The Leg Lowering Test is a supine assessment used to observe how well a client can maintain lumbopelvic position while the legs are lowered from a vertical position toward the table. It is commonly used as an abdominal muscle performance, lower abdominal control or lumbopelvic control test. A stronger performance is usually reflected by the ability to lower the legs closer to the table while maintaining a stable pelvis and lumbar position. The test does not diagnose back pain, identify a single weak muscle or confirm spinal instability; it should be interpreted with movement quality, symptoms, strength, mobility and functional findings.

Introduction

The Leg Lowering Test is a simple but useful movement-control assessment for observing abdominal performance during a progressively increasing lever-arm challenge. As the legs lower from approximately 90 degrees of hip flexion toward the table, the abdominal muscles must help control anterior pelvic tilt and lumbar extension.

The test is commonly used in health, fitness, rehabilitation and performance education because it is easy to set up and can be recorded objectively using an angle or position at the point where control is lost. However, it is important to avoid overinterpreting the result. A poor score does not diagnose low back pain, prove weak “lower abs” or confirm poor core stability in every context.

The most useful outcome is a clear record of how the client controls pelvic position, when compensation begins, whether symptoms occur, and whether the test improves over time when performed consistently.

Quick Summary

Test name: Leg Lowering Test
Also known as: Double Leg Lowering Test, Double Limb Lowering Test, DLLT, Supine Double Leg Lowering Test
Body region: Trunk, pelvis, lumbar spine and hips
Purpose: Assess abdominal muscle performance and lumbopelvic control during leg lowering
Commonly associated with: Core control, abdominal strength, posterior pelvic tilt control and movement screening
Positive finding: Loss of lumbopelvic control, lumbar arching, pelvic anterior tilt or symptom reproduction before the legs approach the table
Negative finding: Controlled lowering with maintained lumbopelvic position and no meaningful symptoms
Best used with: Lumbar ROM, hip flexor assessment, hamstring flexibility, functional movement tests, plank variations and Measurz movement recording
Key limitation: It is not a stand-alone diagnostic test for back pain or spinal stability.

What Is the Leg Lowering Test?

The Leg Lowering Test is a supine test where the client begins with both legs raised toward vertical and slowly lowers them toward the table while maintaining abdominal control and pelvic position. The professional observes whether the client can prevent the lower back from arching or the pelvis from tilting forward as the legs descend.

The test may be scored by measuring the angle at which the client loses control. Some protocols use the angle from horizontal, where a smaller angle indicates better control because the client lowers the legs closer to the table before compensation occurs. Other versions use categories such as excellent, good, average or poor. Because scoring systems can vary, the exact method should always be recorded.

Why It Is Used

The Leg Lowering Test is used to assess abdominal muscle performance under increasing mechanical demand. As the legs lower, the hip flexors and weight of the legs create a stronger extension moment on the pelvis and lumbar spine. The abdominal muscles must work to maintain pelvic position and control lumbar extension.

The test may be useful for identifying whether a client loses lumbopelvic control during supine leg-lowering tasks, dead bug variations, hollow holds, hanging leg raise progressions or other trunk-control exercises. It can also help guide exercise regression or progression.

What It Assesses

The Leg Lowering Test assesses:

• Lumbopelvic control during a progressive lever-arm task
• Ability to maintain posterior pelvic tilt or neutral lumbar position
• Abdominal muscle performance during eccentric leg lowering
• Coordination between trunk and hip flexor activity
• Lumbar extension compensation
• Pelvic control under load
• Symptom response during core-control tasks
• Side-to-side or bilateral control limitations if modified

It does not isolate the lower abdominal muscles. It also does not confirm spinal instability, diagnose back pain or identify one specific muscle as weak.

Who It Is Useful For

The test may be useful for clients who report low back arching during core exercises, difficulty controlling dead bug movements, discomfort during leg-lowering tasks, poor trunk control during athletic movements or reduced ability to maintain pelvic position under load.

It may also be useful for athletes, students and health or fitness professionals learning how to assess lumbopelvic control. The test should be modified for people with high irritability, acute pain, hip flexor discomfort, neurological symptoms, pregnancy-related positioning needs or difficulty lying supine.

When to Use This Test

Use the Leg Lowering Test when:

• You want to assess lumbopelvic control during a progressive core task
• The client can lie supine safely
• The client can raise both legs without symptoms
• You want to monitor change over time
• You need a simple objective measure for abdominal performance
• You can record the angle or position where control is lost
• You can distinguish movement compensation from pain response

When Not to Use or When to Be Cautious

Use caution or avoid the test when the client has acute low back pain, severe hip pain, recent abdominal, spinal, hip or pelvic surgery, suspected fracture, severe neurological symptoms, inability to lie supine, pregnancy-related positioning limitations, high symptom irritability or pain that worsens with minimal lower-limb movement.

Stop the test if the client reports sharp pain, spreading symptoms, neurological symptoms, dizziness, inability to control the legs, significant breath-holding or distress.

