How To Do Leg Lifts Without Hurting Your Back

By Philip Yiga | January 14, 2015

These days’ people are getting much involved into doing different exercises and legs lift are some of the best exercises that one can do to work their abs and legs. In fact, there are many ways of doing leg lifts but this may depend on your physical condition and level of intensity that you are looking for within a workout. Therefore, incase you want to learn how to do leg lifts so that you can achieve a more toned and stronger body without hurting your back, then follow the method featured below and the steps under them and you will notice a difference:

 

1. VERTICAL LEG LIFTS (HOW TO DO VERTICAL LEG LIFTS):

• Start with lying flat on your back with the legs stretched out in-front: make sure that the legs are just slightly apart and also keep the hands down flat onto the ground but next to the sides with the palms down. You should also try to use a carpet or yoga mat for extra comfort and support as you lie down and in case you experience some back pain, just roll a towel and put it under the arch of the back just above the hips. On the other hand, you can also lie on a workout bench instead of lying on the floor and this actually improves your range of motion and even allows you to lift or lower the legs further.
• Gently bend the knees and raise your legs: during this process, ensure that the calves are parallel to the ground while the thighs are perpendicular to your body. You should also keep the toes pointed up while drawing the abdominal muscles towards your spine. keep the face and eyes directed to the ceiling and avoid doing things that can strain your neck like looking at the legs and incase you feel like the head and neck are moving forward alot, lift the chin up a bit.
• Begin to straighten legs until the feet are pointed up at the ceiling: when doing this, try to keep the toes pointed up and even raise the legs slowly and carefully. Always remember not let the lower back arch off the ground or else you will get injured or even fail to get a good workout experience.
• Slowly lower the legs: gently bring the legs down to up to about an inch off the ground. Don’t just let gravity do the work for you but ensure that you are in control. Leave your hands on the ground but try to use them for support and strength as you lower the legs. You should also try to resist placing the feet on the floor if you want to achieve the best workout.
• try to slow down incase this exercise is too easy: be gentle while doing this exercise and you may even try lifting your straightened legs upwards and count upto ten and then lower them gently while counting down from ten. This will definitely provide your abs a great workout experience but you have to know that it is a bit challenging.
• Complete by repeating 3-sets of 10 to 20 lifts: this will be much easier in case you start with 3-sets of 10 and after build your way up to 3-sets of 20 inorder to get a thorough leg lift exercise.

 

2. HOW TO DO LEG LIFTS WITH A BALL:

• Lie flat over the ground: you always have to first lie down on the floor with your arms lying flat at your sides while the legs are straight out in front of you. Make sure that you lie over a yoga or exercise mat for optimum comfort.
• Put the ball in-between your feet and lift the legs up: grab an exercise or medicine ball and place it in between your feet while ensuring a firm grip on it and then start to lift the legs up until you notice that they are perpendicular to the rest of the body. In fact, this exercise is called the vertical leg lift with an added weight or resistance and that is why it will make the leg-lifting even more challenging.
• Lower the legs at a slow pace: this is because the slower you go, the more you will resist gravity and even force your muscles to maintain control. This step makes the workout great for your abdominal muscles though it may take a little a more effort that any regular leg-lifts.
• Try doing 3-sets of 5 to 10 leg-lifts with your ball: since this exercise is a bit challenging, you may start off by doing fewer leg-lifts until you feel like you’re ready to do more. Its only when you feel stronger that should move to doing 3-sets of 10 to 20 leg-lifts with an added weight.
• Try or add an extra challenge: incase you feel lifting the ball with your feet is becoming easy, then you may try to lift the legs with the ball in them and then try to reach the ball using your arms. Raise the arms and legs up at the same time and then grab the ball in your arms while moving it all the way up behind the head. Continue doing the same exercise as you shift the weight between the arms and legs.

 

3. HOW TO DO HANGING LEG LIFTS:

• Start with hanging from a bar using your arms: to do this; keep the arms a little more than the shoulder width apart. Get a firm grip on this bar and then look straight ahead to avoid straining the neck. Try to keep the bod still and even with the feet together and ensure that fingertips are facing away from you.
• Raise the legs until they are perpendicular to the body: when doing this, keep the toes pointed and you may not even be able to get your legs as high as you want them to be. During the process, try to keep the back straight and avoid hunching over or curling in towards your legs.
• Slowly and gently lower the legs: once you feel like the legs have reached the maximum height and you begin feeling that slow-burn in the core, gently lower the legs down but try doing it slowly as much as you can inorder to work out your muscles even harder.
• Repeat the exercise with 3-sets of 10-hanging leg lifts: start with a less number of leg lifts but as you become comfortable, you may increase up to 3-sets of 20hanging leg-lifts. In fact, this hanging variation of the leg-lift exercise is good workout for people with back problems because it does not much pressure on the back like when doing leg-lifts while lying down.
• Try to make the leg-lift easier incase you need to do so: if lifting your legs is too challenging, you may raise the legs with your knees bent. But keep the legs together while raising the knees as high as you can go maybe up to the chest. Lower the legs and start over again but you should know that this style a bit less strenuous for your abdominal muscles.

 

4. SIDE LEG-LIFTS (HOW TO DO SIDE LEG-LIFTS):

• Lie on one side with the head resting over the hand on your elbow: start with lying down on to one side and then prop the head and neck up using your elbow. Try to looks straight ahead because this will keep you away from straining the neck. Also try to keep the other arm in-front of you with the palm facing down.
• Slowly and gently lift the top leg as high as it can go: take the leg on top upwards for atleast 1 or 2 feet but during the process, keep the free hand on your hip or on the ground in-front you for some extra support. Always keep looking straight at the front and don’t try to look up at the leg.
• Gently lower the leg: while keeping your body in the same position, slowly lower the leg until it reaches the other.But remember to always keep the spine straight and even avoid caving forward as you lift the leg.
• Do about 15 reps on one side and then repeat the same process on the other side: once you are done with exercising one leg, just move over to the other side and elbow and repeat what you had done on the other side.