LOWER BODY STRENGTH WORKOUT TO BALANCE YOUR BODY

Training for strength (heavy weight, low reps) is one of the best ways to speed up your metabolism. It takes a LOT of calories to build strength and a lot to simply maintain the strength you’ve built. So if you are reverse dieting to speed up your metabolism, I highly recommend incorporating a few weeks of pure strength training into your plan. Additionally, if you only ever train in the hypertrophy range (8-12 reps), switching to strength training will blow your mind. There’s nothing like changing up rep ranges of training style to break through a plateau, give you crazy gains, and make your body respond like it does when you first get newbie gains.

This workout is specifically designed to balance out the body. It is composed mostly of unilateral, or one-sided, exercises, making it ideal if you have any strength discrepancies between your legs. For all exercises, make sure to use the same weight on each side. Specifically, pick the weight that is appropriate for your weaker side. This will allow your weaker side to catch up to your stronger side.

THE WORKOUT:

Deadlift : 4-6 sets, 2-5 reps
One of the staple exercises that EVERYONE should be incorporating into their routines! The deadlift is an amazing compound exercise that targets the entire posterior chain—from your feet to your back. This lift will give you the best bang for your buck as it incorporates the entire body.

Bulgarian Split Squat : 4-6 sets, 2-5 reps
One of my favorite squat alternatives. They, like all other unilateral exercises, are great for evening out strength between legs. Make sure you use the same weight for both legs. Protip: if your arms get tired of holding really heavy dumbbells, do this with the bar in a squat rack!

Single Leg Romanian Deadlift : 3 sets, 6-8 reps
This is a great exercise to target the glutes and the hammies at the same time. Since the most tension is when the glutes are at a stretched point, they are a powerful booty builder. Make sure to hinge at the hips and have minimal bend in your knee.

Walking Lunge : 3 sets, 6-8 steps per side
They’re so good at targeting the booty and due to the forward movement, it hits them in a way no other exercise can. Make sure your knee goes directly in line with your toes and doesn’t cave inward or outward—stabilization is key and will also help grow the side booty at the same time.

Lying Leg Abduction : 3 sets, 6-8 reps
A classic side-booty exercise. While growing your butt may or may not be a goal of yours, the “side booty” or abductors are actually where a lot of your stabilization strength comes from. So strengthening your abductors will make you stronger in all lower body movements, particularly unilateral ones like walking lunges and bulgarian split squats.

Single Leg Standing Calf Raise : 3 sets, 6-8 reps
Don’t neglect your calves! If you want a well-rounded physique, hitting your calves is necessary. Weak calves will weaken all of your other lower body lifts because almost all major lower body lifts incorporate the calves.

Weight:

You should be using HEAVY weight for this. Pick a weight that you can lift in the rep range and can maybe do 1-2 more solid reps with good form. Since the weight is heavier, form is KEY. Do not push yourself until you know your form is on point.

Rest:

Rest 1.5-3 minutes between sets and between exercises. Use the FULL rest time! If you shorten the rest, you won’t be able to lift as heavy. I know it can be annoying to sit around for three minutes but resting is equally as important as the lifts themselves.

And that’s it! Enjoy the workout!