Lunges and Squats: Best Lower Body Workout
Introduction
Do you want to build strength and muscle and tone your legs without spending hours at the gym? If so, then lower body workouts are the answer. They target muscles like quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves, and core muscles. These exercises improve balance and stability, allowing you to move better everyday life.
Lower body workouts are great for building lean muscle mass and burning fat. The key is to perform them correctly. This article explains how to perform lunges and squats properly to get the most out of these exercises.
The most versatile exercises are squats and lunges. They can be done by standing, sitting, kneeling, lying, or even hanging upside down.
Most people don't realise squats and lunges are great for building muscle mass. And they can be performed anywhere, anytime.
These two exercises are great for toning your legs, glutes, and abs. They also build strength and endurance.
When building muscle mass, it's important to focus on compound movements such as lunges and squats. These moves target multiple muscles at once, helping to burn calories, boost metabolism and tone your entire body.
Here is some Squat and Lunges variation that you can do at home:
Squats
- Squat Jumps- Adding plyometric movements (jumping) to the traditional squats builds strength and tones legs and hips. Balancing your body during this workout challenges your abs which generates core strength.
- Pistol Squat- This workout is also known as single-leg squat. In this workout, you extend your non-squat leg out, and your standing legs balance your body weight. Pistol squat improves body posture.
- Stilleto Squat- Besides working the leg and glute muscles as in the standard squat, this variation includes calf training by elevating the heels as you lower and raise your torso. This technique requires body balance that strengthens your core.
Lunges
- Forward-Kick Lunge- In addition to the advantages of a typical lunge (glutes, legs), this exercise adds core strength and a balancing challenge by thrusting the leg through and resulting in standing on the resting one leg with the other extended out in front. You will utilise your core stability to pull the leg back behind you and land back in the lunge stance.
- Cross-behind Lunge- It is similar to a single-leg squat. You should not put any weight on the leg that drops behind you. You put your entire weight on the front leg, bending that knee and experiencing a squeeze in your glute. Your core power is also put to play to maintain your body balance when you sweep your leg behind you and bend your front knee.
- Side Lunge- The inner thighs, glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps are all strengthened and toned by the side lunge. This lunge works on all these muscles and helps lift and shape your booty.
Pro Tip: It's important to warm up before performing any exercise. Doing so will increase blood flow to your muscles, helping them to recover faster after working out. Also, take deep breaths during each repetition to ensure proper breathing. And finally, focus on keeping your back straight and your chest lifted high throughout the entire movement.
Conclusion
Lower body workouts are essential because they target your legs, glutes, core muscles, and back. They also improve balance and endurance, which makes them great for anyone looking to tone their physique.
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