Hanging Hip Raise

Directions:

Preperation/body position

1. Hang from high bar, which allows for enough clearance below when legs are extended.

Excution/Movement

1. Raise legs by flexing at hip, whilst bending at the knee also.
2. Continue to bring the knees towards shoulders by flexing the waist.
3. Once peak contraction is reached, slowly control legs back to starting position.
4. Repeat for desired amount of repetitions.

Comments

The hanging hip raise is an exercise that recruits the hip flexors during the initial portion of the exercise when the hip flexes to bring the legs up, then the rectus abdominis and obliques are recruited during waist flexion to bring the knees closer towards the shoulders.

The exercise can be made harder by keeping legs relevantly straight throughout execution.

It is common to see this exercise performed with only flexion of the hip. People mistake fatigue of the hip flexors as fatigue of the lower rectus abdominis. It is not possible to target specific areas of the rectus abdominis, as the muscle contracts from insertion to origin during flexion of the spine. The burning, or 'worked' sensation felt in the lower region of the abdomen is the hip flexors during flexion of the hip. Therefore, we need to perform the exercise through its full range of motion if we wish to recruit the rectus abdominis.

If our goal is to create a trimmer ‘toned’ midsection then diet and cardiovascular activities need to be address to loose body fat. Resistance training will not spot reduce fat off specific areas.