What do walking, standing up and sitting down and climbing in and out of bed all have in common? Two things. First, they are perhaps the only movements that every single person does every single day. And second, they all require moving the lower body. Indeed, your lower body—AKA everything from your waist down—is perhaps the most important part of your body when it comes to maintaining the ability to effectively move through your day.
But that is not all the lower body is good for. It’s also home to the largest, strongest muscles in your body, which means that exercising it guarantees an optimal metabolism and calorie-burning capabilities. It’s critical to maintaining good balance and mobility as you age. And of course, who doesn’t want to look great in jeans and leggings?
Here, we’re sharing three of our favorite ways to work the lower body, plus 10 of the best lower body exercises.
3 Different Ways to Work the Lower Body
As we’ve already mentioned, almost every basic movement that your body completes throughout the day utilizes the muscles in your lower body. As such, it’s important to exercise and challenge those muscles in different ways to make sure they’re capable of (literally) carrying you everywhere you need to go. Here are three different training methods we like to use and the perks of each.
Big Range of Motion
This is the traditional way to do strength training exercise—you’ll move through the full range of the move with every rep. There are so many benefits to doing exercises with a full range of motion, including increased strength, better flexibility and mobility, and improved balance and core strength. Important to note: “Full range of motion” is going to be different for every person. As long as you are working to your full ability, you’ll get the perks.
Small Range of Motion
You may have heard this method referred to as pulses, or pulsing in a movement. This technique involves coming to the most challenging point in an exercise and staying there while making the tiniest movements up and down that you can. The biggest difference here is that you’re increasing your muscles’ time under tension, improving your endurance and strength. It can also be more mentally challenging as you aren’t giving your muscles a break between reps.
Explosive Movements
Also called plyometrics, this method involves kicking up the intensity and impact of your exercise, often by adding a jump. Incorporating plyometrics adds a cardio component to your strength training, plus can help improve your coordination and strength and increase your bone density.
10 Best Lower Body Exercises
Now that you know how important lower body exercise is, plus a few different ways to attack your workout, here are 10 of the most powerful lower body exercises. Below, you’ll find how-tos for each of the training methods above; we recommend you mix and match techniques to get the most out of your workout.
Squats
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What it works: Hamstrings, quads, glutes, and calves
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Make it big: Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart holding medium to heavy weights wherever is comfortable. Bend your knees, sending your butt back with your weight in your heels, going as low as you can, then return to standing.
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Make it small: Come to the lowest point in your squat, then lift and lower one inch.
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Make it explode: From the lowest point in your squat, press up and jump off the ground as you straighten your legs, then land in your squat.
Reverse Lunges
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What it works: Hamstrings, quads, glutes, and calves
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Make it big: Start with your feet together holding medium to heavy weights at your sides. Take a large step back and bend both knees as close to 90 degrees as possible, then push off your back foot to return to standing. Alternate sides.
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Make it small: Come to the lowest point in your lunge, then lift and lower one inch.
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Make it explode: From the lowest point in your lunge, press up off both feet and jump off the ground, switching legs in the air to land in the opposite lunge.
Lateral Lunges
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What it works: Hamstrings, inner and outer thighs, and glutes
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Make it big: Start with your feet together holding medium to heavy weights at your sides. Take a large step to the side, sending your butt back as you bend your knee and keep your other leg straight. Push off your stepping leg to return to standing. Alternate sides.
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Make it small: Come to the lowest point in your lunge, then lift and lower one inch on your bent leg.
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Make it explode: From the lowest point in your lunge, press powerfully off your bent leg to return to standing, but don’t put your foot down and balance for a moment before lunging again.
Romanian Deadlifts
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What it works: Hamstrings and glutes
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Make it big: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, medium to heavy weights in front of you facing your thighs. With your knees slightly bent and back flat, hinge at the hips until the weights reach mid-shin, then squeeze your glutes to lift back up.
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Make it small: Come to the lower point in your RDL, then lift and lower your back one inch.
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Make it explode: RDLs don’t have a plyometric form, but you can squeeze your glutes and press your hips forward at the top for something extra.
Split Squats
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What it works: Glutes and hamstrings
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Make it big: Stand in front of a bench or chair, facing away, holding medium to heavy weights at your sides. Take a large step forward, then place one foot on the bench or chair behind you. With all your weight on your front foot, bend your knee to lower into a squat, keeping your front knee over your toes, then press back up.
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Make it small: Come to the lowest point in your squat, then lift and lower one inch.
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Make it explode: Step away from the bench or chair so that you are balancing and your leg is hovering behind you. Lower into your squat then press up and jump off the ground, bringing your back knee in and driving it up in front of you.
Donkey Kicks
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What it works: Glutes and hamstrings
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Make it big: Come onto all fours. If you’re using a weight, rest a light one in the crook of your knee. Keeping your knee at a 90 degree angle, press your foot toward the ceiling until your thigh is parallel to the floor. Lower back down, hovering off the floor between reps.
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Make it small: Come to the top of the movement where your thigh is parallel to the floor, then lift and lower one inch.
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Make it explode: This move doesn’t have an explosive form.
Glute Bridges
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What it works: Glutes and hamstrings
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Make it big: Lie on your back on the floor and bend your knees to bring your feet flat with your heels about six inches from your butt. If you’re using weights, hold medium ones on your hip bones. Squeeze your glutes to lift your butt and lower back off the floor, keeping your upper back down, then lower back down.
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Make it small: Come to the point in the movement where your hips are highest off the ground, then lift and lower one inch.
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Make it explode: This move doesn’t have an explosive form.
Step Ups
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What it works: Glutes, hamstrings, and quads
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Make it big: Stand facing a box, step or bench at a challenging height, likely somewhere between your mid-shin and knee. If you’re using weights, hold medium ones at your sides. Place one foot on the box and push through your heel to step up onto it, then lower back down. Alternate sides.
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Make it small: From standing on the box on one foot, bend your knee to tap your other toe on the ground before pressing back up.
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Make it explode: Instead of stepping with one foot at a time, jump with both feet up onto the box, step or bench.
Deadlifts
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What it works: Glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves
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Make it big: Place a medium to heavy barbell on the floor and stand just behind it with your feet shoulder-width apart. Squat to grip the bar, then with your chest lifted and back straight, press through your heels to lift the bar and come to standing. Lower back down.
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Make it small: Come to the lowest point in the movement, then keep your back steady and lift and lower your butt one inch.
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Make it explode: Deadlifts don’t have an explosive form, but you can press your hips forward and squeeze your glutes at the top.
Sumo Squats
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What it works: Hamstrings, quads, glutes, inner and outer thighs
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Make it big: Step your feet out wide and turn your toes out to the sides. Hold medium to heavy weights in front of you. Bend your knees to lower your butt towards the floor as low as you can, then return to standing.
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Make it small: Come to the lowest point in the squat, then lift and lower one inch.
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Make it explode: From the lowest point in your squat, press up and jump off the ground as you straighten your legs, then land in your squat.
Ready to Power Up?
Lower body strength is so important to overall health and fitness. If you are looking for new, interesting, and challenging ways to sculpt and strengthen your lower half, consider the amp fitness device. Not only does it come with accessories that will help you work your lower body from every angle, but the AI-powered routines and gamified workouts incorporate all three forms of lower body training we’ve detailed here. Reserve your device today!
