Scissor Kicks Exercise

Core muscles always have a great responsibility for your overall movements. A good workout session can help you target the majority of them. One such bunch of muscles are your traverse abdominals.

To strengthen their majority of people, prefer scissor kicks exercise. Strengthening of traverse abdominal muscles helps in strengthening the spine.

Scissor kicks exercise is an ab-moving exercise that helps in doubling the lower body strength. This is because your legs are continuously involved in this exercise. Do you want to know how this is possible? Dive into the way through which you can do the scissor kicks exercise.

Do Scissor Kicks Exercise This Way

Scissor kicks exercise can be done by following the given sequence of steps:

  • Step 1: Lay on your back
  • Step 2: Raise your legs 15 cm above the ground
  • Step 3: Move your legs in horizontal scissors' direction. This is known as the “scissoring motion”
  • Step 4: Continue the motion for 30 seconds.
  • Step 5: Rest your legs for 5 seconds and then repeat the motion.
Now you know how to do the scissor kicks exercise. But you might be thinking that why you should do this exercise? Don’t worry we have answers to your question. Scroll down and find the answer to this question.

Benefits of Scissor Kicks Exercise

Scissor kicks exercise is a good alternative to consider while choosing ab toning exercises. It acts as a foundation for other ab-exercises.

Besides this with scissor kicks exercise you can have the following benefits:

  • Plays the role of creating a foundation for your core muscles group.
  • Scissor kicks exercise targets your abductors.
  • You can do this exercise without any extra pieces of equipment
  • Helps you boost your lower body workout strength
Once you are comfortable with the basic version of scissor kicks you can switch to its other variations. What are these variations then? We will get you there, jump into the next section.

Scissor Kicks Variations

There no such big variations in the way of doing the scissor kicks exercise. You can change the intensity of the exercise according to your comfort level.

We have mentioned two such variations that you can try while doing scissor kicks.
If you are comfortable while doing scissor kicks exercise then you can increase the intensity of the exercise by trying one of the following:

  • While raising your legs above the mat, raise it to a bigger height.
  • You can increase the speed of the scissoring motion.
  • Before changing the top and the bottom leg, you can hold your legs at the height for about 2-3 minutes.
  • You can even add light ankle weights while doing scissor kicks.
On the other hand, if you face discomfort or difficulty while doing the basic version of the scissor kicks exercise then you should try the following modifications.

These modifications will make it easier for you to do scissor kicks exercise:

  • Reduce the distance between your legs and the mat. This will help you in reducing the pressure on your back.
  • Instead of scissor kicks, you can even try the bicycle crunches exercise. Get comfortable with bicycle crunches and then start scissor kicks.
  • Increase your stamina first before increasing the intensity of the scissor kicks exercise.
Now you know how you can make the most out of this exercise. But you also need to take some precautions while doing these exercises. The same applies to the scissor kicks exercise also.

Continue reading to know the precautions you can take while doing scissor kicks.

Precautions and Safety Measures

It is an intermediate-level exercise that can be done very easily. But you need to take care of certain precautions and requirements. One such requirement is that your core and back must have some strength to do this exercise.

If you are suffering from back problems or have neck problems then you must consider your doctor before starting this exercise.

Scissor kicks are an intermediate-level exercise.

Conclusion

Scissor kicks exercise is not an easy feat. You need to give time to your body to adjust to the exercise. Start slow with the exercise and gradually progress.
You can even start with the variations of the exercise that we mentioned above in the post. They are much simpler and get you started with the exercise.

Although, we tried to cover all the aspects related to the exercise if still you have any doubt feel free to drop it in the comment sections.

Happy doing scissor exercise


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