You better not skip your leg day, no matter how tempting it is. Training your lower body muscles is as important as building strong core muscles. Your legs are the wheels that carry you through the day, so you want them to be strong.
Strengthening your lower body also offers you tons of benefits for your overall health such as improved cardiovascular fitness, stronger bones, better body balance, and even boost mental toughness. That said, including lower body exercise in your daily workout routine is a must.
Read on to learn what lower body workouts are, the health benefits you can gain from them, and the best exercises you can do to train your lower body muscles!
What Is Lower Body Workout?
Lower body workouts are basically exercises designed to build strength in the lower back, hips, glutes, and legs. Exercising your lower body builds foundational strength that will help you to move through your day with greater ease.
Lower body exercises also help balance out your workout routine, helping you build muscle, stability, and speed in your lower body. They target the muscles in your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves.
Health Benefits of Lower Body Workout
It’s not that hard to see why exercising your lower body muscles is beneficial for you since most of your daily activities and tasks will rely on your legs. But more than that, keeping your lower body strong and fit can also contribute to:
Stimulates Hormones
Lower body exercises can stimulate the release of large amounts of hormones such as testosterone, cortisol, and human growth hormone (HGH).
Testosterone is important to help your body to repair damaged muscle proteins and build skeletal muscle. Cortisol helps your body to respond to stress and increases fat metabolism, while human growth hormone (HGH) promotes muscle growth, boosts immunity, and boosts fat metabolism.
Burn More Calories
Your backside muscles aka gluteus maximus are one of the largest muscles in your body. And Working these bigger muscles requires more energy, which means your body will have to burn more calories!
Reduce The Risk of injury
Muscle imbalances, poorly conditioned hamstrings, and a lack of mobility will lead to a number of issues such as anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries and low back pain. Performing lower body exercises such as squats, lunges, and deadlifts will help develop your hamstrings, build muscle around weak joints and help promote stability and mobility which could drastically reduce your chance of getting injuries.
Best Lower Body Exercises
We’ve curated some of the best lower body exercises you can do at home or at the gym to train and strengthen your lower body muscles.
1. Back Squat
This activity will target the muscle group in the back of your body, including the glutes and hamstrings.
How to do it:
- Load a barbell on your traps and stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
- Sit back into your hips, bend your knees, and drop down slowly toward the floor. Ensure that your knees move slightly out, and do not collapse in.
- Lower until your thighs are parallel to the ground then push back up to the starting position.
2. Front Squat
The front squat will target the front of your body, especially your quads.
How to do it:
- Load a barbell onto the front of your shoulders, hooking your fingers in an underhand grip on either side of your shoulders to support it. Push your elbows up and keep your gaze ahead.
- Sit back into your hips, bend your knees, and lower down toward the floor.
- Lower until your thighs are parallel to the ground then push back up to the starting position.
3. Romanian Deadlift
Similar to the back squat, Romanian deadlift is one of the best exercises for training the posterior chain and it’s also a great fat burner.
How to do it:
- Hold your weight (dumbbells or a barbell) in front of your thighs, and lower to the ground by pushing your hips back.
- As you lower the weight, keep your shoulder blades drawn towards each other and your chest open and wide.
- When the weight is below your knees, thrust your hips forward and return to the starting position.
4. Hip Thrust
The hip thrust is an exercise that will help you to build strength and size in your glutes.
How to do it:
- Sit on an elevated surface like a bench or sofa and place a weight on your hips.
- To set up, scoot your back down the bench with your knees bent and feet flat on the ground shoulder-width apart. Your legs should form a 90-degree angle, and the bench should be positioned right below your shoulder.
- Keep your chin tucked and drop your butt down toward the ground. Lower down while keeping your feet stationary, stopping once your torso forms a 45-degree angle with the ground.
- Push up through your heels until your thighs are parallel to the floor again. Squeeze your glutes at the top, then return to the starting position.
5. Lunge
Lunge is a resistance exercise popular for its ability to strengthen your back, hips, and legs while improving mobility and stability.
How to do it:
- From standing, take a big step forwards on one leg and lower until both knees are bent at a 90-degree angle, don’t let your back knee touch the floor.
- Push back through your front heel to stand.
- Keep your core engaged and torso upright throughout this exercise.
6. Lateral Lunge
Lateral lunges place emphasis on your hip adductors and abductors, making it beneficial for the tight sidestepping maneuvers required in many athletic activities such as soccer, rugby, basketball, and skiing.
How to do it:
- Stand with your legs under your hips and hold a barbell on your back.
- Step your right leg out to the side and lower your body as you bend your knee, keeping your left leg straight.
- Drive yourself back up to starting position and repeat on the other side.
7. Box Jump
This exercise will redline your heart rate while building stronger, more powerful glutes and quads.
How to do it:
- Set yourself a comfortable distance from the box with feet shoulder-width apart.
- Drop quickly into a quarter squat, swing your arms and explode upwards to jump onto the box.
- Land as softly as possible. Now step backward off the box under control.
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Build your strength, endurance, flexibility, and balance in our Strength Training class. Our class features a series of strength-training exercises, including lower body exercises, designed to effectively improve your muscular strength and endurance.