Scissor Kick
hip flexors
What moves the load, and what it costs
3.5MET
Hip flexors is the prime mover, with the abs, adductors assisting. The same demand as flutter kicks with a small adductor contribution. Both live or die on whether the lower back stays down.
Cue: Cross the legs over each other horizontally, keeping them straight and just off the floor.
ਸਰੋਤ·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·FILED UNDER CALISTHENICS, LIGHT·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
SHARED AXIS · SEVEN VALUES FROM ONE TABLE · HIGHLIGHTED ROW IS THIS MOVEMENT
The compendium files scissor kick under a category, not a lift. Read the ladder as position, not precision: this is heavier work than sitting quietly by a factor of 3.5, and middling for conditioning work.
Turning that MET value into a real energy cost
- Map the movement to a published category. The compendium measures categories of conditioning work, never individual lifts, so scissor kick is filed under Calisthenics, light or moderate effort, general (e.g. back exercises).
- Take the category's MET value — 3.5. One MET is the cost of sitting quietly, so this is 3.5 times resting metabolism.
- Multiply by 3.5 to get millilitres of oxygen per kilogram per minute, the unit the MET is actually defined in.
- Multiply by your bodyweight in kilograms and divide by 200. The result is kilocalories per minute of work.
- Count working minutes only. Under load, not under the roof — a set of eight is about 25 seconds of the hour you were there.
kcal/min = MET × 3.5 × body mass (kg) ÷ 200 Scissor Kick: 3.5 × 3.5 × 70 ÷ 200 = 4.29 kcal/min
ਸਰੋਤ·ACSM metabolic equation + 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·REFERENCE BODY MASS 70 KG·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
What is actually doing the work
| Muscle | Role | What it does here |
|---|---|---|
| Hip flexorsIliopsoas and rectus femoris | Prime mover | Lift the thigh towards the chest. They drive every leg raise and knee raise, which is why 'ab' exercises often feel like hip work. |
| Absਰੈਕਟਸ ਐਬਡੋਮਿਨਿਸ | Synergist / stabiliser | ਧੜ ਨੂੰ ਅੱਗੇ ਝੁਕਾਉਂਦਾ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ, ਇਸ ਤੋਂ ਵੱਧ ਕੰਮ ਦੀ ਗੱਲ, ਇਸਨੂੰ ਪਿੱਛੇ ਵੱਲ ਖਿੱਚੇ ਜਾਣ ਦਾ ਵਿਰੋਧ ਕਰਦਾ ਹੈ। ਕਰੰਚ ਅਤੇ ਪਲੈਂਕ ਦੋਵੇਂ ਇਸ ਉੱਤੇ ਭਾਰ ਪਾਉਂਦੇ ਹਨ — ਵੱਖ-ਵੱਖ ਢੰਗ ਨਾਲ। |
| ਐਡਕਟਰAdductor magnus, longus, brevis, gracilis | Synergist / stabiliser | Pull the thigh towards the midline, and (adductor magnus especially) extend the hip. A wide-stance squat loads them heavily. |
The prime mover produces the movement against the resistance; synergists assist and stabilisers hold a joint still without moving it. An exercise trains the whole muscle it loads — there is no way to work only part of a muscle, and no exercise removes fat from the area around it.
Set up, then earn the rep
Bodyweight. Every rep should look like the first one. The moment it stops looking like the first one, the set is finished.
PATTERN · BRACE
- Lie on your back with the hands under the hips or flat beside you, legs straight.
- Press the lower back into the floor and keep it there for every rep — this is the whole exercise.
- Cross the legs over each other horizontally, keeping them straight and just off the floor.
- Lift the legs to vertical with control.
- Lower slowly, stopping the moment the lower back starts to lift away from the floor.
- Bend the knees to shorten the lever if you cannot hold the back down.
Where this one breaks down
Not theory. These are the faults you correct on a gym floor, and the correction that actually works.
Letting the lower back arch off the floor.
That is the hip flexors pulling on the spine, and it is why people's backs ache after leg raises. Reduce the range or bend the knees.
Dropping the legs fast.
Speed hides a loss of position. Slow the lowering down.
Assuming it is a 'lower ab' exercise.
The rectus abdominis is one muscle with one nerve supply; you cannot train its lower half separately. Leg raises are largely hip flexor work with an anti-extension demand on the abs.
Regress it, or progress it
Regress — earn it first
Nothing on this site regresses it further: this is already near the entry point of its pattern. Take load off, shorten the range, or slow the tempo — in that order.
Prescription: load, reps, rest
Read off the goal, then hold the technique constant as the load climbs. Derived from the movement's mechanics, not invented for this page: a single-joint movement does its best work in moderate to high reps — very low reps load the joint before the muscle.
| Goal | Sets | Reps | Rest | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strength | 3–4 | 6–10 | 2 ਮਿੰਟ | Single-joint work responds poorly to very low reps — the joint gets the load before the muscle does. |
| Muscle size | 3–4 | 10–15 | 60–90 sec | This is where isolation work earns its place: cheap volume for one muscle, little systemic fatigue. |
| Endurance / fat loss | 2–3 | 15–25 | 30–45 sec | High reps here are genuinely useful — the load is small enough that form survives the fatigue. |
| First month | 2 | 12–15 | 60 sec | Light. Isolation work is for adding volume later, not for building a base. |
Time under load, in kilocalories
Read these as minutes of work, not minutes in the building. A set of eight takes about twenty-five seconds; the rest of the hour is rest, chalk and queueing.
