I have another abdominal exercise for you for the Home Exercise of the Week!  Your core muscles are very important for maintaining a healthy posture and back health as well as providing stability and strength to all other exercises and every day activities.  So please make sure you are not neglecting your core and to help you with that I would like to show you the Side to Side Leg Raise.

Side to Side Leg Raises target your lower abdominals and your obliques.  Proper form is key as with any exercise but with this one especially since improper form could lead to strain on your lower back.

Let’s take a look at the key points for proper Side to Side Leg Raise execution:

• lay flat on the floor with your arms extended out to your sides (this will stabilize you and keep you from rolling over) and legs together straight up in the air
• pull your belly button in towards your spine which will activate your abdominals and allow them to do more of the work instead of your back
• with legs together, lower them to the side until they are almost touching the floor
• keeping your abs contracted, raise back up to the starting position and repeat on the other side
• keep your head down as much as you can throughout the movement

Add the Side to Side Leg Raise to a superset or to your ab routine with a rep range of 12 to 20 reps to start.  If you find keeping your legs straight to be extremely challenging then you can bend your legs at the knees giving you a shorter lever which in turn will make the exercise easier.  On the flip side, if you find this not challenging enough then try holding a dumbbell between your feet!

Now go and get your abs burning!