Top 5 Lower Body Lifts
What does having strong legs and glutes mean? It implies more than just being able to move heavy weights.
Real-world strength and endurance come from the ability to move heavy weights outside the typical sagittal plane (forward and backward) or when both feet are firmly planted on the ground, as in squats and deadlifts.
Maintaining control, strength, and agility in all planes of movement is the key to having both “show” and “go” in your lower body.
The following are five athletic and functional exercises that are highly effective:
1. Bulgarian Split Squats with Weight
Despite the fact that the trend of glutes has certainly made them popular. Why? Because it’s extremely challenging to perform loaded Bulgarian split squats.
They require much more stability than their dumbbell counterpart, which is less difficult. Push yourself to the max to load the triple and double exercise version. Your grip will give way before the lower part of your body.
One of the best exercises for developing strength, muscle, and endurance in the lower body is the loaded Bulgarian split squat. When my Boxers are in the strength-building phase, this is an essential exercise.
Try five sets of five reps each, or five sets of three reps per leg.
2. Landmine Curtsy
Frontal plane exercises are great for athleticism and overall functionality. When playing a sport, the body moves in all planes of motion. True side-to-side strength must be developed.
The 412 Landmine Curtsy is a killer endurance builder that you should add to your workout routine for a block or two because it places a lot of stress on the hip and gluteus medius side.
Complete 3 sets of 10-12 reps for each side.
3. Glute Ham Raise (GHD) or Nordic Curl
If you’re not using your gym’s GHD 330, you’re missing out! Glutes and hamstrings are put under a lot of tension during the GHD, but the tension is much more concentrated and high. It’s impossible to replicate with machine isolation lifts. An essential exercise is one that is challenging to do with body weight alone.
Additionally, glute and hamstring raises put a lot of stress on the hips and lower back, which are the foundation of a strong lower body. Unfortunately, the difficulty of the exercise causes many people to break at the hips and hyperextend in the spine, negating its true value. Use the assistance of a band to build strength while maintaining good form until you can perform it smoothly.
In most cases, perform three sets of 8-10 reps.
4. Single-Leg Deadlift
Take the average weightlifter or bodybuilder who can lift 500 pounds off the ground and ask them to do a single-leg deadlift. They’ll quickly realize how unstable and weak they are on one leg, even though they are incredibly strong as a unit. The single-leg deadlift highlights how much stability is required to keep the pelvis and hips in position, and how much weaker certain stabilizers can be. An admirable goal? Reasonably, to feel as comfortable on one leg as on two.
An added bonus is that bilateral lifts like the deadlift and squat will become much stronger after shoring up some weak links side to side.
Focus on keeping the hips, shoulders, and torso almost parallel to the ground while rotating the hips backward. Apply tension to the ground with the supporting foot, gripping that foot in place and grabbing the ground.
Strengthen the core and hinge the hips back with control, keeping the bar close to the body. Continue until the bar slightly surpasses the knee before extending the hips to lockout.
Do 3 sets of 6-8 reps per leg.
5. Pistol Squat
This exercise eluded me for some time, mainly because I failed at it. I thought my time was better spent in the squat rack. But I knew that a strong lower body should be able to perform most, if not all, movements with control, stability, and strength, including the pistol squat.
Pistol squats develop an astonishing amount of strength and muscle and enhance lower body functionality by increasing hip mobility, strengthening hip flexors, developing stronger and more flexible ankles, and improving stability.
Try 2 sets of 5-7 reps per leg.