Reducing and spreading legs in a sitting machine: subtleties of the exercise

Leg abduction in the simulator: what muscles work

This exercise develops the inner thighs, specifically the adductor muscles. They are located between the legs, approximately in the groin area. By bringing the legs together, you can improve the relief of this area and eliminate sagging.

The adductor muscles include a number of leg muscles. This group is located deep under the muscles of the inner thigh and groin. In this regard, they cannot be seen or felt, but they play a big role in human life. They are involved in many movements, whether climbing stairs or climbing steep slopes.

They are not used very often in everyday life, so in most people they are poorly developed. To train them, you need specific exercises, which include bringing the legs together.

How to perform exercise

1. Sit on the machine and place your toes on the lower portion of the platform provided with the heels extending off. Choose the toe positioning of your choice (forward, in, or out) as per the beginning of this chapter.
2. Place your lower thighs under the lever pad, which will need to be adjusted according to the height of your thighs. Now place your hands on top of the lever pad in order to prevent it from slipping forward.
3. Lift the lever slightly by pushing your heels up and releasing the safety bar. This will be your starting position.
4. Slowly lower your heels by bending at the ankles until the calves are fully stretched. Inhale as you perform this movement.
5. Raise the heels by extending the ankles as high as possible as you contract the calves and breathe out. Hold the top contraction for a second.
6. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

Benefits of Exercise

The exercise is considered one of the simplest in terms of technique. Thanks to this, it can be practiced by both beginners and experienced athletes. Due to the fact that the adductor muscles are the same in most people without targeted development, physical strength does not play a special role here.

In addition, the benefits of the exercise include:

• Improves the shape of the muscles of the inner thigh;
• Tightens the leg muscles, making them visually more attractive;
• Strengthens leg grip strength;
• Developing the adductor muscles helps improve balance;
• The exercise can be practiced even if there are injuries to the knee and hip joints;
• By strengthening the adductors, the chance of knee injury is reduced.

For the most part, leg curls in a seated exercise machine are intended for women. Men rarely care about the shape and topography of the area being worked here. Although for the overall development and diversity of the program, it is useful for men to practice it.

Important nuances, secrets and effectiveness of the exercise

Despite the widespread opinion about the uselessness of leg raises in the simulator, if a number of conditions are met, it will help diversify the training process and bring significant benefits.

How to increase the effectiveness of an exercise: technical nuances

Leg raises, despite the low level of complexity, have their own technical subtleties, knowledge of which will help make the exercise more effective.

• During execution, all work should be carried out only at the expense of the hip joint, and the knees and ankles should not be included in the movement.
• The legs are spread apart with a powerful movement, and brought together under control and slowly.
• At the point of maximum extension, you need to linger for a couple of seconds, focusing on the peak muscle contraction.
• You cannot use the force of inertia when jerking. The exercise is performed using the target muscles.
• There is no need to allow the legs to finally connect at the point of convergence: this relieves muscle stress. Tension in the legs should be maintained at all stages of the movement.
• There is no need to help yourself with your body: it remains motionless.
• To increase the load on the buttocks, the socks can be turned outward.

Effective or useless?

Many coaches and experienced athletes consider this exercise ineffective. This point of view is argued by the fact that it is isolating, actively using only the gluteus medius muscle, which is small in size and therefore does not have a significant effect on strengthening the buttocks as a whole. In addition, such training is accompanied by insignificant energy consumption and will not be useful for fat burning.

However, we cannot unconditionally say that leg raises in the simulator are a useless exercise. It will be useful for beginners whose physical fitness makes it difficult to perform the basic complex. Breeding will help prepare the muscles for more serious work, tone them, and teach the body to cope with physical activity.

For girls, training the gluteal medius muscles, supplemented with other exercises for this area of ​​the body, will help to form an attractive buttock shape.

Ladies with extensive training experience, as well as men, can use fly-ups for pre-fatigue when training the lower body. This method consists of working the target muscle using an isolation movement (in this case, flyes) with the goal of fatigue. This is followed by a quick transition, without a pause for rest, to a basic exercise (for example, squats, deadlifts).

Experienced superset athletes can supplement flyes with other lower body exercises (leg presses, lunges, squats, etc.) for best results.

Exercise on this simulator is included in fat-burning circuit training as a “unloading” exercise between more complex and energy-consuming movements.

Leg raises in the simulator work effectively if you perform them in a comprehensive workout, combining them with basic exercises for the lower body.

Execution technique

The exercise is truly one of the easiest in terms of technique. Due to the fact that you work in a simulator, it is almost impossible to make a mistake. The essence of the movement is that you need to overcome resistance as you move your thighs closer together.

This is done as follows:

• Set the required level of weights and sit in the exercise machine;
• Adjust the starting position of the pillows so that in the starting position you feel a slight stretch in the hips;
• Press your back tightly against the back of the machine;
• Hold the handrails firmly with your hands to ensure a stationary position of the body;
• Bend your legs at the knees and place them on pads;
• As you exhale, squeeze your thighs, bringing them closer to each other;
• At the extreme point, hold for a couple of seconds and forcefully bring your legs as close to each other as possible;
• Then, slowly spread your legs back, but do not reach the starting position. Muscles must be under constant tension.

Do not lift your back from the machine and do not swing your body back and forth. This will put the inertial force into action.

Description of the exercise

Unlike the picture, it is advisable to bend your knees very slightly.
It is advisable to pause in the final phase. You can also try the option of tilting the body forward. This will further stretch the working muscles. Main features

1. I prefer exercise machines where you have to keep your legs almost straight. In my opinion, they are more effective. Because you can spread your legs a little wider in them.

