Side-Lying Leg Lifts
Side-Lying Leg Lifts
Muscle Group Stretched: Hamstrings (potentially inner thighs as well, if you have tight inner thighs)
Muscle Group Strengthened: Hip Flexors, Glutes
Type of Stretch: Active Dynamic
Difficulty: All Levels
Suggested Prerequisites: none
Side-lying leg lifts are a good companion/variation to supine leg lifts lying on your back because they target your hip muscles in a slightly different way. You still are strengthening your hip flexors and stretching your hamstrings (to support a deeper range of motion in the hamstrings), but specifically in a "hip abducted" (leg out to the side, as opposed to in front) position, which translates better to hamstring flexibility for straddle pancakes, or standing side leg scales.
How To
Step 1
Start lying on your side, with your hips stacked (both hip bones pointing forwards, not up to the ceiling), and bottom thigh straight in line with your torso. You can bend the bottom knee for balance, but keep the thigh in line with your torso, don’t let the knee come forward (don’t flex the hip). You can rest your head on your hand, upper arm, or a yoga block.
Step 2
The top leg is going to be our working leg. Keeping the top leg as straight as is comfortable-but-challenging, rotate the thigh towards the ceiling (aka “turn out” or “externally rotate”) and lift the leg up, trying to kick (with control!) your foot towards the ceiling, or knee towards your shoulder. This should feel like a squeeze in the front of your thigh, hip, and glutes in that leg (the glutes are what are helping keep your thigh rotated towards your ribs, which allows you to lift the leg higher than if you had the thigh and knee facing forwards).
Lower the leg back down with control.
Repeat for 8-12 leg lifts.
Modifications
Need to make it easier?
Bend the lifting leg knee. If you have tight hamstrings (or weaker hip flexors), bending the knee until you can get the foot up to the ceiling will make this exercise a bit easier.
Want to make it harder?
Add ankle weights.
Related Content
Flexopedia: Side-Lying Froggy Kicks
Flexopedia: Supine Hamstring PNF (Hamstrings)
Flexopedia: Supine Hamstring PNF (Hip Flexors)
Blog Post: How to Tell if Hamstring “Tightness” is Nerve or Muscle Tension
Blog Post: Work Your Y-Scale with PNF
