It's funny that I'm talking about a lower body exercise when the past week and a half I was just sidelined from doing a lower body exercise.
That doesn't mean that it's not important!
Oh by the way, I'm all better now, thanks for asking :) First day back at the gym was on Saturday and I was sucking wind. Now I know how people feel when they take an extended period of time away from the gym and struggle to get back.
I only had a week away from the gym and I was already making excuses as to why I shouldn't be going:
- I was tired (verrrry original)
- My friends asked me to go to dinner with them
- I was just coming back from an injury, one more day away wouldn't hurt me...would it?
- Friends was on and it was the episode where Ross and Rachel finally hook up. I can't miss that!
Damn that is a lot of excuses. Now I know how hard it is to start a new routine, especially after a long lay off (trust me, a week and a half is a long lay off to me).
Anyways long story short, I'm back at the gym regularly and kicking my own a**. When you fall off the horse the only thing to do is get back on it and ride it out.
Okay so back to the main point: What is the best lower body exercise everrrrr?
As a fitness trainer I usually am asked by females (for some reason males don't ask me about leg exercises...go figure) about what I consider the best lower body exercise in my fat loss arsenal.
Today I’m going to share my personal favorite lower body exercise and all of its awesome variations. It’s called the Rear-Foot Elevated Lunge Variation (a.k.a. Bulgarian Split Squat). This exercise is so effective that you’ll pretty much make your body thunder-thigh proof once you master it!
Before we get into this, one thing I definitely don’t want to do is feed into the idea of individual body part training and spot reduction on certain areas of the body.
I am a big believer in total body training, meaning that we train the upper body, lower body, and core during every single workout. By training the whole body at once we stimulate lean muscle gain and boost up your metabolism to promote total body fat burning. I like to call this Rapid Fat Loss Exercise.
We need to do this in order to effectively eliminate the body fat that is hiding those areas that people are having trouble seeing; yep the stubborn fat areas that prevent a good body from becoming a great body.
Plus, a diet high in lean protein, fiber, and green veggies and low in unnatural fats and refined sugars and starches is of course a MUST DO if you want to see your muscles tone up in a good way.
It is also important to know that you lose fat in a genetically predetermined way. You can do all the crunches you want but without total body training, proper eating habits, and enough time to get to those stubborn fat areas you will never get rid of your gut, jiggly arms, or the junk in the trunk.
Moving onto the main event: the world’s greatest lower body exercise.
My favorite leg exercises are any sort of lunge variation because I prefer single leg exercise in lieu of their double leg counterparts for a lot of reasons. For people with back issues, single leg exercises allow them to safely perform lower body exercises without putting their lower lumbar spine in jeopardy of hyper flexion or excessive rounding that can cause back spasms in the short run and herniated discs in the long run.
Also, I feel there’s often such a strength and/or flexibility imbalance between one leg and the other for most people that it’s critical to address one leg at a time to really shore up the weak links from the start.
My favorite lunge variation is called the rear foot elevated lunge. So basically we’re going to elevate the back foot on a chair, bench, box, or any other sturdy foot support, usually about 12-18 inches high.
You’ll put your front leg well in front of you in order to make sure that your front knee and ankle are lined up. In general, I tell people to exaggerate how far you put your front leg forward so that the front knee is almost slightly behind the ankle as this really helps reduce sheer force on the knees.
Initiate the exercise by loading the front heel and dropping your hips as low as you can in a pain-free range of motion while staying really tall up top with a proud chest and shoulders down and back. Finish the rep by explosively driving through your front heel to return to the top of the movement.
You can start with body weight only in search of front thigh parallel to the floor or lower depth and then progress by adding speed of movement or by adding dumbbells. You can even incorporate some very cool combination movements with this lower body exercise like adding a curl to press at the top of the movement or even by raising dumbbells overhead to really challenge your core and single-leg balance and stability.
I have yet to find an exercise that hits the legs as hard as this baby does. If you are looking for that apple bottom or just trying to tone up your legs, this exercise should be a staple in your workout program.
Go Hard or Go Home!
DG
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