How to Do Roman Chair Exercises

Roman chair exercises, or hanging leg raises, are ideal for building up endurance and increasing your abdominal strength without placing undue strain on your neck and back--as sit ups and crunches do. You can do high numbers of repetitions of this exercise, which narrowly targets your abdominal area. Replace your other ab exercises with this move as you improve and develop enough stamina to do 100 or more repetitions at a time.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Chin-up bar

How to Do Roman Chair Exercises

1. Some gyms have benches specifically made for roman chair exercises and dips Hang from the chin-up bar. Your arms should be a little wider than shoulder-length apart and your legs should, ideally, be dangling just above the floor. If you can reach the ground by pointing your toes, that is okay, but you need to have room to fully extend your legs without banging your feet on the ground.
2. Focus on curling your pelvis forward to move your body into a sitting position Raise your knees until they form a ninety degree angle. You must do this slowly or your body will start to swing back and forth, which will take the focus off your abdominal area. When your knees are in the right position, it will appear that you are sitting on a chair of air.
3. Lower your legs back to an extended position. Again, move slowly and steadily using a great deal of control. You need to uncurl your pelvis without bending your body any more than necessary. Your abs should help you slowly let your legs down without dropping them.
4. Repeat this exercise as many times as you wish. When you are first learning this exercise, you may wish to do several sets with relatively low repetitions in order to perfect your movements before increasing your number of "reps." After you are comfortable with the exercise, then increase the number of times you repeat the exercise before resting so that over time you can build your stamina. Remember, your abs will get far more out of 20 good roman chairs than they will out of 100 poorly executed ones.

Tips & Warnings

• You can make the exercise harder by keeping your legs straight, so that when you raise your legs--your upper and lower body form a ninety degree angle.
• If you wish, you can wear ankle weights to increase the difficulty of the roman chair exercise. Start out with one pound weights on each ankle and go up from there.
• If you feel pain in your shoulders, back or neck, consult a trainer to be sure that you are doing the exercise properly. If the pain continues, then consult a physician before continuing your workout regimen.