Mapped category: Calisthenics, light or moderate effort, general (e.g. back exercises) — 3.5 MET. That is the published category this movement is filed under, not a measurement of this specific lift.
Worked at 3.5 MET × 3.5 × 70 kg ÷ 200 = 4.29 kcal per working minute for a 70 kg adult. Scale it by your own bodyweight; the equation is linear. The full activity dataset lives at BurnLab.
ਸਰੋਤ·2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities·CATEGORY VALUE, NOT A PER-EXERCISE MEASUREMENT·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
If the rack is taken
Substitutes train the same prime mover through the same pattern with different kit. Computed from the muscle and pattern data on this card, not hand-picked to fill a grid.
ਇਸ ਲਈ ਕਿਸੇ ਸਾਮਾਨ ਦੀ ਲੋੜ ਹੀ ਨਹੀਂ, ਇਸੇ ਕਰਕੇ ਇਹ ਹਰ ਸਫ਼ਰੀ ਤੇ ਘਰੇਲੂ ਪ੍ਰੋਗਰਾਮ ਵਿੱਚ ਆਉਂਦੀ ਹੈ। ਹਰ ਬਿਨਾਂ ਸਾਮਾਨ ਵਾਲੀ ਕਸਰਤ ਇਕੱਠੀ ਦਰਜ ਹੈ।
Where it sits in a week
One movement is not a programme. The twelve templates put these in order, including 6 that need no gym at all.
The questions that come up on the floor
What muscles does the scissor kick work?
Scissor Kick is a single-joint isolation movement in which the hip flexors is the prime mover, assisted by the abs, adductors. Lift the thigh towards the chest. They drive every leg raise and knee raise, which is why 'ab' exercises often feel like hip work.
Is the scissor kick good for beginners?
ਹਾਂ। ਇਸ ਸਾਈਟ ਉੱਤੇ ਤਕਨੀਕੀ ਔਖਿਆਈ ਵਿੱਚ ਇਸਨੂੰ 5 ਵਿੱਚੋਂ 2 ਦਰਜਾ ਮਿਲਿਆ ਹੈ — ਇੱਕ ਜਾਂ ਦੋ ਸੈਸ਼ਨਾਂ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਿੱਖਣਯੋਗ; ਗ਼ਲਤ ਹੋ ਜਾਵੇ ਤਾਂ ਸੱਟ ਦਾ ਖ਼ਤਰਾ ਘੱਟ। ਸਭ ਤੋਂ ਹਲਕੇ ਸਮਝਦਾਰ ਭਾਰ ਅਤੇ 12–15 ਦੇ ਦੋ ਜਾਂ ਤਿੰਨ ਸੈੱਟਾਂ ਨਾਲ ਸ਼ੁਰੂ ਕਰੋ।
What can I do instead of the scissor kick at home?
Nothing is needed — the scissor kick already requires no equipment at all, which is why it belongs in any home programme.
How many sets and reps of the scissor kick should I do?
For muscle size, 3–4 sets of 10–15 with 60–90 sec rest. For strength, 3–4 sets of 6–10 with 2 min rest. In your first month, 2 sets of 12–15, stopping well short of failure. Total weekly hard sets per muscle group matters more than the exact rep number in any of these ranges.
Does the scissor kick burn fat from the hip flexors?
No. No exercise removes fat from the area it trains — spot reduction has been tested repeatedly and does not happen. Training the hip flexors builds the muscle underneath; where body fat is lost from is decided by an overall calorie deficit and by your genetics, not by which exercise you chose.
Muscle roles follow standard kinesiology references and are described by joint action rather than by gym convention — see how this site is built. Energy figures are derived from the 2024 Adult Compendium of Physical Activities. Every reference is named and dated on the sources page. General information only — not medical or coaching advice. Load, form and progression should be adjusted to your own experience and any injury history. When in doubt, get coached in person.
ਸਰੋਤ·Published exercise references·MUSCLE ROLES ASSIGNED BY JOINT ACTION·ਸਮੀਖਿਆ ਜੁਲਾਈ 2026
The people behind these sites
Follow the build
This site and nine others like it are built and photographed by two people: Amit Sharma — behind the build; Geeta Patel — the poses, demonstrated. New work goes up on Instagram and Facebook before it reaches a page here.
Amit Sharma
@amitsharmaofficial
Instagram
Geeta Patel
@geetapatelnz
Instagram
Geeta Patel
GeetaPatelYoga
Facebook
Following changes nothing here — every page stays open, with no account and no wall.
