maratoolFlat Bench Lying Leg Raise
How to do the flat bench lying leg raise
- Lie with your back flat on a bench and your legs extended in front of you off the end.
- Place your hands either under your glutes with your palms down or by the sides holding on to the bench. This will be your starting position.
- As you keep your legs extended, straight as possible with your knees slightly bent but locked raise your legs until they make a 90-degree angle with the floor. Exhale as you perform this portion of the movement and hold the contraction at the top for a second.
- Now, as you inhale, slowly lower your legs back down to the starting position.
Muscles worked
The prime movers are the rectus abdominis and the obliques, which flex the trunk forward and resist it being pulled into extension or twisted out of line.
Every exercise for:Abdominals
How this movement works
One joint changes angle and the resistance travels toward you along a single arc. Nothing is positioned to help, so tension stays where you aimed it and the usable load drops sharply against a multi-joint pull for the same muscle. Protect the range of motion; buying weight by shortening the arc defeats the point.
It is filed under strength: produce force against resistance for a countable number of repetitions, and progress the resistance over time.
What you need
No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.
Every exercise using:Body only
These train the abdominals too, using equipment this one does not:
- Kettlebell Figure 8kettlebell
- Kneeling Cable Crunch With Alternating Oblique Twistscable
- Landmine 180'sbarbell
- Medicine Ball Full Twistmedicine ball
- Side Bend with Dumbbelldumbbell
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 97 abdominals exercises in this database, 69 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.