Strengthen your lower body by trying these at-home exercises for beginners. Recover quicker by taking the best supplements to avoid experiencing sore muscles the next day.
In this time of social distancing and self-isolation, one of the meaningful things you can do is to exercise to keep your mind and body active. Whether you’ve never done a squat before, or it’s been ages since you last sweat off, it’s never too late to start or get back to working out.
Targeting your lower body should be part of your exercise routine. After all, your lower half is the foundation and power center of the body. Not only that, but it also has some of the longest and biggest muscles in the body. In short, they burn more calories even when you’re at rest.
What Are Lower Body Exercises For?
Lower body exercises target your hips, thighs, buttocks, and legs. It challenges the following major muscle groups:
- Glutes
- Quadriceps
- Hamstrings
- Calves
Much of our muscle mass is in the lower body. Therefore, if you want to supercharge your metabolism or tone your body, never skip a leg day. Also, a stronger lower body helps enhance our fitness level and keeps us from injury. People who have weak glutes and hamstrings are more prone to suffer from injuries. So, by strengthening the lower body, you can avoid troubles when doing more intense workouts such as advanced deadlifts.
Workouts That Target the Lower Body
The following lower body exercises we’re going to share are really easy to do at home and don’t require any special gear to perform. You can mix and match these lower body exercises in a single workout session or spread them throughout the week.
Note: Do some muscle warm-up for at least 10 minutes before you begin with these exercises. Also, be sure you are doing these with proper form. Otherwise, you may deal with severe aches afterward and may need more than an Ashwagandha supplement to fight the inflammation.
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Squat Hold
Squats are the most basic but essential lift you can do. They hone the mobility of your lower body. When you do squats, your whole body works, and they really target your glutes, quads, and hamstrings. You can do it even with just your own body weight. You also have the option to use a squat rack or dumbbells.
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Backward Lunge
Another great lower body workout is the backward lunge. It helps enhance your balance and stability. Backward lunge works each of your legs independently and uses every muscle in your lower body to some extent. It is almost like a single leg squat.
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High Knees
This exercise integrates running in place and exaggerated knee lifts. The physical benefits of high knees are multifold. Besides targeting your leg muscles, it also improves your flexibility, power, and speed. No wonder many athletes and runners include high knees into their warm-up routines. Moreover, it engages your core and is an excellent cardio workout when performed at a fast stride.
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Mini-band Glute Bridge
All you need is a mini resistance band to strengthen your weak glute muscles. This exercise fires up the glute and hip muscles. Those with knee valgus when they squat or run can benefit from mini-band glute bridge because it bolsters the hip abductor muscles that maintain the alignment of the hips and knees when you make these moves. Beginners can do the two-leg glute bridge and later advance to a single leg glute bridge once they have mastered the first.
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Abductor Leg Raise
Abductor leg lift works your hips, glutes, and thighs. Incorporate this into your regular workout routine to build these major muscle groups. If you sit for prolonged hours every day, this is your chance to work your muscles that aren’t really active. Also, it helps avoid pain and injury in your lower back, hips, and knees. You can easily bust out a couple of sets while you watch a TV.
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Jumping Jacks
This total body exercise is popular for warming up. Even children can learn them easily. To do jumping jacks, just spread your legs and arms like a starfish, then jump them back at the same time. A blend of aerobic exercise and resistance work, it toughens the heart, lungs, and muscles of the lower body. In particular, it tests the glutes, hip flexors, and quadriceps.
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Plié Squat Calf Raise
It is an awesome exercise to strengthen the legs, calves, glutes, and inner thighs. Not only that, but it also enhances the range of motion of the hips. This exercise was derived from the ballet position Plié, in which the back is straight while the knees are bent. Plié squat calf raise puts your body into a whole new position that you’re most likely not used to. Thus, it helps improve your balance and stability.
To create the best lower body workout regime, we highly recommend that you start with compound and bilateral exercises that focus on your quadriceps, glutes, and hamstrings. Then, include a combination of the big three lower body movement patterns—lunges, squats, and hip hinges.
The Best Supplements for Post-Exercise Muscle Inflammation
You may feel very sore and painful the next day or the days to come after your workout, which is quite reasonable. This means you may need to do the exercises a few times more to develop your lower body strength and endurance. Two of the best supplements we have found to combat post-exercise muscle inflammation and pain are Ashwagandha and Bone Broth Collagen. Pure organic Ashwagandha capsules fight inflammation, work to reduce pain and speed the healing of injured muscles. The amino acids (glycine and proline) in bone broth collagen also help lessen inflammation, repair tissue, and build muscle.
About The Author
Warrior Strong Wellness
Warrior Strong Wellness provides innovative and high quality transformational supplements and raises awareness and funds to fight childhood cancer by giving a portion of our proceeds to childhood cancer research. In our weekly blogs, we share wisdom about wellness and living a Warrior Strong lifestyle.