Rounded Back Leg Extensions
Flexopedia > Hip Flexors & Back
Rounded Back Leg Extensions
Muscle Group Stretched: Hip Flexors, Back
Muscle Group Strengthened: Glutes
Type of Stretch: Dynamic Active
Difficulty: All Levels
Suggested Prerequisites: none
This is a great active drill to strengthen your glutes to support a deeper hip flexor stretch. By keeping your back rounded the whole time, you ensure you’re keeping your hips in a backward rotated-position (aka posterior pelvic tilt) which gives us the most stretch through our hip flexors.
How To
Step 1
Start kneeling on all fours, then drop down onto your elbows. Round your back by tucking your chin toward your chest, tucking your tailbone, and sucking your belly button in. Your challenge is going to be keeping your low back rounded throughout this exercise (it’s going to want to arch!).
Extend one leg straight out behind you - this will be the working leg.
Step 2
Keeping your back rounded (belly lifted as high as you can), lift your straight leg away from the floor. This should feel like a squeeze in your glutes (and potentially in your hamstrings in the back of the thigh as well). Then slowly lower the leg back to the floor.
Repeat for 8-12 leg lifts.
Modifications
Need to make it easier?
Start with your bent knee kneeling on a block to give you more space to lift your straight leg.
Want to make it harder?
Add ankle weights.
Add a resistance band between your lifting leg’s knee and the bottom leg’s shin.
Related Content
Flexopedia: Hips-on-Blocks Glutes Contract-Relax
Flexopedia: Lunge Knee Taps
