4 Killer Leg Exercises with Resistance Bands

all right so today we are training legs with bands so I'm gonna give you a complete workout everything that you need to know when it comes to training bands with no weight so we're not talking about having a squat rack there's no leg press there's no leg extensions we don't have any equipment except for some bands now just because there's not weights I think everyone associates legs with being big powerful muscles meaning you have to move a lot of weight in order to get a good leg workout and that's not true so we're gonna power through this we're gonna do a couple different exercise I'm going to show you how to do them from quads the hamstrings and what my set and rep structure looks like so we're gonna jump right into it right now what we're gonna do for our first exercise is we're going to do a squat now one of the challenges that a lot of people have when they're trying to do legs with bands is they're not getting enough resistance through the full range of motion so for example when I'm doing say a squat people don't know where to grab these bands in order to create enough resistance so if I come down here you can see that the bands are completely slack and as I pull up they're still slack so you have to stretch these bands in order to get the proper amount of resistance so what we're gonna do for this exercise is an overhead squat so we're gonna press it straight over our head like this what its gonna look like is this right here squat down and straight back up my typical rep and set structure for sets first set twenty reps now even without using bands just do 20 reps put your arms overhead and do some squats with no weight you'll still feel it now we're adding some resistance to it now one advantage of doing overhead squats is it promotes good form a lot of times when you see people with bad form doing squats with a bar a lot of times they get too far forward so if I turn sideways they end up looking like this so this really forces you to stay on your heels and drop your butt down which is what you want to focus on house for total sets 20 reps normal speed second and third set ten reps and then for set we just finished that's double the rep speed so now we're gonna move on to our next exercise I told you that by doing a squat our limiting factor is our ability to hold the band over our head now we're going to take that out of the equation let me show you how to do deadlifts with the bands I want to make sure I take up a wide enough stance to where I don't have a whole lot of band here because we need resistance at the very bottom so you can see is I come all the way down like I would and a deadlift I would start here and a regular deadlift I want to have resistance down here so that's why I want to make sure I have a wide enough stance to where the band is already taught at the bottom all right I'm gonna drop our butt down keep our chin up just like in a good squat form a nice straight back and we're gonna pull up just like that and a deadlift I'm using traditional free weights I'm going to be weakest at the bottom and strongest at the top with bands I've got less resistance at the bottom where I'm weaker and as I stretch those bands they get harder as I reach a stronger position so that progressive resistance with the band more closely matches my natural strength curve and that's one of the advantages of bands don't do that snap your foot off exercise number three I'm going to start targeting the hamstrings more now our first two exercises overhead squats stiff like a deadlift hit quads hit some hamstrings and some blues but a lot of focus still on our quads so now we want to turn our attention to our hamstrings a bit hand our glutes and we're going to do a stiff legged deadlift so we did a traditional deadlift now we're gonna do a stiff legged deadlift and work the back side up until this point we've been grabbing the bands in the loop but know that on some exercises we have the option if we want we can just step on one side of the band not the other and we can go ahead and shorten the length by twisting the band around our hands just like that so you've got even more versatility in the resistance in the band depending on how much you stretch it so for this one I like to do that because we want to get resistance all the way down low here starting at this point and coming up top I see people doing this right here look how round in my back is at this point that's the only way unless you're super flexible in your hamstrings that you can get down this low we want to keep our back straight the entire time so that's going to determine how far I go so that's a range of motion and I want to make sure that I stretch the band enough to where I've got tension all the way through that range of motion back excuse up and I want you to squeeze your butt cheeks like flex your butt as you come to the top and almost squeeze back just a hair straight legs down straight back up squeeze I still want to control it on the eccentric or the negative just because we're bending forward we don't want to put any unnecessary stress on our low back so I like to control the rep speed a little bit on the way down and be more explosive on the way up this particular exercise I take a little bit more caution with keep your hands close to your legs if you get your hands out here she's gonna put a lot of unnecessary stress on your low back so just cuz we're training with bands doesn't mean you train with any less intensity you got to train with the same heart that you would with free weights the bands aren't your limitation just like free weights or machines aren't your limitation you're your own limitation it's really just how much you put into it whatever you put in is what you get out so just because we're training with a little rubber bands doesn't mean you train lighter or easier I'm gonna do four total sets that was our first one that we're going to go up to ten reps per set two and set three and then step forward we'll come back to our original resistance and do it double speed so that was exercise number three we got one more exercise and again we're going to focus on hamstrings here and this is like a single leg squat kind of halfway in between a single leg squat and a lunge but this puts a ton emphasis on the hamstrings this makes my hamstrings burn unlike any other exercise I even feel this more than I do on a leg curl machine and that's hard to do I'm gonna get into that lunge position rest on the knee just to get set up skier that band we can get that resistance even at the bottom oh yeah um he tough 10 reps make sure you get a full extension in your leg and squeeze your glutes now you're not just pushing up you're pushing back the way this looks because we're extending that this will put a lot of stress on the quads and that's where you'd feel it but you don't it's the angle of the pole here instead of pushing straight up we're pushing backwards so you don't just want to make sure you extend your leg you want to extend it the hip - and squeeze your glutes especially feel those right at that glute ham string tie-in so really effective exercise I don't care if you deadlift five 600 pounds this is still a great exercise for overall leg development so no matter what kind of machines you like to use if you like to squat deadlift leg press doesn't matter I recommend incorporating this into your routine whether you like bands or not that was for total exercises four sets apiece so 16 sets we focused on our quads our glutes and our hamstrings that's a total leg workout right there so for just having a couple pounds worth of rubber bands I smash that workout I'm dead tired my legs feel wobbly but I'm done so this isn't just a workout on the go that you could do on vacation or at the beach there's a workout you can do anywhere in the gym still kick your ass still get stronger still build muscle so that's it for this band series we've covered everything from chest back shoulders biceps triceps abs legs you name it so if you miss any of the other videos and you want to learn how to train with bands make sure you check out the other videos in this playlist and you can get total workout hit every muscle group different exercises different angles to get stronger and get bigger so tune in make sure to check out other videos ATT that's advanced training techniques talk about free weights machines even incorporating bands with free weights so all the different little tips tricks techniques to help you get stronger and build more muscle so I'll see you next time

Channel: James Grage

Views: 1,795,723

Rating: 4.9473839 out of 5

Keywords: quads, hamstrings, glutes, legs, workout, exercises, leg exercises, leg workout, quad exercises, hamstring exercises, glute exercises, James Grage, ATT, Advanced Training Techniques, Muscle building, bands, workout bands, strength bands, resistance bands, workout bands for legs, resistance bands for legs, resistance bands leg workout, leg workout with bands, resistance band glute exercises, resistance band quad workout, resistance band thigh workout, tension bands

Id: rjC1VBuqs8s

Length: 10min 9sec (609 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 16 2018