How to Do the Lying Leg Raise

How to do it

1. Lie flat on your back on a firm surface with your legs extended, feet together, and arms either pressed palm-down at your sides or tucked lightly under your lower back if you need extra lumbar support.
2. Press your lower back toward the floor by contracting your abs and tilting your pelvis slightly upward before the movement even starts, because this pre-tension is what keeps the rep honest.
3. Keeping your legs straight and feet flexed, lift both legs together until they point straight up toward the ceiling, or as close to perpendicular as your hamstring flexibility allows.
4. At the top, pause for a full beat and think about driving your heels toward the ceiling rather than just stopping the upward swing.
5. Begin lowering your legs slowly and under control, resisting the pull of gravity rather than letting them drop freely.
6. Stop the descent when your heels are two to four inches above the floor, which is the point just before your lower back would peel off the surface.
7. If your back does begin to arch during the lowering phase, that is your stopping point for this rep, not the floor.
8. Return to the top and repeat, keeping the tempo deliberate on both the lift and the lower rather than using momentum to swing through the set.

Form cues

• Flatten your back before you move your legs.
• Slow the lowering down, that is where the work actually happens.
• Squeeze your thighs together like you are gripping something between your knees.
• Ribs down, do not let the chest pop up as the legs descend.
• Heels stay two inches off the floor, not zero.

Common mistakes

• Letting the lower back arch dramatically at the bottom: this shifts load off the abs and onto the lumbar spine, which over time can cause low back discomfort. Fix it by stopping the descent the moment your back lifts and shortening your range of motion until your core can handle the full range.
• Using momentum to swing the legs up: a fast kip gets the feet to the top without meaningful muscle tension, defeating the point of the exercise. Slow the concentric to a two-count and feel whether the abs are actually doing the lifting.
• Holding the breath through the hard part: breath-holding spikes intra-abdominal pressure and robs you of the ability to sustain tension through multiple reps. Exhale as the legs rise and inhale as they lower.
• Pointing the toes: plantar flexion at the ankle is a subtle way the body recruits the hip flexors more aggressively and reduces ab involvement. Keep the feet flexed or neutral to better share the work.
• Raising only to 45 degrees and calling it a rep: stopping short means you are working mostly the hip flexors and barely asking anything of the lower abs. Getting the legs to at least 70 to 90 degrees is where the posterior pelvic tilt and genuine ab tension kick in.

Why do the Lying Leg Raise?

• Because the legs act as a long lever arm, the abs and hip flexors are loaded across a substantial range, which builds functional strength in positions that carry over directly to running mechanics and kicking sports.
• The hip flexor demand in this exercise is specific to the lengthened position, something that seated hip flexor machines largely skip, which may help address the weakness many desk-bound people develop in that range.
• The movement teaches posterior pelvic tilt under load, a motor pattern that underlies good form in deadlifts, squats, and overhead pressing, making it useful as a teaching tool and not just a conditioning exercise.
• Because no equipment is required, it fits easily into a warm-up, a finisher, or a hotel room session without needing to modify around what is available.

Lying Leg Raise variations

Bent-Knee Leg Raise

Bending the knees to 90 degrees shortens the lever arm significantly, making this the go-to regression for anyone whose lower back lifts before their legs reach parallel.

Single-Leg Raise

Alternating one leg at a time cuts the load roughly in half and is useful when someone is returning from a hip flexor strain or learning the pelvic tilt pattern for the first time.

Hanging Leg Raise

Performed from a pull-up bar, this progression removes the floor support entirely and demands far more from the hip flexors and grip, making it appropriate once the lying version can be done for 15-plus clean reps.

Weighted Ankle Leg Raise

Adding ankle weights increases the lever arm load without changing the movement pattern, a natural next step for people who have exhausted the bodyweight version but do not yet have bar access.

How to program it

The lying leg raise tends to appear as a core accessory exercise placed either at the end of a lower-body session or within a dedicated ab circuit. Many people work it in the 10 to 20 rep range, prioritizing control over high volume, though some programs use lower rep sets with a deliberate tempo to make bodyweight feel genuinely taxing. Because it does not create the kind of systemic fatigue that squats or deadlifts do, it is common to see it programmed two to four times per week without recovery concerns. When used in a circuit, it pairs naturally with exercises like planks or hollow-body holds that reinforce the same posterior pelvic tilt pattern.

Lying Leg Raise alternatives

Hanging Leg Raise

Bodyweight · Isolation

Dead Bug

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Decline Sit-Up

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V-Up

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Flutter Kicks

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Knee Tuck

Bodyweight · Isolation