Equipment Required

The Leg Lowering Test requires:

• Firm treatment table or exercise mat
• Pain rating scale
• Symptom-location recording method
• Optional goniometer or inclinometer
• Optional pressure biofeedback unit
• Measurz app for structured documentation
• Optional video for movement review

Within Measurz, this test can be recorded alongside lumbar ROM, hip ROM, hamstring flexibility, hip flexor tests, plank endurance, functional movement assessments and strength/endurance tests. Measurz tools such as video recording, inclinometer measurement, stopwatch, rep counter and structured notes can help professionals improve repeatability and compare performance over time.

Step-by-Step Protocol / Practice

Setup

Explain that the test assesses how well the client can control their pelvis and lower back while lowering the legs. Clarify that the aim is quality control, not forcing the legs as low as possible.

Record baseline symptoms before testing, including pain score, symptom location and any current low back, pelvic or hip discomfort.

Client position

The client lies supine on a firm table or mat. The head and shoulders remain relaxed. The arms may rest by the sides, across the chest or under the pelvis depending on the protocol used, but the chosen position should be recorded.

Starting leg position

Raise both legs so the hips are close to 90 degrees flexion. Knees are usually extended in the standard double leg lowering version. If knee extension is not tolerated, a bent-knee modification can be used and documented.

Examiner/professional position

Stand or sit beside the client with a clear view of the pelvis, lumbar spine and lower limbs. If palpating, place fingers under the lumbar spine or monitor the anterior pelvis for movement according to the selected protocol.

Hand placement

Hand placement depends on the scoring method. The professional may palpate the lumbar curve, monitor the ASIS region, or use a pressure biofeedback unit beneath the lumbar spine. Avoid excessive pressure or uncomfortable hand placement.

Stabilisation

The client should maintain abdominal control and avoid excessive lumbar extension, anterior pelvic tilt, rib flare, breath-holding or rapid lowering.

Movement or force direction

The client slowly lowers both legs toward the table. The movement should be controlled and continuous. The professional stops the test when lumbopelvic control is lost, symptoms appear, or the client can no longer maintain the required position.

Instructions

Ask:

“Gently brace your trunk and keep your lower back and pelvis controlled.”
“Slowly lower both legs toward the table.”
“Stop when you feel your back arch, your pelvis move, or symptoms appear.”
“Tell me if you feel pain, pulling, pressure or your familiar symptoms.”

Positive finding

A positive or meaningful finding may include:

• Loss of posterior pelvic tilt
• Lumbar arching
• Anterior pelvic tilt
• Rib flare
• Breath-holding or bracing failure
• Hip flexor dominance or shaking
• Reproduction of familiar low back or pelvic symptoms
• Inability to control the legs through a useful range

Negative finding

A negative finding is controlled lowering through the expected range without loss of lumbopelvic position or meaningful symptom reproduction.

Stopping criteria

Stop if lumbopelvic control is lost, pain increases, symptoms spread, neurological symptoms occur, the client cannot control the legs, breath-holding becomes excessive or the client asks to stop.

Safety notes

Do not force the legs lower after pelvic control is lost. The test should prioritise quality of movement over maximal range.

Positive and Negative Test Interpretation

A positive Leg Lowering Test may suggest reduced lumbopelvic control or reduced abdominal performance during a progressive leg-lowering task. It may also suggest that the selected exercise level is currently too challenging for the client’s control capacity.

A positive test does not diagnose back pain, prove spinal instability or identify one specific weak muscle. Loss of control may be influenced by hip flexor strength, hamstring flexibility, abdominal coordination, breathing strategy, fatigue, limb length, body size, pain sensitivity, fear, or unfamiliarity with the movement.

A negative test suggests the client can maintain the required lumbopelvic position during the tested task. This does not mean “core stability is normal” in every context, because higher-load, faster, rotational or sport-specific tasks may reveal different control demands.

Sensitivity, Specificity and Diagnostic Accuracy

The Leg Lowering Test is not primarily a diagnostic accuracy test for a specific pathology. At the time of writing, high-quality peer-reviewed diagnostic accuracy evidence reporting sensitivity, specificity or likelihood ratios for the Leg Lowering Test as a stand-alone test for low back pain, spinal instability or specific muscle weakness appears limited.

The strongest evidence relates more to reliability, performance standards and abdominal muscle performance than diagnosis. Krause et al. reported excellent intratester reliability for the Double Leg-Lowering Test in healthy young adults and provided performance values for adults aged 18–29 years. However, those findings should not be used to diagnose pathology or make claims about all populations.

The test is best interpreted as a functional measure of lumbopelvic control and abdominal performance under a specific load rather than as a diagnostic test.

Reliability and Validity

Krause et al. reported excellent intratester reliability for the Double Leg-Lowering Test in healthy adults. Their study also found sex-related performance differences, with men lowering the legs closer to horizontal on average than women in the tested sample.

Performance values from that study may provide useful comparison information for healthy young adults, but they should be applied cautiously to older adults, adolescents, people with pain, athletes from different sports and clients with different body sizes or training histories.

Later research has explored adolescent performance and broader core-stability testing. These studies reinforce that the Leg Lowering Test can be useful when standardised, but it should not be assumed to represent all aspects of “core stability”. Core control is task-specific, and performance on one test may not directly translate to dynamic sport, lifting, running or rotational activities.

