HLL help.

[Alexander Svensson]

So I was at the gym today for the first time in a few months, and as I was doing my HLLs on a roman chair (I believe that's the name) I could lift my legs up to 90 degrees, like an L-sit, but I didn't feel a thing in my abs. Nothing at all. I felt it in my legs though and I thought it was very odd. Anyone has any ideas on why this happened or has it happened to you? Every other time I've done it I could feel in the abs but not now.

[Blairbob]

Abs could be strong enough but hip flexors are your limiter.

[Philip Chubb]

Roman chairs make HLLs much easier. Do them on an overhead bar with good alignment and you will feel it. If you still don't, add weight or continue the progressions.

[Alexander Svensson]

Thanks for the response! Will try to fix the hip flexor problem and move on to a pull-up bar instead.

[Cole Dano]

Stall bars or some kind of bar on a wall is even better if its an option.

[Alexander Svensson]

Sadly the only option at my gym is a regular pull-up bar. Thanks for the tip though.

[Philip Chubb]

No problem! I hope it helps. As another quick note, if you can't get real stall bars but still want the exact effect, just use the pullup bar and ask someone to hold your shoulders and keep them from coming backwards. Works just as well. After a while of these, you will be secretly laughing to yourself when you see someone trying to "get ripped abs" on a roman chair.

[Alexander Svensson]

Thanks. I'll try that.

[Alexander Moreen]

A Roman chair is the thing where your elbows support your weight while you hold onto handles kinda like the bottom of a partial Russian dip right? If so then a Roman chair leg lift is much more similar to a parallel bar leg lift, and getting to v there is going to require the same active flexibility and abdominal strength as a v sit. Just not as much upper body strength.

[Alexander Svensson]

Yes and it has a support for your back also so you can't lean back.

And I was thinking if you do HLLs on a parallell bars/dip bars, would you still get the same benefits in strength as if you do it on a stall bar/pull-up bar? Cuz it's a lot easier to keep the shoulders and back in line when supported on your arms like that.

[Joshua Naterman]

It is a completely different movement. Different emphasis on muscles and everything. Both are good, but you need to get on a bar and work HLL negatives. Make them take at least 5 seconds with a perfectly steady pace and try to actively not use the lats or arms to support! Try to only use your core. This will probably never happen completely but by moving the emphasis to the core in your mind you will be able to work it more effectively. I can bust out HLL like nothing on stall bars if I use my lats but when I do what I just described even negatives are hard.

[Alexander Svensson]

That's interesting. Thanks for the info.