LEGS & GLUTES, Part 1: Beginner | Intermediate/ Advanced
WORK OUT LONG ENOUGH and you're bound to hear a trainer utter this weight-room truism: "You can't shoot a annon from a rowboat." To which most guys reply, "Huh?" Say you're a beginner. You walk into the gym with a shopping list: wide shoulders, big biceps, abs like a brick walkway all the fun stuff you see on the cover of this magazine. Getting these things seems like a straightforward proposition, so you press and curl and crunch, and follow that with more pressing, more curling, and more crunching. Then you wonder why you haven't been asked to do a Bowflex commercial.
The problem is, you left out the most important part. Running, jumping, hitting, throwing, and heavy lifting all start with the muscles in your hips, thighs, and lower legs.
When those muscles grow bigger and stronger, they allow your torso muscles to grow, which provides the structure for the arm and shoulder muscles you really want. This lower-body workout, the first of two parts, takes your scrawny, shaky foundation and makes it strong and solid enough to support some high-caliber weaponry up top.
So the next time you see a stick-legged guy doing your old press-curl-crunch combo, you can tell him, "You can't fit Clint Eastwood's gun in Roy Rogers's holster." He'll have no idea what you're talking about, but that's not your problem.
THE REST OF YOUR WORKOUT
Do the leg and butt exercises described here before working any other muscle groups. You can do the rest of the lifts in your workout in any order. Try to increase the amount of weight you lift in each exercise by 5 to 10 percent each week.
Most important: Build strength and muscle size with equal effort on both sides of your body. Working the front and neglecting the back is a recipe for injury.
Some suggestions:
BEGINNER
Do a total-body workout two or three times a week. After you finish these leg and butt exercises, you can try one set of eight to 12 repetitions (except where noted) of the following exercises:
INTERMEDIATE
Divide your program into two workouts, one for upper body, one for lower. Alternate between the two workouts, taking a day off after each. For example, do the lower-body workout shown here on Monday and Friday and an upper-body workout on Wednesday; the following week, do the opposite.
Upper-body workout
Choose one exercise each for "horizontal pulling" (seated or bent-over row), one for "horizontal pushing" (dumbbell or barbell bench press), one for "vertical pulling" (pullup or lat pulldown), and one for "vertical pushing" (dumbbell or barbell shoulder press). Do two or three warmup sets and two work sets. (A work set means you're using the most weight you can for that number of repetitions. The warmup sets should be percentages of that weight maybe 40, 60, and 80 percent of the work-set weight. Do fewer repetitions in each warmup set.) You can finish with exercises for your biceps and triceps.
Lower-body workout
Do the exercises described here, followed by abdominal exercises.
ADVANCED
Divide your workout into three parts. Do each part once a week, with a day off between workouts.
The problem is, you left out the most important part. Running, jumping, hitting, throwing, and heavy lifting all start with the muscles in your hips, thighs, and lower legs.
When those muscles grow bigger and stronger, they allow your torso muscles to grow, which provides the structure for the arm and shoulder muscles you really want. This lower-body workout, the first of two parts, takes your scrawny, shaky foundation and makes it strong and solid enough to support some high-caliber weaponry up top.
So the next time you see a stick-legged guy doing your old press-curl-crunch combo, you can tell him, "You can't fit Clint Eastwood's gun in Roy Rogers's holster." He'll have no idea what you're talking about, but that's not your problem.
THE REST OF YOUR WORKOUT
Do the leg and butt exercises described here before working any other muscle groups. You can do the rest of the lifts in your workout in any order. Try to increase the amount of weight you lift in each exercise by 5 to 10 percent each week.
Most important: Build strength and muscle size with equal effort on both sides of your body. Working the front and neglecting the back is a recipe for injury.
Some suggestions:
BEGINNER
Do a total-body workout two or three times a week. After you finish these leg and butt exercises, you can try one set of eight to 12 repetitions (except where noted) of the following exercises:
- Lat pulldown
- Dumbbell chest press
- Cable or dumbbell row
- Seated alternating dumbbell press
- Cable triceps extension
- Dumbbell biceps curl
- Crunch (15 to 20 repetitions)
INTERMEDIATE
Divide your program into two workouts, one for upper body, one for lower. Alternate between the two workouts, taking a day off after each. For example, do the lower-body workout shown here on Monday and Friday and an upper-body workout on Wednesday; the following week, do the opposite.
Upper-body workout
Choose one exercise each for "horizontal pulling" (seated or bent-over row), one for "horizontal pushing" (dumbbell or barbell bench press), one for "vertical pulling" (pullup or lat pulldown), and one for "vertical pushing" (dumbbell or barbell shoulder press). Do two or three warmup sets and two work sets. (A work set means you're using the most weight you can for that number of repetitions. The warmup sets should be percentages of that weight maybe 40, 60, and 80 percent of the work-set weight. Do fewer repetitions in each warmup set.) You can finish with exercises for your biceps and triceps.
Lower-body workout
Do the exercises described here, followed by abdominal exercises.
ADVANCED
Divide your workout into three parts. Do each part once a week, with a day off between workouts.
- Vertical pushing and pulling
- Lower-body exercises, plus abdominals and calves
- Horizontal pushing and pulling
