If you're tired of doing sit-ups and crunches, you can get a powerful workout of your abdominal muscles by doing vertical knee raises. Resistance comes from the weight of your legs as you lift them towards your chest, but you can also up the ante by adding ankle weights or clutching a dumbbell or medicine ball between your feet. For all variations, do two sets of 10 to 12 reps, increasing the number of reps as your strength increases.
Hanging Straps
Hanging straps allow you to concentrate on your knee raise form without worrying about how you are supporting yourself. Straps support you under the triceps while the rest of your body hangs down. Knee raises can be done by pulling your knees directly to your chest or with your hips slightly turned as you pull them up, which will work your obliques. Another way to increase difficulty is to slow down the speed at which you raise and lower your knees.
Knee Raise Station
A knee raise station is slightly more challenging than hanging straps because you are supporting your weight on your shoulders and arms. A benefit of the station is that the back padding allows you to stabilize yourself so you can isolate the muscles as you raise your legs. The back pad support makes it slightly easier to do straight leg raises which are done by keeping your legs straight as you lift them in front of you so your body forms an L. Raise the difficulty by holding your legs out in front of you for a count of 10.
Pull-up Bar Raise
Similar to hanging straps, a pull-up bar allows you to focus on your knee raises since you're supporting yourself simply by hanging from a bar by your hands. As with hanging straps, you have freedom of movement to twist from side to side as you raise your knees to target all of your abdominal muscles. For added difficulty, slow down the pace at which you raise and lower your legs.
Member Comments