Ab Bicycle kicks are efficient exercises for building the abdominal muscles that will make you stronger in sports requiring bursts of speed, like soccer, basketball, boxing, martial arts, and track and field. In addition to improving your speed, this exercise can enhance your ability to change directions quickly.
No one likes being winded when they’re playing their favourite sport or running around with their kids. Hence, bicycle kicks are a great way to build strength and endurance while simultaneously getting your heart rate. Just five minutes of bicycle kicks each day can help you stay fit!
We’ll cover how to do Ab Bicycle Kicks Exercises, how often to do them, and why they’re so beneficial. Learn how to get better results by reading on.
What are the best bicycle kicks exercises?
The ab bicycle kicks workout looks like a person cycling in shallow water, with your feet out of the water and your back against the pool wall. Bicycle kicks abs are used to improve the strength of your leg muscles, including the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus and calf muscles.
You can perform several bicycle kicks exercises to get the most out of your workout and achieve optimal results. If you’re ready to begin doing bicycle kicks in your own home or at the gym, check out how to do bicycle kicks and the best bicycle kicks exercises below.
Contents
Exercise 1: The Bicycle Kicks
The bicycle kick exercise ice is a standard swimming workout that works on your scissor kicks. Among its benefits are the strengthening of both your abs and your legs. You feel your abs, quads, and lower back working with each repetition.
It is more comfortable to use bicycle kicks when you have arthritis or any condition, making bending over difficult. You can still experience great results without bending over too much. This is how to do bicycle kicks:
- Make a U-shape with your arms and legs, extending them straight forward.
- Move your arm and leg simultaneously to simulate how you would move if you were doing bicycle kicks in actual water.
- Continue for 10–15 repetitions before taking a break.
- Do three sets per day.
Exercise 2: The Flutter Kick
Workout routines involving ab Flutter Kicks should strengthen upper and lower abs. The flutter kick will also help you improve your overall endurance since it involves continuous movement of both your arms and legs. It does not take any equipment to start, so floor space is all you need.
The following are the steps you should follow to do the Flutter Kick:
- Put your hands at your sides and lie on your back.
- Extend your right knee straight in front of you as you draw it into your chest.
- Kick out as if you were doing a scissor kick, bringing that knee to touch or touching your opposite elbow. That counts as one rep.
- Aim for 10-15 reps on each side, which is about one set of flutter kicks for beginners; for more advanced exercisers, up to 20 reps are recommended.
- Do not hold your breath; instead, breathe out when kicking and breathe in when lowering yourself down for a second time.
- Hold onto something nearby if you need help keeping balance or have trouble lifting both legs simultaneously.
Exercise 3: Bicycle Crunches
There is no doubt that bicycle crunches are among the most effective ab workouts available. It primarily targets your rectus abdominis or abs which are responsible for flexing and extending your spine, as well as for keeping it stable. By doing this, you also indirectly strengthen your back.
Bicycle crunches are performed as follows:
- Place your arms outstretched and legs straight while lying on your back.
- Lift your hands, feet, knees, and chest to complete one rep of bicycle crunches.
- Moving as fast as possible without compromising form for an intense cardio workout that effectively targets core muscles.
- You will know you’re doing it right if you feel like you have no control over what part of your body is moving next. Your upper body shouldn’t move forward, backward or sideways; only up and down should be how far you go each rep.
- Try repeating 10-15 times while alternating which leg comes up first each time until one minute has passed.
Exercise 4: Reverse Crunch
Reverse crunches work similarly to bicycle kicks, but you raise them and lower your torso instead of lifting your legs up and down. In addition to stretching out your abdominals, this move strengthens your lower back simultaneously.
To reverse crunch, proceed as follows:
- Starting in a tabletop position, with knees bent and feet flat on the floor, you’ll lift one leg slightly off the bed while bending the opposite knee.
- You’ll pull that knee into your chest while extending your leg to the same side of your body.
- Please bring it back to the centre and alternate each rep with the opposite arm/leg until the set is complete.
- Performing these while holding a light medicine ball helps increase the intensity by forcing you to engage your obliques more to stabilize the ball if a medicine ball isn’t accessible (or if you’re working out at home), substitute a heavy book or other weighted objects instead.