2. When you spread your legs, stay in this position for a second. It is better to spread your legs with a powerful swinging movement. And not sluggishly and smoothly. Only in moderation. There is no need to jerk your legs with all your might.

3. This exercise is not basic, but it will complement basic buttock exercises well if performed immediately after them.

4. Don’t bring your legs all the way down. Keep your thighs and buttocks in constant tension.

5. Set the weight so that you can do at least 10 repetitions. But you need to do it until your muscles burn. Otherwise it will be of little use.

6. If you turn your socks outward, your buttocks will work a little harder. But remember that in this exercise the load on the buttocks is indirect.

Tips and tricks

There are several useful nuances that you need to know to get the maximum benefit from the exercise.

1. When returning your legs to the starting position, do it slowly. This will give the target muscles a greater load;
2. The buttocks should be pressed tightly against the machine and not move away from it while performing the movement;
3. The exercise should be performed at the end of the workout to “finish off” the legs;
4. If you do not have enough strength to perform the exercise in full amplitude, then you can help yourself with your hands;
5. For the final set, lower the weight and perform a series of quick reps. Do this until you can't do the repetition even without weight.

If your gym does not have a machine to perform this exercise, or you experience discomfort from it, then you need to know how to replace the leg curl in a sitting machine. The adductor muscles are not involved in such a large number of exercises, especially if we talk about their isolated work.

However, you can use sumo squats or plie squats as a substitute. These are basic exercises that activate a large array of muscles, and each of them uses the hip adductors. In addition, you can try performing leg adductions on a vertical block. This is another isolated exercise designed to work the adductor muscles well. If you want to do the workout at home, you can use the leg adduction while lying on your side.

Analysis of the exercise

Anatomy of exercise - which muscles work

The main target group is the lower bundle of the pectoral muscle. The muscles of the back and core work as stabilizers; the anterior deltoids, serratus muscles, and the pectoralis minor muscle help with movement.

pros

This is a completely isolation exercise. It does not allow the triceps to be involved in the work, which means it is suitable for those who bench press a lot and consider the bench press their priority. The movement allows you to work the pectoral muscles without putting much strain on the stabilizers and biceps, allows you to achieve a greater amplitude, and stretch the muscles so as to shorten them as much as possible. The exercise is varied enough to avoid increased stress on the elbows, shoulders, and biceps. It helps to work the entire length of the muscle and allows you not to exclude the lower pectoral bundle from the work.

Minuses:

• Not all halls are equipped with a crossover, and there is not always access to it. This is a popular car and can be constantly busy during rush hour;
• Movement cannot help build muscle if it is all you do. Basic exercises required in addition to crossover work

Preparing for the exercise

Typically, the crossover is not the first movement in a workout, and is not used as an exercise to pre-fatigue the chest muscles. The training begins from the base, and only at the end the athlete approaches the block simulator to work the lower chest.

This means that joint warm-up is not necessary; it is enough to perform a couple of approaches with light weight.

Proper execution

• The exercise is single-joint - the work is done only in the shoulder joint;
• Cheating and body swings are excluded;
• The elbows in the upper phase should not be raised towards the ears, they are in the plane of the shoulder;
• The muscles must be consciously tensed, as if “bringing” the weight to the desired position;
• You can’t throw your head back, look at the ceiling, you should relax your neck and look forward;
• You need to use a stable body position, preferably a scissors stance;
• Work occurs along an elliptical or arcuate path. You should not “throw your arms up” by bending them at the elbows;
• The reduction is carried out approximately at waist level;
• It can be assumed that the athlete uses a small weight, but it is impossible to use pushes and jerks along the trajectory, and relaxed arms when lowering the weight;
• You need to try to consciously exclude working with the trapezius muscles

Muscle contraction is performed by exhaling, exhaling with effort - the basic rule when performing strength exercises.

Errors

• “Different” movements, when the athlete bends his arms at the elbows in the first repetition, and changes the position of the body in the second, and carries the weight differently;
• Body swings that help with weight work;
• Throwing weights;
• Relaxed and rounded back;
• "Inserted" straight elbows

Why do they perform leg reduction?

When choosing a training device for training, athletes focus on its “sharpness” and design. Many people think: since it is designed to bring the legs together, then with its help it is easy to pump up the inner thighs. They are partly right - narrowly targeted designs work one muscle group.

But in this case, the insulating machine does not allow achieving the final goal, i.e. It is not effective for slimming thighs or creating slender legs (in women) or for gaining muscle mass in men with “skinny” thighs.

In this simulator, movements are not natural for the body, i.e. they do not occur in everyday life. The target region works there in coordination with other parts of the body. Progress in weight is not difficult to achieve, but in this case, the load on the spine and kneecap increases.

That is, even for diligent athletes it will not solve the problem associated with changing the composition of the legs. It's all about biomechanics. The design assumes that the athlete is sitting, which means that the thigh muscles do not work in this position. Often people who have a sedentary job come to the hall. Moreover, they will not be able to disperse the blood by doing exercises while sitting.

It is better for them to choose exercises that use walking and standing, free weights that require maintaining balance. They should replace bringing their legs together in the simulator with abducting them in a block or lunges. They will help you achieve “tuning” your legs faster. And use leg contraction to “finish off” the target muscle group. You can do exercises in the simulator after suffering an injury, including them at the end of the training program.

It can definitely be said that if you focus on a single simulator, you cannot achieve success.

Video: Leg abduction in the simulator