You might believe that leg exercises must involve barbells and gym equipment, but all you really need is a set of dumbbells to strengthen your lower body.
Among the most portable and functional types of exercise equipment are dumbbells. As a consequence, dumbbell-only exercises are a wonderful choice for working out at home or in a crowded gym, like this leg routine from personal trainer Alex Rice(opens in new tab).
A fixed-load set of dumbbells will also work; just be sure to pick a weight that will challenge you without compromising your technique. Adjustable dumbbells are our preferred at-home alternative since they allow you to change the weight to fit the activity you’re doing.
In Rice’s workout, your hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves, as well as your glutes and core, are all worked out with only five motions. To get the most out of your training, observe her demos to fine-tune your technique before you begin.
Following Rice’s training schedule, perform the repetitions and sets for every exercise while pausing for 90 seconds in between each set. Apart from the dumbbell hip thrusts, which Rice suggests performing to failure, you’ll perform up to 10 repetitions of most of the exercises.
This involves performing the motion repeatedly until your muscles are exhausted and you are unable to perform any more repetitions or your form begins to falter. Just make sure you stop when you can no longer handle the weights.
Rice advises not standing up straight and locking out your knees at the top of each repetition when performing sumo squats in order to maintain a consistent tension in your legs. Instead, Rice advises keeping a tiny hip bend and refraining from rising up all the way.
If you need more stability, perform assisted reverse lunges while holding onto something. It will be more difficult for your core to complete them on your own since it will be working more to keep you balanced.
The consequences of delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) are likely to be felt the following day, whether you’re new to strength training or trying this exercise for the first time. Your body needs to heal little muscle fiber rips that are the cause of this. This helps your muscles grow and get stronger as the fibers heal. By including adequate protein in your diet, you can aid your body.