maratoolLying Crossover
How to do the lying crossover
- Lie on your back with your legs extended.
- Cross one leg over your body with the knee bent, attempting to touch the knee to the ground. Your partner should kneel beside you, holding your shoulder down with one hand and controlling the crossed leg with the other. this will be your starting position.
- Attempt to raise the bent knee off of the ground as your partner prevents any actual movement.
- After 10-20 seconds, relax the leg as your partner gently presses the knee towards the floor. Repeat with the other side.
Muscles worked
The muscles under tension are the hip abductors — gluteus medius and minimus, which drive the thigh away from the midline and keep the pelvis level when you stand on one leg.
A stretch loads them at the far end of the range they normally work in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.
Every exercise for:Abductors
How this movement works
Nothing travels once you are in position. The muscle holds a length under tension instead of working through a range, so effort is measured in seconds rather than repetitions — and the honest progression is more time in a good position, not a deeper one forced early.
It is filed under stretching, so the target is range of motion rather than force — a position you can settle into and breathe in, held long enough for the tissue to give.
What you need
No equipment at all. The resistance is your own bodyweight, so you progress by changing leverage, range or tempo rather than by adding plates — and you can do it anywhere.
Every exercise using:Body only
These train the abductors too, using equipment this one does not:
- Monster Walkband
- Thigh Abductormachine
- Iliotibial Tract-SMRfoam roll
Difficulty
Listed at expert level. It asks for range, stability or speed that takes time to build, and it punishes a rushed set-up much harder than an easier movement would.
Of the 8 abductors exercises in this database, 1 are listed at expert level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.