Help with leg raises.

lydiakitten
lydiakitten Posts: 132 Member
edited November 16 in Fitness and Exercise
Alright, so here is something I am completely confused about. I generally have a half-decent set of abdominal muscles, for a lady that's not too focused on gaining. I can do plenty of crunches (cross, bicycle, advanced, all kinds), spidermans, I can hold my various planks for a long time, and so on. I do my 3 x 15 hanging leg raises without breaking much of a sweat.

However, I find lying leg raises to be just... inexplicably difficult for me. Harder than it makes any sense for them to be. Even the gym trainers are slightly befuddled. I do ten and I am legitimately shaking, no joke.

I suspect it's because of my body type and how most of my body weight is under my navel, because I am a case of extreme short torso but very long legs syndrome, even more extreme than the third girl in this:

vertical-body-types.jpg?w=271&h=300

Does anyone have a similar experience?

Does anyone know any lower ab specific exercise that could help me work up to lying leg raises?

Does my suspicion make sense?

Anybody help?

Replies

  • Cherimoose
    Cherimoose Posts: 5,208 Member
    Yeah, probably from your body type. 10 reps is respectable. Do you do heavy deadlifts & squats? Those are more functional for the abs than leg raises.
  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    Have you been able to do flutter kicks? Or do the lying leg raises with your knees bent?

    It might be that your hip flexors aren’t strong enough to stabilize you through the movement (not uncommon for people who spend a lot of time sitting each day).
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
    AllanMisner wrote: »
    Have you been able to do flutter kicks? Or do the lying leg raises with your knees bent?

    It might be that your hip flexors aren’t strong enough to stabilize you through the movement (not uncommon for people who spend a lot of time sitting each day).

    Agree that your hip flexors might be part of the problem. With a lying leg raise your hip flexors come into play because you are essentially flexing your hips, it's not just your abs. One thing I like is to do a side-plank with hip extension as it really forces you to engage most of the core musculature to stabilize your self. And to Cherimoose's point, if you Squat or Deadlift (doesn't really need to be both) you get a fair amount of core muscle stimulation so your direct core work should be small
  • BigLifter10
    BigLifter10 Posts: 1,153 Member
    I was wondering too, if maybe it's the hip flexors? Do you do enough for them and also roll them out after?
  • Sam_I_Am77
    Sam_I_Am77 Posts: 2,093 Member
    edited April 2015
    BigLifter10 wrote: »
    I was wondering too, if maybe it's the hip flexors? Do you do enough for them and also roll them out after?

    I squat twice per week and then on one day I Barbell Step-Ups and bring my alternate leg up and hold my balance for 2 seconds; it sounds easy but it's actually really not at least not for me. lol. I do a little core specific exercise but not a lot.

    Yes, pre-workout I do foam roll and do some active stretching which will include my hip flexors.
  • lydiakitten
    lydiakitten Posts: 132 Member
    Thank you everyone! Yes, I think that while my body type makes things harder, it's likely my hip flexors are sub-par, because I find flutter kicks quite challenging, too. I will definitely do some side planks with hip extensions to try and tackle that! I will try to google and see if there is something else effective for those hip flexors, too.

    I actually do heavy squat, though, and find it infinitely simpler for my body to handle than those damn leg raises. I do generally train my core decently. I just.... get angry that leg raises are so weirdly hard for me, so I get stubborn and want to solve the problem.

    Thank you all again!
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