Pure Barre: Why is my leg lift so low?

Have you ever noticed that you have difficulty lifting your leg as high as your Pure Barre peers? Why is this?

There are fitness activities that lengthen your muscles and ones that shorten your muscles.  For instance, dancing lengthens the muscles, thus dancers tend to be flexible. Running shortens many muscle groups,therefore many serious runners struggle with flexibility. Think of these concepts as you read this post.

In class there are many different poses that require us to lift our legs up.  Today we will discuss a few:

• Hands and knees hip extension

• Standing straight leg raise or leg lift

• Standing warm up hip flexion

When you are lifting the leg up in any of these directions, the muscle group on the opposite side of the leg (from the muscle you are working) has to relax and lengthen.  If you are continually shortening that muscle group in your daily tasks or other fitness activities (like running) you may find yourself with one of the lowest leg lifts in class.  But this doesn't mean that you are putting in less effort!  

Notice the photos, the green muscle is moving the leg and the yellow must lengthen to allow the movement.  This concept is quite intuitive, however the experience of limited motion during fitness class often feels like a strength problem.  While weakness can limit motion, often a major contributor is lack of flexibility or the inability to adequately lengthen the muscle resisting motion.

While flexibility will improve over time, it is also important to respect this limitation. When we move past the range our stiff muscles will allow, often we start moving too much somewhere else.  In these two examples the extra movement is in the spine.  

Notice in each of these photos that there is a muscle group preventing the working muscle from lifting.  This is normal, we all have these muscles with varying levels of resistance.  Think about a less flexible muscle as a more difficult resistance band.  Instead of just the weight of the leg that you are lifting, you are also lifting against your body’s built-in resistance.  

Don’t worry, it’s okay if you are still working on that leg lift height!  While flexibility might be something you want to work on, it is not worth compromising your spine and pelvis posture to get the leg higher.  While your body may not allow you to move the leg very far yet, you are still getting excellent strength training without sacrificing technique. 

So next time you look around the class and you think your leg might be the lowest in the class, remember that it might not be only strength that’s an issue for you, it might be stiffness.  This can help you to direct your stretching exercises to address areas that are difficult to move away from. 

To your movement health, 

Ann & Jesse

This blog is not intended as medical or professional advice.  The information provided is for educational purposes only and is not intended to serve as medical or physical therapy advice to any individual.  Any exercise has potential to cause injury or pain if it is incorrectly done or is not the right exercise for an individual’s medical or physical problems. You should consult with a physical therapist or medical provider for individualized advice.