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Ready to work your core and tone your legs? Leg lifts are the perfect option! This simple yet effective exercise is low-impact, easy to modify, and a great addition to your workout routine.
What are Leg Lifts?
While there are different variations, this leg lift exercise involves leg raises while on all fours. This move strengthen and tones your glutes, builds stability in your core, and helps shape a more firm back side!
If you learn how to do leg lifts, you will have an exercise beyond lunges and squats that helps firm your booty and tighten your glutes.
How To Do Leg Lifts
- Start on all fours with your right leg extended long on a yoga mat or other comfortable surface. Keep your leg straight and try not to bend your knee.
- Squeeze your right glute and hamstring to lift your right leg up towards the ceiling. Slowly lower it back down to the starting position without allowing your toe to touch the floor.
- Repeat for desired number of reps. Make sure to keep abs tight and back straight.
Helpful Tips for Performing Leg Lifts
To get the most of out leg lifts, here are some tips to keep in mind:
- Unlike traditional leg lifts, this version is done kneeling on all fours. Be sure to have a soft surface such as a mat to perform this move on. Don’t choose one that is too thick or you may have trouble balancing.
- If there is nothing available but a hard floor, you can fold a towel or sweatshirt and place it beneath your knee caps to provide a softer surface.
- Keep your abs pulled in very, very tight to avoid letting your lower back sag, which could lead to lower back pain. Pulling in your abdominal muscles can also improve stability and is a great practice for the core.
- Often referred to as the imprint, draw your belly button to your spine and keep it drawn in as you perform this exercise.
- As you lift and lower your leg, keep your legs straight be sure to originate the movement at your glutes. (In other words, squeeze your butt!) This is the best way to know you are activating the glute muscle as you should be. It is often difficult for many people to get their glute muscle to “fire” – or activate. For more of a challenge, you can add ankle weights.
- Try performing leg lifts a couple times a week or mix it up with regular lunges and squats for a well-rounded lower body routine.
What Muscles Do Leg Lifts Work?
Leg lifts are an awesome lower body move that strengthens and tones your glutes and create a firmer back side. They also engage the lower abdominal muscles, including the rectus abdominis and transverse abdominis, helping to build core strength and stability.
Benefits of Leg Lifts
There are many reasons you should incorporate leg lifts into your workouts. Here are just a few:
Strengthens Legs
Leg lifts are an alternative to all those squats and lunges for toning and tightening those legs. If your thighs need a little shaping, try this leg lift move.
Strengthens Glutes
Leg lifts are not for legs alone. If you are looking to shape that booty, you should try leg lifts. Done properly you will feel it directly targeting your rear end to help lift and tone your backside!
Improves Strength and Stability
Leg lifts are definitely a strength move for the butt and legs, but it also targets your hips, core and all stabilizer muscles. It challenges your balance by requiring these stabilizers to activate and work.
How Many Calories Does a Leg Lift Burn?
People often ask how many calories they are burning in their workouts. Most exercises will generally burn about 100 calories for every 10 minutes you are working at higher intensity.
Bottom line: the harder you work, the more calories you burn. Leg lifts build muscle in your lower body, which makes for a better metabolism and higher calorie burn all day long.
Other Exercises Similar to Leg Lifts
If you like the leg lift and the results you get from it, here are a few more exercises you might want to try.
Incorporating Leg Lifts Into Your Workouts
The leg lift is a great exercise to practice any time on its own. However, you could also incorporate it into other workouts to mix them up. Here are some ideas to make that happen.
Use Leg Lifts in a Lower Body Challenge
Love it or hate it, leg day works! Working all your lower body muscles can make for one intense training session. And while we love our squats and lunges, it’s good to incorporate other moves as well for muscular balance.
Use this workout as your leg day challenge. You’ll sculpt and shape your legs and rear end. Practiced consistently, you’ll see change in the shape of your lower body!
Leg and Butt Day Workout: Try each exercise below for the 10 repetitions to start. Give yourself no more than just a few seconds in between to rest. As you get used to this routine, increase your repetitions to 15.
- 10 Basic Squats
- 10 Backward Lunges
- 10 Surrenders
- 10 Side Lunges
- 10 Leg Lifts
Repeat one more time
Use Leg Lifts in Your Full Body Strength Workout
Even though leg day is powerful, getting a full body workout in one session is also a great idea. Not only do you make the most of your time, but you get your heart rate up by covering so many muscle groups.
Take one workout and get it all done at once. This next workout gets it all done and includes leg lift as well as many other basic strength moves you’ll love.
Full Body Strength Workout: Warm up for about 2-3 minutes then, do between 10-15 of each of the following moves:
- Squat To Bicep Curl
- Leg Lift
- Side To Side Squat Swing
- Plank To Upright Row
- Tricep Dips
- Single Arm Row (10 each arm)
- Russian Twist
Use Leg Lifts in a Core Workout
Leg lifts definitely work your butt and legs. In addition, your entire core is engaged and working during this exercise. The following workout includes leg lift for an awesome core challenge. Check it out!
Core Stability Challenge: Perform each exercise below for approximately 30 seconds. Always move slowly and keep your belly button pulled in toward your back.
- Full Body Roll Ups
- Double Leg Stretch
- Leg Lifts – (30 seconds each side)
- Bird Dog Crunch
- Side Plank Lift & Lower – (30 seconds each side)
- Swimming
Here are 3 more workouts that incorporate leg lifts:
Targets: glutes, hamstrings, core.
