As a fitness trainer, I get a lot of questions like “What is the best exercise for ______” fill in the blank. I get asked as if there is one exercise that “rules them all” (to borrow a phrase from Lord of the Rings). One of the most common areas of concerns is the lower body, specifically the butt and thighs. Today I’m going to share one of my personal favorite lower body exercises and all of its awesome variations. It’s called the Rear-Foot Elevated Split Squat (a.k.a. Bulgarian Split Squat). This exercise is so effective that once you master it, your thighs and knees will be bullet proof!
Before we jump into this, one point I definitely don’t want to feed into is the idea of individual body part training and spot reduction. Doing this killer leg exercise will NOT target fat loss in your legs. I am a fervent believer in total body training, meaning that we train the upper body, lower body, and core during every single workout. By training the whole body at once we maximally stimulate lean muscle gain and metabolism and promote total body fat burning in order to effectively eliminate the body fat in all our favorite areas; yep the stubborn fat areas that prevent a good body from becoming a great body. Plus, a diet high in lean protein, fiber, and green veggies and low in unnatural fats and refined sugars and starches is of course a pre-requisite if you want to see your muscles pop in a good way. It is also important to know that you lose fat in a genetically predetermined way. You had no control where your body put on the body fat and likewise no control where it takes it off. You can do all the crunches you want but without total body training, proper eating habits, and enough time to get to those stubborn fat areas you will never get rid of your gut, or your jiggly arms, or the junk in the trunk.
Massage away your trouble areas? Are they for real???
Moving onto the main event: the world’s greatest lower body exercise. My favorite leg exercises are any sort of single leg exercise and their variations, which include split squats. I prefer single leg exercise in lieu of their double leg counterparts for a myriad of reasons. For people with back issues, single leg exercises allow them to safely perform lower body exercises without putting their lower lumbar spine in jeopardy of hyper flexion or excessive rounding that can cause back spasms in the short run and herniated discs in the long run. Furthermore, I feel there’s often such a strength and/or mobility imbalance between one leg and the other that it’s critical to address one leg at a time to really shore up the weak links. And life is performed assymetrically. Meaning we rarely lift an object in a real life scenario with perfect double leg squat technique, most of the time we will be in a slightly staggered stance. When we walk or run it is an example of single leg lunges. So single leg exercises mimic life in a truly functional way.
My favorite lunge variation is called the rear foot elevated split squat. Regular split squats are basically stationary lunges. Begin with one foot in front of the other in a long stride position. A long stance position puts both knee at a 90 degree angle or slightly more when in the down position of the lunge. Both feet stay planted toes straight ahead in the long stance and do not move. The split squat is then performed keeping the front foot flat and dropping the back knee towards the floor. This is the basic split squat, which I consider the basic of all single-leg, knee dominant exercises. Once you have mastered the basic split squat you’re ready to move on to the rear foot elevated split squat. Like the name infers, we’re going to elevate the back foot on a chair, bench, box, or any other sturdy foot support, usually about 12-18 inches high. You’ll put your front leg well in front of you in order to make sure that your front knee and ankle are lined up, in other words your lower leg will be completely vertical when in the bottom of the lunge. In general, I tell people to exaggerate how far to put your front leg forward so that the front knee is almost slightly behind the ankle as this really helps reduce sheer forces on the knees. Initiate the exercise by loading the front heel (not the ball of your foot) and dropping your hips as low as you can in a pain-free range of motion while staying really tall up top with a proud chest and shoulders down and back. I use a stick to help maintain proper posture. The back of your head, shoulder blades and tailbone should stay in contact with the stick throughout the entire range of motion. Ideally I want to drop the back knee deep enough to ensure the front thigh gets down to horizontal. To help with this I often put a 2-3″ pad under my knee so I have something to gauge my squat depth. Finish the rep by explosively driving through your front heel to return to the top of the movement. You can start with body weight only in search of front thigh parallel to the floor or lower depth and then progress by adding speed of movement or by adding resistance. You can even incorporate some very cool combination movements with this lower body exercise like adding a curl to press at the top of the movement or even by raising dumbbells overhead to really challenge your core and single-leg balance and stability.
I have yet to find an exercise that hits the legs as hard as this baby does. In particular, it really helps strengthen your vastus medialis, that inner quad muscle that looks like a teardrop, which is heavily responsible for tracking your patella and keeping your knee caps in line. So if you have a history of overtraining injuries or patella-femoral issues this exercise is phenomenal for keeping your knees as bulletproof as possible, not to mention a dulcet set of thighs.
As an added bonus it provides a very good stretch for the hip flexor of your back leg, an area that is often very tight, especially for guys. Any exercise that allows you to simultaneously stretch and strengthen your body is a real keeper. And because of the unstable nature of the exercise (balancing on one leg) it forces the stabalizers (inner and outer thigh muscles) to really fire. So, don’t waste another moment with the useless abductor/adductor machine (a.k.a. thigh master 2000 ) and get off your butt and crank it with the world’s best lower body exercise today!
Stay Fit
Mat “the trainer”
PS- Feel free to post your comments on spot reduction or the rear foot elevated split squats or your opinion on the best lower body exercise..
PPS- as always feel free to share this blog post with anyone that is motivated by competition or anyone looking to shed some fat, get stronger and feel more energy.
PPPS- word of the day: dulcet [duhl-sit] adjective: pleasant or agreeable to the eye or feelings; soothing.
To book Mat to speak at your Utah Valley company, club, or organizations please contact him by email at matgover@mac.com or by phone at (801) 836.7185. For a free one-week trial to his Orem boot camp to experience the best personal training in Utah Valley please call Mat or drop by the gym (1623 N State St, Orem right next to Costa Vida).
One week ago we launched the anagrual EXL Fitness Skinny Jeans Contest, a lifestyle transformation contest based on compliance. I’ve been genuinily surprised at the response. I think there is something in our DNA that responds to competition. Even if it’s just to improve oneself. It’s strange some people view competition as evil and advocate cooperation over competition, claiming competition always produces a loser and more is accomplished with cooperation. I disagree competition makes us better, it imbues a deep desire that drives us to explore our limits and to improve ourselves. Here’s a great excerpt from W. Timothy Gallwey’s book The Inner Game of Tennis (an amazing book that explores the true meaning of competition as well as how to truly win in life, and maybe a game of tennis too). ”Winning is overcoming obstacles to reach a goal, but the value in winning is only as great as the value of the goal reached. Reaching the goal itself may not be as valuable as the experience that can come in making a supreme effort to overcome the obstacles involved. The process can be more rewarding than the victory itself.” I can’t think of a literal manifestation of this phrase than a lifestyle transformation contest. Sure my clients are competing against each other to win, and there will be a points winner taking home a new pair of designer jeans. But, will there be any losers? ”In true competition no person is defeated. Both players benefit by their efforts to overcome the obstacles presented by the other. Like two bulls butting their heads against one another, both grow stronger and each participates in the development of the other.” (Gallway 111) I imagine there will be a wide array of points by the end of this friendly contest. But, every point represents one obstacle conquered on the journey to ideal health and wellness. One obstacle closer to conquering diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis or even being able to walk up the stairs without getting winded or wrestle with your kids and not pull something. Here in lies the “win”, chalk up another “X” in the win column.
“It amazes me that most people spend more time planning out next summer’s vacation than they do planning the rest of their lives.” Patricia Fripp, Professional Speaker
Summer can be one of the hardest times to stay committed to a healthy lifestyle. Vacations, kids camps, crazy schedules just seem to get in the way of nutrition and exercise. To help avoid the these pitfalls we are holding our first EXL body transformation contest.