Exercise 5: Scissor Kicks
Using scissor kicks improves posture and flexibility and works your core muscles. It will help you build a better physique in the long run.
To do scissor kicks, you must follow these steps:
- While lying on your back, your arms should be at your sides, and your knees should be bent at a 90-degree angle.
- Keeping a straight line from your shoulders through your knees, simultaneously lift both legs until they’re about 4-6 inches off of the ground.
- You should feel an intense contraction in both your core and upper body while doing these.
- The key here is to keep a very flat lower back throughout and keep both legs straight (you can have them together or apart).
- Lower down and repeat 15-20 times.
Bicycle kicks vs Bicycle crunches
The main difference between bicycle kicks and bicycle crunches is that bicycle kicks focus on strengthening leg muscles. In contrast, bicycle crunches strengthen the rectus abdominis muscle, often called a six-pack. Besides controlling spinal flexion and extension, the rectus abdominis helps you slim your waist and tone your midsection.
If you’re looking for a way to build your midsection without getting bored, bicycle kicks and crunches can help. It is important to note that these two exercises are not similar, so note how you should perform each one,
Bicycle kicks
- Bicycle kicks are performed in water and focus on building up leg strength.
- You kick your legs up and down like you’re pedalling a bike to do them correctly.
- You should keep your arms at your sides throughout each kick, although holding onto something with your hands won’t hurt if it makes things easier.
Bicycle Crunches
Bicycle crunches are also done in water, but they differ from bicycle kicks because they target more than just your legs. While bicycle kicks work your hamstrings and quadriceps, bicycle crunches work your abs.
- Lie flat on your back while submerged in water with only your head sticking out above water level.
- Then, raise both of your knees toward your chest as far as possible before lowering them again slowly to complete one rep.
- Like bicycle kicks, you should keep both of your arms at either side of you during each rep to ensure that all muscles work equally during each crunch cycle.
Bicycle kicks benefits
Bicycle kicks (also known as dolphin kicks) have many benefits, but what’s most important is that.
- You will gain aerobic fitness and strengthen your heart and lungs.
- Circulation improvement
- Strengthening core muscles
Because they work nearly every muscle in your child’s body, bicycle kicks are one of the best exercises for kids and adults.
One side effect of improved aerobic fitness is reduced stress on joints, making it easier to participate in other physical activities without worrying about injuring themselves. Bicycle kicks benefits also includes and.
FAQ’s
If you’re looking for an excellent full-body workout, add bicycle kicks to your circuit: a good ab exercise that works your abdominal muscles and chest, legs and arms. You don’t need any equipment, and you can do it at home, but if you want a little extra challenge, try it while holding weights or carrying something in each hand.
Although bicycle kicks exercises are easy to learn, they’re tough to master. Be patient with yourself, and keep going until you feel confident.
The best exercise to strengthen your core while cycling would be bicycle kicks abs, which are a great way to work your abdominals and leg muscles all at once.
While bicycle kicks may seem like a silly exercise, they are incredibly beneficial. For beginners to kickboxing or other fighting sports, bicycle kicks are many exercises that help you fine-tune your form before attempting more challenging kicks. They can also be done anywhere, you can work on your explosive strength in your legs, and they are easy to do. So yes, bicycle kicks do work!
Do some sets of 10-15 pushups.
Here is what you need to do:
Lay on your stomach and extend your arms parallel to each other in front of you.
Push yourself back up after touching your hands with your elbows.
Keep doing that for as long as you can maintain proper form, at least a minute or two.
When you’re done, lie down again and put both palms on the floor (facing down).
Lift one leg with thigh at 90 degrees; repeat with other portions.
Pushups help you strengthen your deltoids, trapezius, pectoralis major and minor, triceps brachii, and biceps brachii muscles, all of which you need for swimming.
Conclusion
To help you visualize what’s happening, stand up and pretend you’re pedalling a bicycle. Use your abs to propel your upper body while keeping your abs still. Let your hips rotate instead of your waist. Keep pedalling back and forth for 60 seconds; when time is up, sit down and take a breather. You can also spice up ab bicycle kicks by doing them one leg at a time or by adding some ankle weights for resistance. That way, it won’t get too easy! As with all exercise, consult with a doctor before starting any new routines that involve significant movement of joints or muscles.
