Bottoms Up

Execution

1. Bend your hips and knees, drawing your knees in close to your chest.
2. Extend both legs straight up toward the ceiling, perpendicular to the floor.
3. Exhale and use your lower abs to curl your hips off the floor, pressing both feet straight up at the ceiling with the legs still vertical.
4. Lift the hips only a couple of inches, never letting the legs travel back over your head or the weight shift onto your neck and upper shoulders.
5. Lower your hips back to the floor under control, inhaling as you go.
6. Bend the knees and lower the legs back to the floor to complete one rep, or flow straight into the next if working continuously.

Quick cues

• Curl the hips with the lower abs.
• Press the feet straight up.
• Legs stay controlled, no kicking.
• Lower slower than you curl up.
• Keep the neck relaxed.

Common faults

• Fault: Throwing the legs back over the head for extra range, loading the neck

  Fix: Shorten the range: lift the hips a couple of inches, keep the feet stacked over the hips, and keep your head and shoulders resting on the floor.

• Fault: Kicking the legs with momentum instead of actively curling the hips

  Fix: Slow down and focus on lifting the hips first, letting the legs follow.

• Fault: Letting the legs drop freely to the floor

  Fix: Count 2-3 seconds on the way down so the abs control the whole motion.

• Fault: Pushing the hands into the floor to help lift the hips

  Fix: Rest the hands lightly under the hips only for low-back protection, not to push.

• Fault: Letting the knees bend while the legs are supposed to be extended overhead

  Fix: Keep the legs straight through the hip curl, bending the knees only at the start and end.