Whatever your weight of choice (dumbbells, kettlebells or otherwise), the lunge is one of the most effective exercises for strengthening your quads, hamstrings and glutes. It’s also highly functional, with the unilateral movement improving balance and coordination, with carry-over benefits for walking, running, and general day-today life.
This move challenges your balance and proprioception, while firing up your hamstrings.
>> This session is kicked off with box jumps, a criminally underused and highly effective exercise. While these alone aren’t going to give you legs like Chris Hoy, performing them regularly – and as a warm-up exercise before you get into your heavy lifting – will fire up your nervous system and stimulate the fast-twitch muscles neglected with low-intensity weightlifting. The result? You’ll not only be able to lift more, but you will also stimulate more muscle growth during each workout.
Muscles primed and nervous system prepped, it’s into the main body of the workout. You’re going to hit 4 sets of barbell front squats, which are more lower-back friendly than the back variety – but don’t think that means they’re easy. By now your quads are going to be kicking into gear, which makes those warm-up box jumps even more essential.
Heaviest lift out the way, it’s onto the more glute- and hamstring-dominant split squats and lunges, which are going to strengthen the back half of your lower body. Finally, single-leg deadlifts will develop the proprioception and unilateral strength required for virtually every sport.
Although the focus is on the lower body here, pay close attention to keeping your shoulders back and your chest up throughout each exercise.