Full hanging leg raise
Unique bodyweight exercises difficulty rating for the hanging leg raise - 6 out of 10 Average time needed to master 2 to 3 months. Description The hanging leg raise is without doubt one of the best abdominal exercises you can do and if the six pack look is one of your goals you cannot go wrong by taking the time needed to nail this bodyweight exercise. Let me point out first that we are not talking about the 90 degree version that is common among trainers but one done from a straight hang position all the way up until your feet touch the bar you are hanging on. If it sounds difficult relax because although it requires a good deal of abdominal strength and a degree of flexibility it is by no means one of the hardest bodyweight exercises and most people can easily nail it in 2 to 3 months of training. Once mastered the hanging leg raise will give you a great deal of control over your body, improved flexibility and amazingly strong lower abs which will soon help you obtain the six pack if that is your goal.
Method of progression The method of progression is simple enough; the first stage is the hanging leg tuck or put simply slowly bending your legs and lifting them so that your thighs are at 90 degrees and then holding the position for a couple of seconds before slowly lowering them back down. Build up your strength with this exercise until you can do at least 10 solid reps and then move on to the next stage. Note, make sure you hold each repetition for a couple of seconds and control the exercise so you do not use momentum to swing up. The next stage is to do a hanging straight leg raise which as the name suggests means keeping your legs straight as you slowly lift them up to 90 degrees and hold the position for a second or two before slowly bringing them back down. Again build up to 10 solid repetitions before you move on to the next phase. The progression from this exercise done to 90 degrees with straight legs to one that goes all the way up until your feet touch the bar is the one that a lot of people find difficult which is way most trainers only do the 90 degree version, however, it can be quit straight forward if you do the following. Do the hanging leg raise with legs straight until you reach 90 degrees and once at that position bend you legs as you did for the leg tuck and continue the movement until your feet touch the bar you are hanging on. You should find that keeping your legs bent for the more difficult second part of the rep helps enough to do a full repetition and then it is a case of practicing until you can do 10 good reps. Note, if you find you still cannot touch the bar with your feet then just go as high as possible and build up gradually until you can. Once you have cracked the previous stage it is just a case of making progress slowly by extending you legs further and further over a period of time until you can finally do a complete repetition with your legs straight.
A lack of Flexibility can hinder your progress in this exercise and you may want to consider some stretching exercises to compliment your training. Our six week guide to the front splits has some good advice on stretching exercises if you want to add these to your training, however, I found that the progressions of the hanging leg raise described are enough to gain the flexibility required. As Bruce Lee once said, if you want to learn to kick then you should practice kicking or in our case the best way to learn to do a complete hanging leg raise is to practice hanging leg raises. Always make sure that only your legs move and keep the rest of your body as still as possible so that you only use your abs to perform the exercise and do not develop the habit of swinging up to the bar.
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Facts on strength building
To build pure strength all bodyweight exercises have to be kept within the 1-6 repetition range.
Once you can do the required number of repetitions in an exercise change to a more demanding one
You can build strength and stay the same weight if that is your goal.
Strength training requires short workouts of no more than 30-45 minutes to be most effective.
Facts on muscle building
To build a combination of muscle and strength all exercises have to be kept within the 6-12 repetition range.
The best muscle building diet requires two grams of protein for every kilo of your bodyweight.
The quickest way to build muscle requires an increase in bodyweight.
Each muscle should be trained no more than once or a maximum of twice per week for best results.
Facts on abs building
Diet accounts for 80% of the success in building great abs.
You cannot spot reduce fat from any one area of your body or in other words you cannot pick and choose were to lose fat. It has to be done gradually throughout the whole body.
To lose weight eat 4 or 5 small meals a day with each meal containing protein. This keeps your metabolism high and stops your body going into starvation mode which is when it will store fat.
Do not lose more than 1 or 2 pound of weight per week.
The best three abs exercises are the dragon flag, full abs rollout and full hanging leg raise.
Sit ups and crunches are terrible fat burning exercises. You would have to do 1000 sit-ups every night for over 2 weeks to burn 1 pound of fat.
In one study on rats, one group was given all their food in one meal per day as opposed to the other group which had the same amount of food but in small meals throughout the day. The results showed that ones who ate all there food in one meal put on weight whilst the others did not.
Doing lots of cardio without muscle building will result in large muscle loss because your body will adapt to make the cardio easy by losing the heavy muscle. The result could be someone who has very little muscle but still carries some fat.
Exercises that are weight bearing like running and walking are better for burning calories than non weight bearing ones such as cross trainers and cycling.
Facts on flexibility
All workouts should begin with dynamic stretchinginvolving two sets of 10 to 15 repetitions of each movement used.
All workouts should end with a cool down of static passive stretching.
The quickest flexibility results are gained with isometric stretching.
Isometric stretching should be done towards the end of a workout and never more than 3-4 times per week.