This No-Squat Workout Will Fire Up Your Legs and Butt

Sure, squats are an superior train. However they don’t want a slot in each lower-body routine. In reality, having a leg exercise with out squats is useful for these occasions you’re actually not jazzed in regards to the train, whether or not resulting from 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 workouts on the market that fill an analogous function, difficult the identical muscle mass 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 workouts that you simply full proper after the opposite, with out resting in between. Your superset can be made up of the Romanian deadlift—a basic hip hinge transfer that’s nice for concentrating on your bottom muscle mass, 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 essentially burn out your decrease physique,” says Leavell. Bonus: It’ll additionally hit your abs. “Core work is coming by way of in each train,” Leavell says, notably the single-leg strikes, since your midsection is what helps your physique keep stabilized and balanced whilst you maintain heavy weights and transfer your legs.

Lastly, as a result of this routine engages a number of the greatest muscle mass in your physique, it’ll doubtless tax your coronary heart and lungs, supplying you with a cardio enhance, too. “For those who’re working persistently by way of this, not taking lengthy breaks, you will get your coronary heart charge up,” Leavell says. She suggests doing it as soon as per 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 circulation and prime your muscle mass for train, it will probably additionally enable you mentally join together with your physique and get a strong grasp on simply how exhausting to push your self on a given day. Finish with a cooldown too, which may also help your physique step by step return to a relaxed state—and as soon as once more present you a second to mentally examine in together with your physique, based on the American Council on Train. Leavell suggests strikes like windshield wipers, 90-90 stretch, butterfly stretch, and youngster’s pose to reap the advantages.

One fast observe: Whereas, like we talked about, it’s completely effective to skip squats on any of your lower-body exercise days should you simply aren’t feeling jazzed about them. However should you’re avoiding the transfer as a result of they’re painful or uncomfortable, it’s value checking in with a bodily therapist to know what is perhaps inflicting that and how one can work by way of it, Leavell says.