Article # 97. Bent Knee Abdominal Hip Raise

Bent Knee Abdominal Hip Raise

The bent knee abdominal hip raise works your ab muscles through flexing the upper and lower parts of your spine. The bent knee abdominal hip raise is a simple floor exercise.
To begin this exercise, lie face up with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor. Place your arms palm down at your sides. Raise your head off the floor and, at the same time, lift your hips and round your lower back. Pull your knees toward your head and roll your buttocks off the floor. Hold your head and knees up for two seconds. Slowly return your head and feet to the floor.

Muscles Targeted: The bent knee abdominal hip raises target the lower and middle ab muscles. It also works the secondary muscles of your upper thighs and lower back during the concentric and eccentric portions of the movement. This is a great ab exercise to use if you're looking to really work the difficult to tone up lower portion of the stomach. Body fat in the lower abs tends to be the last place adipose tissue is removed from when your goal is to get as lean as possible so make sure to combine this lower ab exercise with a very clean and healthy diet along with cardio training to burn extra calories.

Exercise Advice: Begin by lying on a mat on your back with your hands at your sides and your knees bent with your feet raised two inches off the floor. Bring your pelvis up and your knees up toward your chest, contracting your abdominals and hold for a two second count. Return to the start position and repeat until failure.

Things To Avoid: Make sure to really watch your form on this exercise and go very slowly throughout the entire range of the movement. Performing the bent knee abdominal hip raises exercise very slowly will allow you to really feel the tension in your abs, so make sure to avoid fast and jerky movements.

Reps and Sets: The ideal repetition range for this exercise will be in the higher limit, so shoot for between 15-30 reps per set. Total sets should be 3-5 and you can combine this exercise with 2-3 additional abdominal movements to get a great overall ab workout. Rest times between each set should be 60-90 seconds in order to fully recover before your next set.

How to do the Bent Knee Hip Raise

1. Lying flat on the floor, make sure your lower back is pressed to the floor and is not arched
2. Place your hands by the side of your head or loosely behind your head.
3. Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor.
4. Simultaneously, lift your pelvis off the floor bringing your knees towards your chest while also lifting your upper body off the floor lifting shoulders off the ground.
5. Hold for one second and then slowly return to starting position, inhaling while you return to the floor.
6. Repeat this for 8 to 15 repetitions.