Types of Legs

The rear foot elevated split squat (aka the Bulgarian split squat) has become my primary lower body strength exercise. I don't back squat, rarely front squat, and when I do, it's usually with lighter weights.

Glute ham raises are a very isolated approach to the development of the hamstrings and glutes in the body weight/functional movement realm. The glute ham raise has a lifter keep the knee slightly bent to allow for movement of the knee joint primarily by the contraction of the hamstring.

Simply changing the angle of any particular exercise even slightly, can alter the muscles fibers involved or incorporate more muscle fibers that are affected by the movement. Recently I was asked by a gym regular, which was the better leg exercise for optimum thigh development. Is the squat the best or is it the hack squat?.

Using a leg press machine, sit down on the machine and place your legs on the platform directly in front of you at a medium (shoulder width) foot stance.

Elevated Pistol. Stand on top of an object with one leg hanging off of the side. Reach your arms in front and slowly lower to the bottom of a squat while your opposite leg drops below your squatting leg. Allowing your extended leg to hang down gives you more favorable leverage to complete the squat.

At The Glute Lab, we stick solely to American deadlifts and stiff legged deadlifts simply because we feel that the ADL is superior to the RDL and the stiff legged deadlift is superior to the straight leg deadlift.

Stand up straight while holding a dumbbell on each hand (palms facing the side of your legs). Place the right foot on the elevated platform. Step on the platform by extending the hip and the knee of your right leg.

Dumbbell walking lunge. Dumbbells are convenient because they are compact. They can either be held at your sides or at your shoulders. The disadvantage of using dumbbells is that your arms may fatigue before your legs do. Barbell Walking Lunge. Barbells are good for lunging if you require a larger amount of resistance for your lunges.