"Flexion exercises" are physical activities or movements that involve bending a joint, like your knees or elbows, to increase flexibility and strength.
Full definition
They found increased rectus abdominis muscle activity when performing
trunk flexion exercises with added elastic resistance from a portable device (Perfect Abs).
The middle trapezius is highly activity during retraction exercises, while the lower trapezius is highly activity in abduction /
flexion exercises with the arm at or above horizontal, as well as horizontal rowing.
A balanced workout would include a modest number of
spinal flexion exercises and, then, only if you have a healthy back, as well as few rotation exercises to target the obliques.
Testing on the 1 R.M. continuum on
knee flexion exercises (a.k.a. leg curls) show that to stay within 70 % of the maximum, you can not do more than 8 reps.. So in my opinion, leg curls done above eight reps are a complete waste of time.
In one study exploring the EMG amplitude in the pectineus, Lovell et al. (2012) reported that the supine isometric hip adduction in 90 degrees of hip and knee flexion was the best position, while Giphart et al. (2012) found that the pectineus was activated as a hip flexor during the supine bent - leg
hip flexion exercise.
The plank is a great beginner level exercise to teach spinal stability as an anti-extension and
flexion exercise of the spine.
This exercises can be thought off or classified as an
anti-lateral flexion exercise because you're resisting bending your spine laterally each time the barbell is outside your shoulder.
Research shows that
flexion exercises increased the risk of fractures by 89 % while extension exercises significantly lowered the risk of fractures to just 16 %.
Common flexion exercises, like abdominal crunches, elbow - to - knee type sit - ups, and straight - leg forward bends continually contract the entire front of the body.
These studies have reported on programs of single - joint knee extension exercise (Smith & Melton, 1981; Kovaleski et al. 1995; Wojtys et al. 1996; Golik - Peric et al. 2011), on programs of single - joint
elbow flexion exercise (O'Hagan et al. 1995; Staniszewski et al. 2016).
However, a safe, simple and effective way to for a beginner to started an abdominal program is to emphasize basic
abdominal flexion exercises such as crunches, stability ball crunches, cable crunches, hip lifts, full range knee ups and reverse crunches.
Crunches, sit ups and other
spinal flexion exercises are fine but as your spine moves in a variety of directions, you need to select a variety of exercises if you want to maximise your abdominal development.
This is the same finding as for resistance training exercises, where isolated
knee flexion exercises (such as leg curls) produced the best results with the greatest regularity.
The middle trapezius is highly active during retraction exercises, while the lower trapezius is highly active in shoulder abduction or
flexion exercises with the arm at or above horizontal.
Initially resistance band
plantar flexion exercises should be done to very gradually introduce some load onto the calf and plantaris muscles.
There is certainly a place in sports conditioning for all types of integrated abdominal -
hip flexion exercises.
Performing plantar -
flexion exercises with an extended knee position, including dorsiflexed positions and faster speeds appears beneficial for training the gastrocnemius.
Assessing the effect of stability during both compound and trunk
flexion exercises, Mok et al. (2014) assessed the muscle activity of the abdominals in a number of suspension exercises including the hip abduction plank (feet in straps), press up, inverted row and hamstring curl (feet in straps).
Comparing compound exercises and trunk
flexion exercises, Aspe et al. (2014) explored external oblique muscle activity in a number of exercises including the front and overhead squat performed with 90 % of 3RM, as well as the Swiss ball prone jack knife and straight - leg sit up.
Assessing the effect of relative load during different trunk
flexion exercises, Sternlicht et al. (2003) compared a number of abdominal exercises (Ab Roller Plus, Torso Track 2, AB - Doer Pro, and the Perfect Abs) to the traditional curl up.
Here is an important study, showing that two different exercises (one knee
flexion exercise and one hip extension exercise) produced different levels of activation in the upper and lower regions of the hamstrings, even though lateral and medial hamstrings activation appeared much more similar.
Unstable surfaces can be utilised with a plethora of dynamic core exercises and are classically positioned under the trunk or feet to perform the curl up, sit up or spinal
flexion exercises.
Comparing compound exercises and trunk
flexion exercises, Aspe et al. (2014) explored rectus abdominis muscle activity in a number of exercises including the front and overhead squat performed with 90 % of 3RM, as well as the swiss ball jack knife and straight - leg sit up.