Muscles worked
Here you remove one point of contact at a time from the forearm plank. Your abs do the same job as in the plank, but as one foot leaves the floor your pelvis wants to tip and twist, so the obliques get more to do. Your glute raises the leg with help from the hamstring, and on the standing leg the side of the hip keeps your pelvis level. That makes the exercise a mix of core and glutes.
Common mistakes
- Your leg goes higher than your body. Above the line from shoulder to heel, the leg can only keep rising if your pelvis twists up on that side. Lift until your foot is roughly level with your hip.
- The knee of the lifting leg bends. With a bent knee your hamstring takes over and may cramp, while your glute does less. Keep the leg straight with your toes towards the floor.
- Your foot drops. The lowering is half the exercise. Put your toes down softly without letting go of the tension, and lift the next leg only once your body is still.
Variations and alternatives
- The plank without leg lifts is the step to build first.
- The dead bug trains keeping your trunk still while a leg moves, lying down and with less load.
- Plank shoulder taps remove a hand instead of a foot and move more of the work to your shoulders.
Sets and reps
Count lifts per leg, ideally 6 to 10 per leg over two or three sets, with a two-second hold at the top. You can also alternate legs at a calm pace for 30 to 45 seconds. Once your hips stop staying still during the lift, the set is over. How many sets suit you is covered in the guide to sets and reps.
Lengthen the hold at the top before adding lifts. The next step is to reach the opposite arm forward as the leg lifts, leaving only two points of contact. Longer holds first, more lifts second: that is what progressive overload looks like here. If your lower back hurts as the leg lifts, rather than just feeling like hard work, stop the exercise and have a doctor or physiotherapist look at it.