Lying Leg Raise
The lying leg raise loads the lower rectus abdominis by resisting the weight of your legs as they lower toward the floor. Because the legs stay straight, the hip flexors, led by the rectus femoris, share the work. Keeping the low back pinned to the floor is the whole game here; lose that and it becomes a back exercise.
- Equipment
- Body Weight
- Body part
- Abs
- Type
- Strength
- Browse by muscle
- Lower Rectus Abdominals
- Browse by movement
- Core Brace
- Target
- Lower Rectus Abdominals
- Secondary
- Rectus Femoris
- Tertiary
- Abdominal External Oblique
How to do it
- 1
Lie flat with your legs extended and hands tucked under your hips or by your sides.
- 2
Brace your abs and press your low back into the floor.
- 3
Raise both legs together until they point toward the ceiling.
- 4
Exhale at the top, keeping a slight bend in the knees if needed.
- 5
Inhale and lower your legs slowly, stopping before your back arches.
- 6
Reverse and lift again without letting your feet rest on the floor.
Tips
- Stop lowering the moment your low back wants to lift; that is your range.
- Slide your hands under your glutes to help hold the pelvis in a safe position.
- Bend the knees slightly to reduce hip flexor strain if straight legs bother your back.
Variations
Common mistakes
- Letting the heels tap down and using the rebound to start the next rep, which hands the hardest part of the movement to momentum.
- Hauling on whatever your hands are holding, a bench leg or a doorframe, so the arms and lats drag the legs up.
- Lifting only to vertical and never rolling the pelvis toward the ribs, which leaves the lower abs doing far less than the hip flexors.
- Racing the lowering; the descent is where the abs earn the rep, and a half-second drop makes the whole set easier than it looks.
- Letting the ribs pop up and the brace disappear once the set gets hard, which is the moment the low back starts taking the load.
Frequently asked
- How many sets and reps of the lying leg raise should you do when you are new to the exercise?
- Three sets of 8 to 15, with a three-second lowering on every rep. The number that matters is not the rep count but where the low back lifts: if it peels off the floor before rep eight, bend the knees or shorten the range and build from there. Two or three sessions a week fits alongside other training. Slow the descent to five seconds before you add any load.
- How do I make the lying leg raise easier or harder?
- Easier: bend the knees to shorten the lever, lower one leg at a time while the other stays up, or slide your hands under your glutes so the pelvis stays tucked. Harder: stretch the lowering to five seconds, stop the legs a few inches off the floor and hold, squeeze a light medicine ball or dumbbell between the feet, or hold a bench behind your head and take the feet toward it. Ankle weights add load in small steps.
- What is the lying leg raise for, and who should skip it?
- It builds strength in the lower part of the rectus abdominis and teaches you to hold a braced trunk while the legs move, which carries over to running, carrying and overhead work. It needs no equipment and no bar to hang from. Skip it for now if the low back arches the instant the legs leave the floor, or if you feel the whole set in the front of the hips: reverse crunches and dead bugs build the same control with the pelvis in a safer spot.
Related exercises
Other movements among FitRay's 2,000+ exercises that load the same target muscle — same equipment and level first.