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Lower body
| Wed, 12-22-2004 - 9:01am |
What is your favorite lower body exercise or the one you think works the best?
Thanks,
Melissa
| Wed, 12-22-2004 - 9:01am |
What is your favorite lower body exercise or the one you think works the best?
Thanks,
Melissa
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works best to do what?
without more specifics, i'd say the quad extension machine, because it does the best job of isolating and developing the quads, which is something i need to do to balance my glutes and hams and protect my knees.
I've got a couple of favorites right now...
I really like doing squats with a cable. You have to put enough weight on the stack though so you can lean back a little bit and not keel over (also forces you to use core muscles to keep yourself upright). You can also squat a little bit deeper with these as well.
My clients are loving/hating these glute raises that I'm having them do. You get on all fours and put a weight (start with 3 or 5 lbs) in the crook of your knee. You lift the knee with the weight up so that the bottom of your foot is going towards the ceiling. Do 15 reps. With the same leg, do 15 reps out to the side (think dog/fire hydrant). I follow those up with 15 pulses with foot pulsing up and 15 pulses with leg out to the side. These are a killer.
We have a lying leg press and I've started doing them single leg. I'm liking these as well.
I did those glute raises yesterday, having them lie prone on the ball.
Squats. One lower-body exercise to rule them all.
Nick
For an all-over leg exercise, IMO you can't beat lunges across the floor while holding weights. I guess that's "walking weighted lunges"? Sounds better than what I wrote.
My glutes are my problem area, so I have to work them hard to get them to a normal shape. I like standard glute raises while on all fours. I'm not a big fan of putting a weight in the crook of my knee simply because the weight falls off and I spend too much energy making sure it's balanced. I'd rather just kill my glutes than worry about the extra stuff.
For the glute/outer thigh combo, I like this exercise where you're on your side, hoisted up on your elbow. You are hoisted up but just to the knee. You take the upper leg and pull the knee in (so you drop down a bit), and then extend that leg. Repeat x number of times. It works both the outer thigh of the top leg and the glute area of the opposite side. I know I did a terrible job explaining it, but it works when I do it.
All great ideas!!!!!! I love lunges and squats.. Sumo squats really work, and make you sore afterwards, too! I do walking lunges with a 5 foot 12 lb. body bar in class... they really hurt! I love that good kind of hurt though!~
Melissa
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