Although leg raises are often billed as a core strengthening exercise, your hip flexors are actually the primary movers, not your abs. Although your abs do work to stabilize your lower back in an isometric contraction, the strong pull of your hip flexors on your lumbar spine also causes lower back pain. If you can do this exercise with proper form -- without pain -- a variety of equipment is available to position yourself or make the exercise more challenging.
A Word on Form
A leg-raise variation, sometimes called knee raises, provides much the same abdominal workout but isn't as hard on your lower back. Instead of swinging your straight legs up and down with your hip as the pivot point, bring your bent knees up toward hip level, then extend your legs straight, as if you were pushing away from the wall in a swimming pool. Some equipment allows you to flex your spine at the end of the motion, incorporating a reverse crunch that further works your abdominal muscles.
Captain's Chair
The captain's chair is a piece of equipment that resembles a chair with an elevated, padded seatback and padded arms, but no seat. You support your body weight with your forearms on the chair "arms" as you bring either your knees or straight legs up to hip level.
Hanging Equipment
Doing leg or knee raises in hanging ab slings is a step more difficult than using the captain's chair, because your body can swing freely if you don't control the motion. Suspension trainers and gymnastics rings swing too, creating even more instability to challenge your core muscles. You can also hang from a pullup bar to do leg raises. Although the pullup bar doesn't swing like suspension trainers -- gymnastics rings and ab slings do -- you'll still get a good ab and hip flexor workout.
Benches, Fences and Railing
You can do lying leg raises on a flat weight bench for extra comfort, or on a decline weight bench to change the angle slightly. Place both hands on the bench, near your head, for extra stability. If you're having trouble keeping your upper body still during lying leg raises, a fence or railing makes the ideal stabilizer. Lie with your head pointing toward the fence or railing and extend your arms straight over your head to grasp it. You can also use the frame of a weight machine, or even a friend's legs.
Cable Machine
If you do the bent-knee version of knee raises, bringing your knees toward hip level and then "shooting" your feet straight as if you were jumping straight up, you can use a cable pulley for resistance. Attach the ankle straps around both of your feet and lie down with your feet toward the pulley -- make sure to hold onto something sturdy to stabilize your upper body as you draw your knees up.
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