Best Butt Exercises: L-Sit Lying Leg Raises

It’s that time of the week again, time for another awesome butt exercise to add to the Best Butt Exercise index! I have an excellent move for you this week, that I think you will be impressed with if you’re all about working out the butt. This move is courtesy of Greg Smithey from the Buns of Steel workout!

Exercise: L-sit lying leg raises
Muscles worked: Predominantly Glutes, some core.
Jolie Recommends: 2-3 sets of either: 10 slow reps or 20 fast reps. Increase the numbers as you progress.
Difficulty rating: 2
Effectiveness rating: 5

This exercise is very similar to the lying side leg raise, but introduces a small variation on the initial positioning of the standard lying side leg raise. I learnt this one from my recent trial of the exercise workout video “Buns of Steel” which, by the way, I highly recommend if you are in the mood for an epic butt workout.

Interestingly enough, a little change in leg positioning can lead to a big difference in the feel of this exercise, and by positioning your body in an “L” position, you change the focus of the exercise from the sides of your butt to the lower side portion of your butt.

This is great news for anyone suffering from saggy butt syndrome, as targeting the lower muscles of the glutes (the gluteus minimus) will definitely assist in toning as well as creating a lifting effect as the muscles tighten up and increase in muscle tone.

As with the regular lying side leg raises, feel free to make this one harder by using a resistance band loop, but most people will find that starting out on this exercise with bodyweight is enough!

I love this exercise because it targets muscles that wouldn’t normally be used (it doesn’t seem to get hit as much by the more popular exercises like squats and deadlift that most people are familiar with) – and this becomes quickly evident by the speed at which you start to feel the muscles burning with fatigue when you do the L-sit lying leg raise.

But enough already… try it and see for yourself!

Best Butt Exercise #17: L-sit Lying Side Leg Raises

How to Do the Move

1. Begin lying on your side with your body extended out in a straight line, hand on the hip and under the head for comfort.
2. Bring both legs out in front of you by bending at the hip, so that your legs and torso form an “L” shape.

   

3. Keeping your hips stacked vertically one on top of the other and legs straight, raise your upper leg vertically by hinging at the hip and squeezing the glutes.
4. Lift the leg until your foot is about 15 – 24 inches off the ground, then lower down to the starting position.

   

5. This is one rep – perform the desired number of reps, then repeat on the other side.

If you can’t get your body into an “L” shape with straight legs because of flexibility issues, feel free to bend the knees if you need to. The main factor which seems to allow for the butt to be targeted in this move is maintaining a right angle (L shape) between your thigh and torso on that upper leg (the one being raised). If you need to, you can keep your lower leg bent and increase the angle between your lower leg and torso until you can perform the move.

Perfecting Your Form

This exercise can be done either slow or fast, so feel free to mix it up to get the ultimate burn. If you are performing fast reps it is essential not to go so fast as to let momentum take over instead of your muscles doing the work.

A good place to start out with this one is with 3 sets of 10 slow reps (2 seconds up and 2 seconds down), or try 3 sets of 20 fast reps (1 second per rep). As it’s one of the dual-sided exercises it can be done more efficiently if you swap sides between each set so that you save time on rest breaks (one side is resting while the other one is working).

Once you get better at this one, try it with an exercise band loop for extra resistance and glute building effectiveness.

Enjoy!