Best Leg Workouts at the Gym
When it comes to strengthening and building muscle in the lower body, specifically legs, there is a lot of exercise options. Most of these exercises are multi-functional and help build lower back strength, core strength, and overall balance. While leg day is often made fun of, or referred to as a negative. It is in fact one of the most beneficial body parts to workout.
The best workout for legs is the squat. This is a staple in any leg workout, wether it be body weight, or with weights. There are countless variations, and can be utilized and done effectively with a wide variety of equipment. When looking for a gym membership Detroit mi it’s important to do a walk through to make sure the equipment you need is there. Look for squat racks, as this is generally the most common variation of the weighted squat. The traditional way the barbell is supported is resting on your shoulders and upper back. But there is also a front squat variation. This is when the barbell rests on your chest as you go down. This helps build the upper back and quads as well as the legs. Depending on what muscle groups you are focused on hitting will affect which form of squat you will do. When doing squats the form is extremely important to prevent injury. Keeping your chin up will help prevent collapsing. to get the most out of the exercise it is best to go to a 90 degree angle with your legs and then back up.
Other leg exercises such as the leg press and hack squat can be good supplementary exercises. These machine exercises have one major downfall, the machine controls the path of movement. This means you won’t be building any stabilization muscles when using these exercises. But with that said, they add variation to the workout, and allow your muscles to be hit in a different way. It is important with these exercises to keep good form. Especially with the leg press it is important to not fully extend the knees. As this can cause some pretty severe damage to the joints, especially as the weight begins to increase. They are good for the flow of the workout, and are beneficial after doing your main leg exercise, the squat.
another exercise that is good for building stabilization muscles as well as legs is the dumbbell lunge. There are a few variates when it comes to lunges, including standing and walking lunges. This exercise is best towards the back end of your leg workout. This will help build not only glutes, and thighs, as well as core. When performing this exercise it is important to try to keep your back vertical, and not leaned in.
These are just a few of the potential exercises, and their variations, to use for your leg routine. It is important to switch up which exercises, and the amount of reps and variations you do. This will help keep your body constantly reacting to something new, and will help build the most muscle.