This type of knee bends should be performed on a fixed bar and will serve to strengthen the abdomen and hip flexors. Let’s see how it is done correctly!
Now, being an exercise that involves a set of larger muscles, apart from the abdominals, knee bends are not an exercise for everyone.
You must have a good level of previous training before trying to perform the technique correctly so if you are just starting out you can see and look for other more basic exercises for abs in the Total Bodybuilding guide.
HOW TO PERFORM KNEE PUSH-UPS ON A BAR?
- Start by placing yourself under the bar with your feet together.
- Then inhale and slowly raise your knees toward your chest, wrapping the spine from the bottom up, not just by raising your knees.
- Try to climb as high as you can with your legs, and come back down in a slow and controlled way without letting go of the bar obviously.
- Exhale at the end of the movement.
- The main muscles used for leg elevation are the psoas and iliac, usually grouped under the name of iliac psoas.
- The psoas is located deep in the abdomen and embedded in the hip next to the psoas muscle inside the pelvic bone (or hip bone).
- The main abdominal muscles that are requested are the rectus abdomen (a long muscle that extends vertically from the pubis to the sternum) and the small, large oblique muscles that cover the sides of the rectus abdominis muscle and latissimus dorsi.
TIPS FOR PERFORMING KNEE BENDS ON A BAR CORRECTLY
- Let’s now look at a series of training tips to get the most out of the knee bend on the bar and thus achieve a safer and more efficient training.
- To request much more from the abs, elevate your legs to the maximum. The first part of the exercise is mainly controlled by the hip flexors, while the abdominals intervene isometrically.
- The abdominals begin to play a more important role when the thighs reach an angle of approximately 30 to 40 degrees with respect to the vertical.
- Basically, the higher the knees are and the rotation of the pelvis is more pronounced, the more focus is achieved on the abdominal area.
- Don’t swing your body. You should be very still when you start to raise your legs.
- You can start with bent legs; this is a variant of this exercise that makes it easier to perform.
- What we do keep is the previous advice, the more you can raise your legs bent above the horizontal, the exercise will be more difficult and more effective, do not stop trying this way.
- Although the involvement of hip flexors has been criticized by many experts, it should not be feared. The abdominal muscles and hip flexors work very closely. You cannot eliminate the contraction of one or the other in the movements of legs or pelvis.
- As the legs extend and weight is added, either by putting on the shoes or placing ankle weights, the exercise becomes increasingly hard, however adding additional weight is usually not necessary.
- To increase the difficulty of knee bends on barbell, you must stretch your legs, with this you will gain in difficulty and effectiveness, so it is not necessary to add weight to the ankles.