Common Errors and Limitations

Common errors include:

• Lowering the legs too quickly
• Allowing the lumbar spine to arch without stopping the test
• Failing to record the angle where control is lost
• Treating hip flexor shaking as the only outcome
• Assuming the test isolates the lower abdominals
• Forcing full lowering despite symptoms
• Not recording arm position or knee position
• Comparing results across sessions with different protocols
• Calling the test diagnostic for low back pain
• Ignoring breathing, rib flare or pelvic compensation

Limitations include variation in scoring methods, influence of body size and limb length, hip flexor contribution, hamstring flexibility, pain response, motivation, breathing strategy and the task-specific nature of core control.

Practical Applications

The Leg Lowering Test is useful for screening whether a client can control lumbopelvic position during a common core-training movement. It may help guide exercise selection by showing whether the client should start with bent-knee dead bugs, heel taps, supported leg lowering, short-lever progressions or more advanced straight-leg lowering work.

It can also help monitor change over time. If the same setup is used, Measurz can track whether the client maintains control to a lower angle, reports fewer symptoms, shows less compensation or improves confidence during the task.

How to Record This in Measurz

In Measurz, record:

• Test name: Leg Lowering Test or Double Leg-Lowering Test
• Test variation used
• Starting position
• Arm position
• Knee position: straight or bent
• Baseline pain score
• Angle or position where control was lost
• Maximum controlled range
• Pain score during and after the test
• Symptom location
• Symptom quality
• Whether symptoms were familiar
• Lumbar arching or pelvic anterior tilt
• Rib flare, breath-holding or compensation
• Speed of lowering
• Use of pressure biofeedback or palpation
• Result: controlled, loss of control, symptomatic, unclear or unable to test
• Confidence in result
• Related lumbar ROM, hip ROM, plank or functional findings
• Retest date if relevant

Recording these details improves repeatability, communication, exercise progression, assessment reasoning, client education and reporting quality.

Related Tests / Internal Links

• Straight Leg Raise Test
• Slump Test
• Lumbar Flexion Test
• Lumbar Extension Test
• Hip ROM Assessment
• Hamstring Flexibility Assessment
• Hip Flexor Length Assessment
• Plank Endurance Test
• Dead Bug Progression
• Functional Movement Assessment

FAQs

What is the Leg Lowering Test used for?

It is used to assess lumbopelvic control and abdominal muscle performance while the legs are lowered from a raised position.

Does the Leg Lowering Test diagnose low back pain?

No. It does not diagnose low back pain or confirm spinal instability. It provides information about movement control during a specific task.

What is a positive Leg Lowering Test?

A positive or meaningful finding may include lumbar arching, anterior pelvic tilt, loss of control or familiar symptom reproduction before the legs lower through the expected range.

What is a negative Leg Lowering Test?

A negative result means the client maintains lumbopelvic control through the tested range without meaningful symptom reproduction.

Is the test measuring lower abdominal strength?

It may reflect abdominal performance, but it does not isolate the lower abdominals. Hip flexors, breathing, pelvic control, limb length and movement strategy all influence the result.

Should the angle be measured?

Yes, where possible. Recording the angle where control is lost improves repeatability and makes reassessment more useful.

What should be recorded in Measurz?

Record variation, starting position, angle of control loss, pain score, symptom location, compensation, confidence and related findings.

Key Takeaways

The Leg Lowering Test assesses lumbopelvic control during a progressive supine leg-lowering task.
A positive result reflects loss of control or symptom reproduction, not a diagnosis.
The test can be useful for exercise progression and monitoring abdominal performance.
Scoring should be standardised because different protocols use different angle references.
Measurz should capture test variation, angle, symptoms, compensation and related findings.

References

Krause, D. A., Youdas, J. W., Hollman, J. H., & Smith, J. (2005). Abdominal muscle performance as measured by the double leg-lowering test. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 86(7), 1345–1348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2004.12.020

McGill, S. M., Childs, A., & Liebenson, C. (2009). Endurance times for low back stabilisation exercises: Clinical targets for testing and training from a normal database. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 90(1), 118–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2008.06.026

Rathod, S. A., Bedekar, N. S., & Shyam, A. K. (2021). Relationship between double leg lowering test and core strength test of the lumbar spine in normal healthy individuals. Journal of Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences University, 16(2), 248–252.

Schellenberg, K. L., Lang, J. M., Chan, K. M., & Burnham, R. S. (2007). A clinical tool for office assessment of lumbar spine stabilisation endurance: Prone and supine bridge manoeuvres. American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, 86(5), 380–386. https://doi.org/10.1097/PHM.0b013e318032156a

Shamrock, A. G., Donnally, C. J., & Varacallo, M. (2023). Lumbar stabilisation. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/

Tse, M. A., McManus, A. M., & Masters, R. S. W. (2005). Development and validation of a core endurance intervention programme: Implications for performance in college-age rowers. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 19(3), 547–552. https://doi.org/10.1519/15411.1