Continuing with the theme from my last post, here are five exercises that you should include in your lower body workouts (but not at the same time):

1. Deadlift: Although this exercise strengthens pretty much the entire body, I recommend including it as a hip dominant exercise in your lower body routine.

2. Squat: One of the best overall strengthening exercises for the lower body.

3. Split Squat: Great unilateral exercise for strengthening the legs and improving stability at the hip. (back foot can be on the ground or bench as shown)

4. Glute Bridges: With the prevalence of hip flexor tightness and subsequent inhibition of the glutes, this is a great exercise to activate and strengthen this muscle. (can be done single leg as shown or double leg)

5. Multi-Directional Lunge: This is a great multi-funtional strengthening exercise that can be used as a great dynamic stretch as well.

(Bonus) 6. Romanian Deadlift, Single Leg: Because I’m partial to RDL’s, I couldn’t leave this one off the list.  Great hamstring/hip movement.

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Maintaining muscle balance and posture should be at the forefront of your exercise routine. Including the following five exercises in your routine will help combat common postural and muscular balance issues.

1. Push-Ups: Most individuals performing the majority of their pressing movements with their backs pinned to a bench.  This restricts protraction of the scapula and may result in underdevelopment of the serratus anterior.  Including push-ups in your routine will promote a better balance of the muscles that act on the scapula.

2. Prone Cobra: This is a great postural exercise that helps knock out several common postural faults, including excessive internal rotation of the humerus, forward head posture, and thoracic kyphosis.

3. Face Pull: A functional external rotation exercise that helps correct muscle imbalance between the internal and external rotators of the humerus.

4. Wall Angel: This is another exercise that is helpful in maintaining the integrity of scapular muscular and posture.

5. Dumbbell External Rotations from Knee: This is a great exercise to help isolate and strengthen the external rotators of the humerus.  It is particularly useful for those who spend a lot of time doing bench presses and its variations.

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The benefits of interval training are pretty common knowledge these days…increased fat loss, improved VO2, etc.  However, the proper way to perform them is not.  When most people I talk to tell me they’re doing intervals, they usually describe something along the lines of: 5 minute jog on the treadmill followed by 5 minutes at a higher speed/elevation, followed by 5 minutes at an even higher speed/elevation etc.  While technically this is “interval training,” there is a more effective way to go about it.

I like to keep the work intervals short, usually in the neighborhood of 30 seconds.  This will allow you to train at super high intensities.  Due to the inverse relationship between intensity and duration (the longer the interval is, the less intense it can be due to the body’s inability to sustain high intensity exercise), extending intervals to 2-3 minutes or more is just too long.

There are different ways to perform intervals, from tabatas (20 seconds work, followed by 10 seconds rest), to 1:1 or 1:3 work/rest ratios (high intensity exercise for 30 seconds followed by 30 second low intensity exercise, etc).  They can be performed using resistance training exercises or through performing sprints on a track or cardiovascular equipment (ie. treadmill, bike, elliptical).

However you choose to incorporate intervals into your workouts, keep the high intensity portion short (to ensure the intensity really is high) and total duration to 30 minutes or less. This will allow you to experience the true benefits interval training has to offer.

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