Male

Straight Leg Kickback kneeling

Muscles involved

The straight leg kickback kneeling is a bodyweight exercise where everything revolves around precision and conscious physical control. As you support yourself on the floor and lift your fully extended leg backward, you feel a clean, progressive tension that targets your glutes and hamstrings directly. The secret here is not using momentum or swinging quickly, but mastering every inch of the range of motion while keeping your hips aligned and your lower back firm without arching. When you hold that top peak contraction for a brief pause, you experience a sharp, localized burn that teaches you how to engage your posterior chain with total mind-muscle connection, ensuring zero compensation from surrounding joints.

How to do it

1. Get on all fours with your knees bent, arms extended, and hands supported on the floor. 2. Exhale and fully extend one leg backward, lifting it as high as possible. 3. Hold the position for a couple of seconds, contracting your glutes and keeping your back straight. 4. Return to the starting position and inhale, repeating the movement with the opposite leg.

Equipment required

Peso corporal

Muscles worked

Tips

- Keep your neck in a neutral line with your spine. - Contract the glute of the moving leg as you lift it. - Avoid excessively arching your lower back.