Side Plank Leg Lift

Description

How to Do Side Plank Leg Lift

1. 1
   Setup

   Lie on your side, propped up on your forearm with your elbow directly under your shoulder. Stack your feet and hips, keeping your body in a straight line from head to heels.

2. 2
   Setup

   Engage your core and lift your hips off the floor, forming a straight line from your head through your heels. Ensure your supporting shoulder is stable and not shrugging.

3. 3

   Exhale as you slowly lift your top leg straight up towards the ceiling, maintaining a straight knee and keeping your hips stacked. Only lift as high as you can without tilting your pelvis.

4. 4

   Inhale as you slowly lower your top leg back down to meet your bottom leg, controlling the movement. Avoid letting your hips drop or rotate throughout the leg lift.

5. 5

   Complete all repetitions on one side before switching to the other side to ensure balanced muscle development.

Tips

• Focus on hip stability: Keep your hips perfectly stacked and avoid any rotation or tilting as you lift and lower your leg, ensuring maximum glute and oblique activation.
• Control the movement: Perform the leg lift slowly and deliberately, focusing on muscle engagement rather than momentum to increase time under tension.
• Maintain core engagement: Continuously brace your core and glutes to prevent your hips from sagging or shifting, which is key for spinal stability and oblique work.
• Breathing pattern: Exhale as you lift the leg to help engage your deep core muscles, and inhale as you lower it with control.

Common Mistakes

• ×Allowing hips to drop or rotate: Keep your core tight and hips stacked throughout the entire movement to prevent your body from losing its plank alignment and reduce effectiveness.
• ×Shrugging the supporting shoulder: Actively press down through your forearm and keep your shoulder away from your ear to maintain proper shoulder stability and avoid neck strain.
• ×Using momentum to lift the leg: Control the leg lift with your glute and hip abductor muscles, lifting only as high as you can without swinging or jerking.