Difficulty: Medium
Impact Level: Low
Target Body Parts: abs, lower back, calves, glutes, quadriceps
How to do Leg Spreaders
Back to ExercisesInstructions
Lay down on your back on a mat or a towel on a flat surface. Keep your back firmly pressed down against the floor and push your palms down into the floor, by your hips to help stabilize your core. Then with your legs straight and together, lift them up off the floor by about a foot (30cm).
From here, take your feet out as wide as you can, keeping them at the same height the whole time. Then squeeze through your inside thigh muscles to bring your feet back together and repeat this out / in motion slowly and with control for the duration of the exercise.
This is quite an intense exercise which puts the lower back under a lot of strain, especially if your core strength is not strong enough to protect it. So make sure your lower back stays pressed down into the floor. If you feel your back arch up away from the floor, you will need to work on easier core and abdominal exercises to build up your strength.
How to make Leg Spreaders easier
You can reduce the intensity of this exercise by bending your legs at the knees to shorten the length of your legs, keeping your feet closer to your hips. Also try some of our other exercises first like Leg Lifts and Plank Pose.
How to make Leg Spreaders more challenging
To amp this exercise up, take your hands off the floor and lift up your shoulder blades into the top of a crunch and hold that position whilst completing the exercise. Other harder exercises are: Snow angel, V Sit-Ups and Six inch and hold.
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