The Ultimate Girl’s Guide to Great Glutes

Every time you walk, run, get up or step upstairs, your leg muscles are activated. If you’re like most women that I train with, leg day is far easier than working out your upper body – likely because women naturally use our lower halves more often than our upper halves. And there’s good reason to have a strong booty and legs.

The Benefits of Leg Day

Focusing 1-2 days a week on developing a strong lower half (quads, hamstrings, glutes and don’t forget those calves), will reward you in more ways than a perky, great looking butt.

• Leg day burns more calories. I like the phrase “bang for your buck” and develop all of my client programs around that idea. Want more bang for your buck in the gym? It starts with leg day. Working your legs with compound movements like squats, lunges and dead lifts require your body to work harder aka burn more calories to get it done. So you will burn calories while working out, build muscle while resting and that muscle will in turn, burn more calories.
• Basic leg exercises like squats and lunges increase joint stability, range of motion and balance – key components in reducing your risk of everyday injury. It doesn’t matter if you are a Ninja Warrior or a weekend shopper navigating potholes and curbs, the balance and stability that strong legs provide can help to keep you injury free.
• If you experience lower back pain from sitting at a desk all day long, leg day can alleviate that discomfort. Unfortunately, staying seated for long hours creates muscle imbalances (namely weaker hamstrings and short, tight hip flexors). Stretch those hip flexors and start dead lifting girl – strengthening your posterior chain is the ideal way to combat lower back pain from chronic seatedness. =)
• Your energy level and efficiency in performing daily functions will increase. Think about all of the activities you do in a day: picking up off of the floor, climbing stairs, moving furniture, squatting down…they all require lower body activation. The strong, more stable and more flexible your lower body is, the easier and less depleting of energy these tasks will be.

How Often to Work Legs

The answer that no one wants to hear: that depends on your goals. That being said, if your lower half could use some work, don’t be afraid to work your legs a few times a week (always a couple of days of rest in between).

If you are focused on improving your health and getting a better body composition, work legs 1-2 days a week, depending on how many days you go to the gym.

If you are a runner who wants to get stronger and faster, train legs on low-mileage or off running days.

Focus on the weakest muscles. For most women, that means hamstrings and glutes. And always foam roll before and after! I’ve found foam rolling to be one of the key components to my recovery after leg day.

My Quick and Dirty, 30-minute Leg Day Workout

I’m loving these get in, get it done style workouts these days. The key to making them work? Get after it, hard. You might only be working out for 30 minutes but girl, you better be sweating at the end of it!

Warm-up

Foam roll: Hamstrings, calves

Dynamic Stretch: Hip Flexors

3 minutes rowing machine

 

Circuit 1 – repeat 3 times with as little rest as possible

60 seconds jumping rope

10 (each leg) dumbbell walking lunge

10 banded pop squats

10 (each arm) single-arm kettlebell clean-press to overhead lunge

10 (each arm) single-arm kettlebell swings

 

Circuit 2 – repeat 3 times with as little rest as possible

30 (each side) BOSU mountain climbers

10 (each leg) banded kneeling glute kickbacks

10 (each leg) kettlebell curtsy lunge

 

Cool down

Foam roll

Static Stretching/Yoga flow

Workout Tips

Don’t forget to foam roll before and after your workout. Honestly, this has made a big difference for me. Working out knots and decreasing over-activity in my leg muscles prior to working out decreases your risk of injury. Rolling tender spots post-workout aids recovery. You’ll find what works for you but I typically target my calves, TFL, hamstrings and adductors.

Don’t be shy with picking up heavier weights for those walking lunges. If you’re afraid that heavy weights will make you look “bulky”, I assure you that you are safe. But to get stronger, more defined legs you have to challenge your muscles. Last time I did this workout I had 20 pound dumbbells in each hand and I felt it from the first step.

If you are uncomfortable with the kettlebell clean-press movement (great how-to article and video here), you can just do the overhead lunge.

To do BOSU mountain climbers, flip the BOSU so the flat side is facing up. Place your hands on either side and get to climbing. Really drive those knees in!