You walk into your gym and see someone doing half reps with 1,000 lbs on the leg press... Then they'll grab some 30 lb dumbbells for some half-hearted lunges.
Hear me out here, no hate on the leg press. I do leg press once per week as a supplement to squats and deadlifts, for quad hypertrophy, and for the sake of variety. Leg press becomes such an ego exercise because it's easy to slap on a bunch of weight, use half the range of motion (ROM), and puff up one's self esteem.
I prefer exercises that expose weaknesses and leave no place to hide. The Barbell Reverse Lunge accomplishes both of those goals by using each leg individually and having a specific ROM. This exercise will take your leg workouts to the next level!
Benefits:
1: Trains legs unilaterally, which can shore up imbalances and fix asymmetries.
2: Strengthens quads, glutes, hamstrings, and core.
3: Increases stability and balance.
4: Fixed ROM.
Tips:
1: Keep the chest tall and torso vertical throughout.
2: Touch the back knee to ground each rep. This makes you hit the same ROM each rep and will keep you honest on weight.
3: Don't let the front knee buckle inside.
4: Start light but overtime train these HEAVY!
5: Control your descent and don't "bounce" knee off the ground.
6: To stand, drive through the entire front foot
7: Alternate left, right, left, right
Rep Scheme:
3-4 sets of 12-16 reps total
Programming:
I like to do these after my main lift. So, after your heavy squats and deadlifts.
Something like...
4 sets:
12 Barbell Reverse Lunges
12 Good Mornings
Leg day is the best day,
-Ben
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