If you’ve been skipping your leg day warm-up, it may feel like you’re saving time that you can spend on a few extra reps. But by forgoing a lower body warm-up, you may actually be shortchanging your gains and increasing your risk for injury. A quick warm-up not only increases blood flow to the muscles […]
Squats are probably the first exercise a person ever performs — simply standing up from the ground. This is likely why squats are often dubbed as the king of exercises. Indeed, they are one of the best, if not the best exercises to develop lower body size, strength, and power while making you a universally […]
Simple bodybuilding programs are a little too easy to find. You could pull them from fitness magazines — those ghost-written workouts that your favorite bodybuilders supposedly follow. You could roll the dice and ask an artificial intelligence chatbot to generate one for you. Or, you could attempt to develop one for yourself. Just a few […]
The front squat is one of the most effective lower body exercises, offering tons of benefits from strength and muscle size to athleticism and mobility. The same exercise can also be daunting because it requires coordination from head to toe. This challenging squat variation can even be awkward for some lifters because it demands more […]
When it comes to building muscle one leg at a time, the Bulgarian split squat, also known as the rear foot elevated split squat, usually gets all the praise and attention. But the real ones know how underrated the front foot elevated split squat truly is. Credit: Zoran Pucarevic / Shutterstock The unfairly overlooked front […]
Whether you want to build an impressive set of wheels, boost your strength, or improve athletic performance, your training had better include some single-leg exercises. Indeed, they are invaluable for balancing your physique, addressing weaknesses, improving leg strength, and providing a nasty pump. Credit: Vladimir Sukhachev / Shutterstock Among the best single-leg exercises are lunges, […]
“Doubling up” can be a good thing — A doubleheader at the ballpark, double meat in your burrito bowl, and a double shot of espresso to jump-start the day. But it can also be, well, double trouble — Double vision, double traffic fines, and double-dipping your chip at a party. But how about doubling up […]
When it’s time to train your lower body, barbell back squats get plenty of attention, but single-leg training should spend more time in the spotlight. In particular, it’s worth focusing on the dumbbell split squat to bring awareness to the staggered position and learn to coordinate weight distribution across both feet. The dumbbell split squat, […]
Imagine this: It’s peak hour at your gym and you’ve spent all day looking forward to attacking some front squats, but the wait for a squat rack is longer than the line at the smoothie bar on half-price day. Or maybe you’re trying to get a quality workout in a sparse hotel or still-growing home […]
The front squat is a staple movement for Olympic weightlifters, CrossFit athletes, and countless other strength-focused lifters. However, some find the unique bar position to be a limiting factor because it requires ample shoulder and wrist mobility. Credit: Ground Picture / Shutterstock Other lifters shy away from the front squat because they can move relatively […]