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The Best Leg Exercise to Bring Sexy Back to Your Lower Body

By Jason Zaretzky

One of the most common areas of concern for people is the lower body, specifically the butt, hips and thighs. Today learn what the best exercise is to get your sexy back in your lower half.

As a fitness trainer, owner of a fitness facility, and being the fanatical sports performance and fitness junkie I am, I get a lot of questions regarding sports training, fitness, weight loss, you know…

And the typical question I often get asked is as follows

"What exercises are best for ______" fill in the blank.

You name it I've heard my chest, arms, abs, the list goes on, but there is one body part I commonly get asked and it's the thighs or should I say the hip, buns, and thighs. I used to get asked this question and immediately find myself going into a long winded text book answer that no-one really understood or cared about. Now days I answer a lot differently. Here is how it usually goes,

"What are the best exercises for my butt, hips and thighs?"

I now answer with one word;

"WHY"

I say why because not everybody has the same goals. One may ask because they want to be faster or bigger. However, the reason is mostly a fat loss or aesthetic issue, particularly in the butt, hip and thigh area.

So that's what I'll cover today. I'll give you my best attempt to answer the commonly asked "What is The Best Exercise for the butt, hips, and thighs?"

Actually I'm lying! I can't honestly answer this question, and for physiological reasons (I'll explain in a minute). So I'll give you my top 5 plan for trimmed hips, a sexy butt, and muscular thighs (a feminine muscular ladies ;-)

I can't give you one exercise that will be best for your hips, your butt and your thighs due to the fact that although these muscles work synergistically with one another, physiologically they are really opposing muscle groups.

OK, let's get into a quick anatomy lesson.

Most people tend to think that you can do one exercise for your lower body and hit all areas of your legs. Well, these people are misinformed. In reality, yes when you do any type of lower body exercise you will work all of the muscle groups in your legs. However, certain movements emphasize specific areas of your lower body. For example, a squat is more of a quad dominant exercise and a deadlift is more of a Hip (butt) & hamstring dominant exercise.

With our quick little anatomy lesson hopefully you now realize that it's quite hard to provide one answer that would cover our 3 part question (butt, hips and thighs). However, there are some little tricks up my sleeves that may give you an edge in terms of getting a sexy lower half.

I call them the big bang for your buck exercises, and in this case they are all lower body oriented. I say big bang for your buck exercises because, these exercises are multi joint, burn more calories (something we'll need to do to achieve our sexy legs goal), and the sure rev up your metabolism.

So here are my top 4 exercises for a sexy lower body; 1.) DB front Squat - Take 2 dumbbells & rest them on your shoulders with your feet about shoulder width apart. Now push your butt back and sit 90% of your weight onto your heels and drop down into a deep (top of thigh below parallel) squat. Now push though your heels and stand back up. It's important to keep your torso as upright as possible throughout the movement.

2.) Pitcher Squat - Stand in front of a bench facing out, with one leg elevated on the bench, and the other foot about 2 feet in front of you (think Lunge position with one foot on bench). While keeping your torso upright and 90% of the weight on the front foots heel, drop into a deep lunge by lowering your hips and bending both knees straight down towards the floor. Pause for a second, then push through the heel of the front foot bringing you back into the starting position.

3.) Romanian Dead Lift - Stand straight up with a dumbbell in each hand at your sides. Start by bending forward at your waist keeping your back flat, push your butt back and slide the dumbbells down to your sides. Then squeeze your butt and stand straight up.

4.) SL Deadlift - Stand with dumbbells or a bar at your waist with one leg bent so the shin is parallel to the floor. Now bend at your waist, drop your hips down while bending your knee moving the weight towards the ground and keeping your back straight. Push through the heel of the down foot and stand straight up.

I would recommend cycling these exercises in phases of doing 2 - 4 weeks of 2-4 sets of 10-15 reps each, then 2 - 4 weeks of 4-8 reps.

And if you really want to rev it up - perform them all as a circuit (one done right after another) for the prescribed reps.

So in a nut shell, you didn't get just my favorite leg exercise. You got my top 4, plus a nice 8 week program on how to utilize them effectively in order to achieve a sexy firm and toned lower body.

About the Author:

Jason Zaretzky is Owner and Program Director of Optimal Performance Training. He specializes in athletic performance enhancement, corrective exercise, and physique alteration. Jason is committed to optimizing your results. He has helped a countless number of individuals and athletes look, feel, and perform at optimal levels, through his system of scientific results oriented programming.

Jason Zaretzky is Rockland County's go to fat loss expert and owner of Optimal Performance Training Center located in Rockland County NY. For a FREE 1-week trial to his Rockland County Bootcamps, to experience the best fat loss training in Rockland County please visit RocklandCountyBootCamps.com

For more information on the bootcamp solution, visit www.optimalfitnessexpress.com and see how a real results based bootcamp type workout is properly conducted. Jason Zaretzky has developed the fitness bootcamp antidote - the Optimal Fitness Express! The fastest, most efficient way to look, feel, and perform your best.