Best Butt Buster
Posted: Monday, January 12, 2009
by Julie Hatfield
Excellence Training Camps, Inc.
One of the most common areas of concern for people is the lower body, specifically the butt and thighs. Today this Unionville Sports Performance Coach and Trainer shares her favorite lower body exercise and all of its awesome variations.
As a fitness trainer, I get a lot of questions regarding "What exercises are best for ______" fill in the blank. One of the most common areas of concerns is the lower body, specifically the butt and thighs. Today I'm going to share my personal favorite lower body exercise and all of its awesome variations. It's called the Lateral Hop Squat. This exercise is so effective that you'll pretty much make your body thunder-thigh proof once you master it!
Before we get into this, one thing I definitely don't want to do is feed into the idea of individual body part training and spot reduction on certain areas of the body. I am a fervent believer in total body training, meaning that we train the upper body, lower body, and core during every single workout. We train dynamically and almost always, by just using your own body weight. After all, your body is the best tool you have. 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 that is hiding those areas that people are having trouble seeing; 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 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, jiggly arms, or the junk in the trunk.
Moving onto the main event: the world's greatest lower body exercise. My favorite leg exercises are any sort of single leg squat or lateral squat variation. I prefer single leg exercise in lieu of their double leg counterparts for a lot 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 flexibility imbalance between one leg and the other for most people that it's critical to address one leg at a time to really shore up the weak links from the start. Single leg strength is one of the main factors in quickness too- so if you are training for competition or just casual sport, being able to change direction quickly or even catch yourself from a fall, comes down to single leg strength (and of course core strength). In addition, lateral movement is a great way to strengthen tendons and ligaments on either side of the joints- aiding in joint stability and strength, ultimately resulting in injury prevention. Lastly- this move reaches the hip flexors! Awesome! That is why the greatest lower body exercise in the world involves both a squat and lateral movement.
Stance and THE MOVE:
- Legs about 3 inches wider than than shoulder-width apart. Feet pointing at a slight (very slight) angle from the body.
- Squat down by bending the knees, dropping the hips straight down, shoulders back, back straight, looking forward.
- Hands are in front of your chest as if they are holding a ball or dumbbell – arms bend and a part of your "core" area (eventually you can add load to this move)
- Weight is on the front 1/3 of your foot ("the balls of your feet")
- Jump into the air and to the side about 3-5 inches, landing on both feet evenly and in the same stance.
- Squat down as soon as you hit the ground
- Pop back up and to the same side again
- Repeat this 6-10 times in one direction and then 6-10 times in the other direction.
- Whenever you are doing a lateral movement, be sure to work both sides equally.
I have yet to find an exercise that hits the legs as hard as this baby does. It engages all four muscles of the quads and also engages the hip flexors. If you master the body-weight exercise, feel free to add weights to your stance. If you add load- be certain not to let your core collapse and loose form. Mechanics are essential in the completion and effectiveness of this move. Keep the legs wide so to relieve pressure on the knee joint. Most importantly, enjoy the processJ- this one will ROCK your world, and butt!
For a FREE 1-week trial to Julie's Female Interval Training or Boot Camp to experience the best personal training from Unionville, Coatesville and New Garden please visit www.etcamps.com or email FIT@etcamps.com .
This Article has been viewed 535 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.