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Cable Seated in and Out

Seated in-and-outs are a bench or floor drill: balancing on your sit bones, you draw both knees to your chest, then shoot the legs out long while the torso leans back — in, out, repeat. The tuck trains the abs and hip flexors; the extended hover is where the exercise earns its reputation. Coached by Maddy (NASM-CPT) — these are the exact form cues he gives on every client's first week.

Muscles worked

Abs · rectus abdominis Hip flexors · iliopsoas Obliques Deep core · transverse abdominis

Sets & reps by goal

GoalSets × RepsRest
Strength3 × 3–6 (2 s paused extension)90 s
Muscle3 × 9–1260 s
Endurance2–3 × 18–2745–60 s

Rep ranges per Helms 2014 · Schoenfeld 2016.

Level — Beginner

Beginner-accessible with hand support; hover the hands and it becomes a different animal.

Proper form — 5 cues

  1. Sit on the edge of a bench or the floor, hands beside your hips for light support.
  2. Lean the torso back as both legs extend out together, heels hovering.
  3. Draw the knees and chest toward each other into a tight tuck.
  4. Keep the feet off the floor for the entire set — in and out, never down.
  5. Move with rhythm but control: one second out, one second in.

Breathing: Exhale into the tuck, inhale as the legs extend out.

The 3 mistakes Maddy corrects most

Heels tapping the floor at full extension. Each tap unloads the core for a moment, converting continuous tension into rest breaks. Fix: Extend the legs slightly higher, or shorten the extension until the hover holds.
Torso staying bolt upright throughout. Without the backward lean during extension, the abs never take the counterbalancing load — the move becomes leg-waving. Fix: Lean back as the legs go out, then let chest and knees genuinely meet in the tuck.
Hands white-knuckling the bench. Heavy gripping shifts the stabilising work into the arms and hides weak trunk control. Fix: Lighten to fingertip support; over weeks, work toward hovering the hands entirely.

Common questions

What muscles do seated in-and-outs work?

The tuck is driven by the hip flexors and the lower portion of the rectus abdominis; the leaned-back extension makes the whole abdominal wall work isometrically to stop you tipping over. The trade-off across the rep — dynamic tuck, loaded hover — is why the move fatigues the midsection faster than its simple look suggests.

Bench or floor — which version is better?

The bench edge gives your legs room to extend below hip height, lengthening the lever and the challenge, while the floor version is slightly more stable and easier to learn. Start on the floor, move to a bench when 15 floor reps feel controlled. Same movement — the bench just raises the rent.

How do I make in-and-outs harder without weights?

Three free levers: pause for two seconds at full extension, slow the tempo to three seconds per phase, or take the hands off their support so the trunk stabilises alone. Any one of these transforms the difficulty. Only after those are conquered is ankle weight or a held dumbbell worth considering.

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