The standing leg elevate tends to get overshadowed by showier workouts like hip thrusts and burpees — however if you wish to construct up a robust decrease half, it’s time to familiarize your self with this straightforward however efficient transfer.
It’s simple to do standing leg raises virtually anyplace — so even in case you can’t make it to the fitness center, you may nonetheless knock out a couple of units proper in your lounge.
Standing Leg Elevate Train: Step-by-Step Directions
- Stand tall along with your arms in your hips and ft shoulder-width aside.
- Shifting your weight to your proper foot, slowly raise your left leg straight out in entrance of you, as excessive as you comfortably can. Preserve your core tight and your left foot flexed; don’t bend your knees, and keep away from rotating your ankle outward.
- Decrease your foot again right down to beginning place. That’s one rep. Full all reps on one aspect earlier than switching to the opposite.
What Muscle tissues Do Standing Leg Raises Work?
The standing leg elevate train targets and strengthens your hip muscle tissues. Particularly, the adductors alongside your interior thighs and the gluteus medius on the higher, outer fringe of your pelvis.
Since you use your hip muscle tissues for strolling, operating, and balancing, this train is very useful for protecting you secure throughout cardio and power strikes like sprints, squats, and lunges.
Standing leg raises additionally work the rectus abdominis muscle (a.ok.a. your “six-pack”). The cross-body motion within the aspect variation lights up the obliques (the muscle tissues on the edges of your waist).
Standing Leg Facet Elevate Variation
One variation of the standing leg elevate incorporates hip abduction, or transferring the leg away from the physique. Right here’s easy methods to do it.
- Stand tall along with your arms in your hips. Cross one ankle over the opposite so your high foot hovers over or frivolously touches the ground.
- Along with your foot flexed, raise your high leg out to the aspect as excessive as you may with out bending your knee. It’s best to really feel a slight squeeze in your working hip. Watch out to not rotate your foot outward as you raise — your foot ought to keep parallel to the ground with toes going through ahead all through the transfer.
- Decrease your foot again right down to beginning place. That’s one rep. Full all reps on one aspect earlier than switching to the opposite.
Prepared so as to add the standing leg elevate to your subsequent leg exercise? Hannah Viva, NASM-certified private coach with Match Physique Boot Camp recommends sticking to an everyday tempo so you may full each rep with management and consistency.
And if you wish to make standing leg raises more difficult, add a resistance loop or ankle weight round your ankles.
