This No-Squat Exercise Will Hearth Up Your Legs and Butt

Sure, squats are an superior train. However they don’t want a slot in each lower-body routine. In truth, having a leg exercise with out squats is useful for these instances you’re actually not jazzed in regards to the train, whether or not on account of it feeling not-so-great in your physique, the need for extra selection in your routine, or the truth that you merely aren’t within the temper.

“It’s okay to not all the time have squats in your rotation,” Lauren Leavell, CPT, group health teacher at Lauren Leavell Health, tells SELF. There are a bunch of workout routines on the market that fill an analogous position, difficult the identical muscle tissues because the squat—particularly, your quads, hamstrings, and glutes.

And we tapped Leavell to create a lower-body exercise that’s chock-full of ’em. First up is a reverse lunge, a stellar single-leg train that’ll particularly ignite your quads, whereas additionally firing up your glutes and hammies. Then, you’ll go proper right into a superset, or a stack of two workout routines that you just full proper after the opposite, with out resting in between. Your superset might be made up of the Romanian deadlift—a traditional hip hinge transfer that’s nice for concentrating on your bottom muscle tissues, together with your glutes, hamstrings, and again—and the lateral step-down to heel faucet, one other single-leg transfer that hits your quads and glutes. Lastly, you’ll end with a weighted glute bridge, which zeros in in your butt.

All in all, “that is going to actually burn out your decrease physique,” says Leavell. Bonus: It’ll additionally hit your abs. “Core work is coming by means of in each train,” Leavell says, significantly the single-leg strikes, since your midsection is what helps your physique keep stabilized and balanced when you maintain heavy weights and transfer your legs.

Lastly, as a result of this routine engages a few of the largest muscle tissues in your physique, it’ll doubtless tax your coronary heart and lungs, supplying you with a cardio enhance, too. “For those who’re working constantly by means of this, not taking lengthy breaks, you’ll get your coronary heart charge up,” Leavell says. She suggests doing it as soon as every week, alongside an upper-body particular routine and a total-body exercise.

Earlier than leaping into this exercise, take a couple of minutes to heat up, doing strikes like head circles, shoulder rolls, spinal twists, butt kickers, and knee raises, Leavell says. Not solely can an excellent warm-up enhance blood stream and prime your muscle tissues for train, it might probably additionally provide help to mentally join along with your physique and get a stable grasp on simply how exhausting to push your self on a given day. Finish with a cooldown too, which might help your physique progressively return to a relaxed state—and as soon as once more present you a second to mentally test in along with your physique, based on the American Council on Train. Leavell suggests strikes like windshield wipers, 90-90 stretch, butterfly stretch, and baby’s pose to reap the advantages.

One fast be aware: Whereas, like we talked about, it’s completely advantageous to skip squats on any of your lower-body exercise days for those who simply aren’t feeling jazzed about them. However for those who’re avoiding the transfer as a result of they’re painful or uncomfortable, it’s price checking in with a bodily therapist to grasp what is likely to be inflicting that and how one can work by means of it, Leavell says.