Leg Raises

| Back to ABS page |

One of the toughest parts of the abs to maintain is the lower abs. One of the main reasons for that is because our movement on a daily basis does not engage our lower abs as much as the rest of our muscles. More effort is required to condition this area but once conditioned it is fairly easy to maintain.

The starting position for the Leg Raises begins by laying flat on your back with the legs straight out. The hands can be either at your side, over or beside your head. The final position is complete when the legs are raised off the floor. It is up to you to determine how high to lift your legs. You can go half way up or all the way up but do not go past the vertical point or else it is a waste. When you put your legs back down, you can rest your feet or you can keep them slightly elevated for a better burn.

Make sure to use controlled movements and do not jerk your body, all the strength from the lift should come from the abs. Use your hands as stabilizers.

Please join our mailing list for Workout tips, New Routines, Discounts on Merchandise, and Freebies.

There are several variations of this exercise which involve elevating the legs on a bench, balancing legs in the air, and adding weights for more resistance. But remember that smooth controlled movements is key especially if you are elevating the exercise to include weights.

Depending on your goal, 3 different techniques you could follow are listed below. Pick the one that will work the best for you and watch the results start to develop.

The Fitness Drive Fat Burn technique only takes 6 minutes to execute. It consists of fast motions with short rest periods to maintain a high caloric burn rate. This is a timed exercise and should be done using something that would help tell how much time has gone by (i.e. stopwatch, phone, clock…). This will force you to keep pushing yourself even when you are exhausted.

Fat Burn: (Time = 6 minutes)
3-4 sets of as many as you can in 1 minute with only 30 second rest periods
(5 times per week)

The Fitness Drive Muscle Build technique only takes 8 minutes to execute. It consists of slow reps to stretch and define the muscles with a longer rest periods. This is a weight training technique that forces the muscles to lift your weight for a longer period of time.

Muscle Build: (Time = 8 minutes)
3-4 sets of 10-12 reps slowly with 1 minute rest periods
(4 times per week which is every other day)

The Fitness Drive Extreme Build/Burn technique only takes 11 minutes to execute. It consists of fast and slow bursts with a mixture of short and long rest periods. It is a technique that incorporates muscle confusion to elevate the heart rate to bring the body into the fat burning zone while utilizing weight training techniques to push muscles to work even harder.

**Extreme Build/Burn: (Time = 11 minutes)
Total 6 sets
-1 set of as many as you can do in 1 minute
-Rest period 30-60 seconds
-3 sets of 10-12 reps slowly with 1 minute rest periods
-1 set of as many as you can do in 1 minute with only a 30 second rest period
-1 set of as many as you can do until failure
(3-4 times per week)

Abs is your core and the fundamental center of your strength. Even if you can’t see your abs, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have strength there. An accumulation of fat hides the muscles we so desperately want to show off. Once the fat starts burning away, the Ab muscles starting becoming visible. But… it is not as simple as just doing thousands of sit-ups. *Make sure to follow a strict diet and exercise regiment to expedite the results and further propel your goals.

Regardless of how defined you want to be you need to make sure you set a goal, establish a routine and keep following it. Results do not happen overnight and it is hard to see what progress you are making if you are a mirror-junky (staring at yourself in the mirror every chance you get). Do yourself a favor and take a before picture of yourself, save it and do not look at it again until the time is right. Each week take another picture of yourself. The time to analyze is on a month-to-month basis. Compare your before picture against the 4th week then again on the 8th, 12th, 16th, and 24th week picture. This way you can see the transition your body made and determine each month if the routine you are following is making an impact. *Discipline is the key!