# Exercise: Lying on your back, lifting legs 90º **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2001, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exercise-lying-on-your-back-lifting-legs-90/48477 "2001-01-04T23:00:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exercise-lying-on-your-back-lifting-legs-90/48477/1 "2001-01-04T23:00:31Z")
Does this put a lot of wear and tear on the back? More than sit-ups? Less? ---
**Author:** ![missbunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@missbunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missbunny)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2001, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exercise-lying-on-your-back-lifting-legs-90/48477/2 "2001-01-04T23:51:41Z")
Mjollner, you have to put your hands underneath your butt, palms down. Otherwise the strain on your lower back is too great and you can injure yourself. ---
**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exercise-lying-on-your-back-lifting-legs-90/48477/3 "2001-01-05T00:04:49Z")
One of the stretching exercises I do consists of lying on my back and lifting my legs perpendicular to the ground, holding that for about a minute, and then cross my legs over each other for about a minute, and then go into the Plow (yoga) position; i.e., let my legs drop down towards my head (with the legs straight, but soft knees), hold that for a while, and then bend my knees and with my arms push my lower legs on the ground. This stretches a lot of leg, buttocks, and hip muscles, particularly the piriformis. That does not bother my back. If you have a bad back, it obviously is contraindicated. It will not aggravate any back problems that are non-existent. Perhaps some one will chime in and disagree, but I’ve been doing that for years. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exercise-lying-on-your-back-lifting-legs-90/48477/4 "2001-01-05T00:27:25Z")
Making a concerted effort to keep your lumbar spine flat against the floor throughout the whole motion should reduce the strain on your back. Putting your hands in the **missbunny** position (wink, wink) should facilitate this. ---
**Author:** ![Skwerl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Skwerl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skwerl)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exercise-lying-on-your-back-lifting-legs-90/48477/5 "2001-01-05T01:11:40Z")
I’ve found something similar that is a good alternative to situps: you put your hands under your rear, so it’s resting atop them, then hold your legs out at like a 70 degree angle. Then you use your hips to bring them up; not your legs. If you really concentrate on just using your hips, you get a great ab workout. I do my regular situps special anyway, so I’m not sure how bad convential situps are, but I’d guess this is better for your back. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exercise-lying-on-your-back-lifting-legs-90/48477/6 "2001-01-05T01:54:32Z")
I used to (and still do at times) have horrible back pain in the lumbar region, which was apparantly caused buy a tight hamstring. I was incapable of lifting my legs in the manner you described. (One at a time, anyway. Both together was no problem.)Guess what one of my prescribed exercises was? Lying on my back (arms at my side–sorry **missbunny** ) with my back as flat as I could make it and lift each leg as close to 90 degrees as I could. If I still did it, I’d probably never have back pain. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exercise-lying-on-your-back-lifting-legs-90/48477/7 "2001-01-05T17:08:20Z")
I do it on my stomach. Raise my legs 90 from there to test to see if the lower back is acting right 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2001, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/exercise-lying-on-your-back-lifting-legs-90/48477/8 "2001-01-05T20:20:16Z")
When I had back trouble, my physical therapist had me do those as a hamstring stretch. The critical difference, though, is that you START with bent legs, and raise one leg at a time to a straight 90 degrees, or as close as you can get.