
