This One Bed Exercise Strengthens Your Legs Faster Than Walking

No, not that one bed exercise. Though that can be great too!

But this isn’t quite that:

Put your feet up!

Walking is great in many ways, but it doesn’t provide enough resistance to preserve or build the leg, hip, and core strength needed for stability as we age.

So instead, the exercise presented is a progression of bridge variations designed to increase lower-body strength and single-leg stability, both of which are really important.

Single-leg stability may seem like a strange one, “when am I ever having to perform feats of strength while balancing on one leg?”, but actually, while walking (and especially while going up and down stairs, and getting in and out of seats, including car seats), we’re often relying 70% or so on one leg at a time, and if at any point something requires us to have to rebalance suddenly, then very often it’s 100% on one leg and sometimes at an inconvenient angle, to avoid injuring ourselves.

So, it’s important.

Here’s what to do. We’re going to present it here in 4 steps, but it’s one exercise to be done start to finish:

1. Foundation bridge: lie on your back with your heels close to your buttocks and your hands by your sides. Flatten your lower back into the bed or mat, push through your heels, lift your hips into a straight line, squeeze your buttocks, and lower yourself back down. If you cannot do more than 12 comfortably, stick with this part until it becomes easier, before progressing to the next steps.
2. Stability boost: hold the bridge position, shift your weight onto one leg, briefly lift the other foot, put it back down, and alternate sides while keeping your hips elevated. The movement is intended to challenge stability in a way that resembles the weight shift that occurs during walking.
3. Single-leg bridge: lift one leg from the bridge and straighten it, hold for a couple of seconds, then lower yourself back down using the supporting leg. Alternate sides. Do six repetitions on each leg while keeping your pelvis completely level.
4. Straight-leg raise: from the bridge position, straighten one leg and lower that heel toward the bed or mat without allowing your pelvis to drop. Bring the leg back up, do six repetitions, then switch sides and repeat. Lower yourself slowly back down after finishing.

For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

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Take care!