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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.

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!

muscle strength vs muscle endurance woman squatting

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Table of Contents

Leg Lifts Instructions

Here’s how to do leg lifts correctly on all fours:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Repeat for desired number of reps.  Make sure to keep abs tight and back straight.

Leg Lifts Benefits

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.

Easy Ways to Incorporate 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.

Repeat one more time.

how to do leg lifts

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:

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.

Here are 3 more workouts that incorporate leg lifts:

Targets: glutes, hamstrings, core.

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: