See-Saw Leg Raises for Lower Abs

 

 

All you'll need for this one is a rolled/mashed up towel. I've got one just folded up into a square.

Lie on top of the towel so that it's right in your lower back. The curve of your lower back should basically be right over top of the towel.

Hold your legs bent at 90 degrees at the hips and knees and set your hands beside the towel. Your back will still be on the floor here.

Keep your feet together and your knees about a foot apart - this wide-knee position keeps your hip flexors from having a direct line of pull, helping to minimize their contribution to the movement. Keep this foot/knee position through the entire exercise.

Now, keeping your upper body on the floor, lower your legs down towards the ground in front of you and hold your feet about a foot off the ground.

Next, holding your legs exactly in that position in space, come up into a sit-up. You can use your hands on the ground to help you get into that position if you need to - it won't have any detrimental effect on the tension that the lower abs are receiving.

Your butt will be on the floor. The towel under your lower back will create a new pivot point/fulcrum that magnifies the leverage affecting the lower abs as you come up into the sit-up. In English, that means it puts MASSIVE tension on the abs rather than the lower-back, like an ordinary sit-up does.

Now, holding your feet in place still, lie back on the floor, coming down slowly to get the negative.

Complete the movement by bringing your legs up and back towards your chest, rolling your hips back and up onto the rolled-up towel. Make sure your butt gets up off the floor here. This completes the leg raise part of the movement.

Now just repeat, bringing your legs forward again, then coming up into a sit-up, then back down then into the leg raise again.

Keep going for as many reps as you can do...and I'll tell you right up front, this is a TOUGH exercise. It puts massive tension on the abs from two directions and really gives you no break at all throughout the exercise.

Be sure and watch the video for this one as the movement should be almost robotic in how you execute it, using very deliberate and distinct chopped-up segments. This will keep you from resorting to momentum to perform the exercise.

 

This is a good lower abdominal exercise to develop that "V" taper and flatten the stomach.

It's challenging and VERY effective for targeting the lower abs.

Another excellent lower ab exercise is the Lower Ab Rack Plank.