Knee tucks are an advanced exercise for the abdominals that you can perform at home or anywhere you take your stability ball. Since you can deflate a stability ball and bring it with you most anywhere you go, then re-inflate it, this exercise is worth learning even if you travel frequently or do not have a home gym. You do need slightly more room than you'd need to do a pushup though.
How to Perform a Knee Tuck
The knee tuck is a challenging exercise, but the mechanics are not too complex. What makes the exercise so hard is balancing on the stability ball, which tries to roll away throughout the exercise. To begin, lie face down on the ball and then walk your hands forward until the ball is under your shins. Position your hands in line with your shoulders and straighten your arms. This is the starting position. Next, simultaneously bend your knees to roll the ball forward as you lift your hips. Reverse the motion to complete a knee tuck. It is possible to fall off the ball so do not try this exercise if you feel unsafe.
Targeted Muscles
You can classify the knee tuck as an ab exercise because it strengthens all the muscles of the abdomen, including the rectus abdominus, transverse abdominus and the obliques. The rectus abdominus is the main ab muscle covering the transverse abdominus running horizontally below it and the obliques on the sides. The knee tucks also targets the quads. The quads flex the hip forward and extend the knees straight. You flex your hips forward when you roll the ball toward you and you extend the knees when you roll the ball backward. The secondary muscle groups used for the knee tuck include the lower back, shoulders, triceps, chest, glutes and inner thighs.
How the Knee Tuck Fits in a Workout
The knee tuck is a core exercise that you can mix into a workout to target the muscles of the waist and hips that make up the core. A stability ball is everything you need for a complete workout. Exercising on a stability ball recruits twice the number of muscles as floor exercises such as crunches so you do not need to a lot of knee tucks before you feel your muscles tiring. Perform eight to 10 repetitions of the knee tucks and up to three sets as part of a core workout along with three other exercises of your choice.
Preparation Exercise
Because knee tucks are a difficult exercise, you might not be able to do them unless you already have a strong core. Supine reverse crunches are an easier exercise that prepare you for performing knee tucks. This is a floor exercise that strengthens all the ab muscles. To begin, lie face up with your arms spread out at your sides on the floor and in line with your shoulders. Lift your legs toward the ceiling and bend your knees to 90-degree angles so that your shins are parallel to the floor. This is the starting position. Next, squeeze your abs and curl your lower back off the floor as you bring your knees toward your chest. When this exercise is easy for you, try the knee tucks.
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