maratoolScissor Kick
How to do the scissor kick
- To begin, lie down with your back pressed against the floor or on an exercise mat (optional). Your arms should be fully extended to the sides with your palms facing down. Note: The arms should be stationary the entire time.
- With a slight bend at the knees, lift your legs up so that your heels are about 6 inches off the ground. This is the starting position.
- Now lift your left leg up to about a 45 degree angle while your right leg is lowered until the heel is about 2-3 inches from the ground.
- Switch movements by raising your right leg up and lowering your left leg. Remember to breathe while performing this exercise.
- Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.
Muscles worked
The muscles under tension are the rectus abdominis and the obliques, which flex the trunk forward and resist it being pulled into extension or twisted out of line.
A stretch loads them at the far end of the range they normally work in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.
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 stretching, so the target is range of motion rather than force — a position you can settle into and breathe in, held long enough for the tissue to give.
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:
- Seated Ab Crunch with Cablecable
- Seated Barbell Twistbarbell
- Side Bend with Dumbbelldumbbell
- Smith Machine Hip Raisemachine
- Supine One-Arm Overhead Throwmedicine ball
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.