Bodyweight Hip Abduction

How to do it

1. Lie on your side on a mat with your legs stacked, your bottom arm extended under your head for support.
2. Stack your hips squarely on top of each other and bend the bottom leg slightly for stability.
3. Keep the top leg straight with the toes pointing slightly forward and your foot flexed.
4. Lift the top leg straight up toward the ceiling in a smooth, controlled motion.
5. Stop when you feel a strong contraction in the side of the hip — usually around 30 to 45 degrees.
6. Lower the leg back down slowly without letting it touch the bottom leg, then repeat for reps.

Common mistakes

• Rolling the hips back to lift the leg higher, which lets the hip flexors take over from the glute medius.
• Lifting the leg too fast, which removes the time-under-tension that builds the glute.
• Pointing the toes up instead of flexing the foot, which shifts the work off the side hip.
• Letting the top hip drift forward — kills the side-glute contraction and turns the lift into a leg swing.