Leg lifts would be weighted.


ive heard from different sources that reverse crunches work hip flexers more than leg lifts. BUT i heard from another good source that leg lifts work hip flexers more than reverse cruncehs!

ack!

which!

They both will involve your hip flexors regardless of how you perform them. For either, make sure you crunch your pelvis towards your breast-bone.

A reverse crunch is a tuck movement. Tuck movements are less difficult for your muscles than leg raises because the leverage is different. The exercises have the same crunching mechanics, it's this leverage that is changed.

I've found that both movements work best if you take the time to really focus on proper contraction - really squeeze.

After these two exercises become too easy on the ground, you can take them to a hanging position and work up from there. This opens up a wealth of opportunity for very challenging and impressive ab exercises -- all unweighted.

what do you mean by crunch my pelvis towards my breast-bone in terms of leg lifts?


leg lifts are where you are flat on your back, hands under butt, and raise your legs up to about 30 degrees, and go back down again, right?


thats not a tuck movement, so how can i crunch my pelvis towards my breast-bone? do u simply mean contract?


side question chic - since i know you really do know your info on abs.

Whats a sets / reps routine for vacuums like? 10 reps of 30 seconds holds, 3 sets? more? less?

what do you mean by crunch my pelvis towards my breast-bone in terms of leg lifts?


leg lifts are where you are flat on your back, hands under butt, and raise your legs up to about 30 degrees, and go back down again, right?


thats not a tuck movement, so how can i crunch my pelvis towards my breast-bone? do u simply mean contract?
The reverse crunch is a tuck movement; the leg raise isn't. Tuck specifies the position that your legs are in, not the motion of your body. Check out this link - it gives good description on how to properly perform leg raises and reverse crunches as well as explaining the breastbone to pelvic bone function of the abs:

http://www.timbomb.net/ab/ab.faq.html


Whats a sets / reps routine for vacuums like? 10 reps of 30 seconds holds, 3 sets? more? less?

From past discussions on this forum, most people don't do sets/reps of vaccuums. Just remember to incorporate them at the end of your workout.

If anything, I would say maybe 3 sets of 30 seconds just to formalize it into a routine. Once your body learns how to appropriately activate your transversus, I don't think the exercise is that important or even needed during ab training.

Check out Jeremy's article -- if you haven't already -- he has a nice method of ab training: http://www.naturalphysiques.com/cms/index.php?itemid=103