Single Straight Leg Lifts on Stomach

Make walking easier, especially for your hip joints, with this great glute exercise!
This exercise is great for strengthening your low glutes, hamstrings and low core! When done correctly, it also stretches the front and inside of your hips. The combination of strength, stretch and core stability that you gain from this exercise makes walking feel better and helps protect your hip joints from wear and tear.
In order to get the most out of this exercise there are a couple of necessary points to remember.

  • Keep your pubic bone pressed into the floor. This will help stabilize your hips and pelvis
  • Hold in your low abs and pelvic floor. Again, this helps with stability.
  • Keep your knees straight when you lift your leg. Bending your knees will work your hamstrings not your glutes.
  • Reach your foot away from you as you press your leg up. This will create space between the head of your femur and your hip joint, allowing your leg to lift without moving your hips.
  • Think about “pressing” your leg up from underneath instead of “lifting” your leg. This small change in how you think about moving your leg will help you stay out of your upper glute, find your lower glute and keep your pelvis stable. One good visual is to imagine your upper leg is sitting on top of an elevator in the floor. When the elevator goes up, so does your leg.

Remember, it is not about how high your leg goes or how fast you move. You will get the most benefit by keeping your form and pelvis stable (instead of trying to get your leg high) and by going slow with control. Finally, if you feel this exercise in your low back or upper glute, you are moving your pelvis, check to make sure you are doing everything above and in the video to make sure it stays stable. If that doesn’t help, call us.
 

Want more exercises you can do lying down? Schedule your free 90 minute consultation.
Addie Kelzer is a certified personal trainer and nutrition consultant. She believes that by making fitness and good food practical, her clients will hold the power to positively change their health and the health of those closest to them.