And so even a high foot placement doesn't save
this exercise this placement at the bottom of my list, the Leg Press has got to go.
What's up, guys? Jeff Cavaliere, athleanx.com.
What you see behind me is a bunch of different leg exercises, specifically for the hamstrings
and glutes. And they share a lot of functions together, so we're going to group them together.
But not just that, I want to help you to find the ones that are actually worth your time. Because
we're going to do what we always do here, we're going to rank them from the best to the worst,
leaving you only with the best exercises capable of delivering the gains that you're after.
So, it's all these guys in our Exercises Rank Series, we have to define the criteria for
the inclusion of these exercises in this list. Number one, they have to be capable of being
progressively overloaded. Can you continue to increase the resistance to keep those gains
coming? Number two, can you do these exercises and create muscle growth and hypertrophy as the main
focus? Sure, there are strength exercises, but for this list, they have to create muscle growth.
And number three, guys, as a physical therapist, as always, each of these exercises has to have
one thing in common. They all have to be
Don by me.
Oh, God. Where have you been?
I've been hanging in the
back. Where have you been?
Why do you have to do the exercises?
Oh, I'm the one with the juicy booty, remember?
Oh, I wish you'd stay away. Listen, they all have to be safe and by being safe,
what I'm talking about is they can't compromise pain in order to deliver the gains that we're
after here, guys. So, each of these exercises is going to fit that important criteria.
And so, as always, we're going to start here at the bottom of the list in the Worst Category
and work our way up. And as I mentioned in the open here, the hamstrings and glutes actually do
share some functions together. Both of them are capable of extending the hip or bringing the legs
straight back behind the body. But the hamstrings also have the capability of bending the knee. So,
one of the worst ways to do this, unfortunately, is one of the most popular exercises and ways to
do it. It's the Prone Hamstring Curl. But before you get too excited, trust me, there's going to
be better options ahead. The reason why I don't like this particular version of the exercise is
because of the position, being faced down. And as you struggle to get that weight up and really
try to get your feet into that end position, we oftentimes will drive our thighs down into
the pad. That engages the hip flexors, which, as we know, attach to the lumbar vertebrae,
which can start to pull on them and result in low back pain or spasm. Not the way we want
to really try to build our hamstrings.
As I mentioned, the exercise does fit the
criteria of hypertrophy and overload. But again, knowing that there's better options ahead, I'm
not willing to take that trade off. So, for me, it's going to start at the bottom
of the barrel with a big red X.
Next up, we have a glute exercise and this one
you've probably seen before or done and it's just a simple Heel Press. Now, this is a bodyweight
exercise, easily done, no equipment limitations here to get in the way. However, it still
doesn't make it very high on my list. Why? Well, it's very much incapable of the overload that we
seek in order to build muscle. You're doing mostly a bodyweight movement here, and it's also very
limited in its range of motion. Even when it's done correctly here, you're talking about a very
limited 10 to 15 degrees of motion for the entire exercise. And even more than that, it's oftentimes
missed performed because this is one of those exercises that easily leads itself to muscle
substitution as we start to rotate the hips, taking away some of the effort from the
glute max. Guys, this is definitely one that belongs here at the bottom and it's not going
to deliver the gains that you're looking for.
So, between the last exercise and this one, I kind
of feel like I'm pissing off a lot of people in my audience and a lot of females. But it has to
be said, and I'm trying to deliver you the best information and that exercise that has to go next
is the Step Mill. And you guys have probably seen this and maybe even seen the people who add that
little flare of the hip extension at the end. It still doesn't save the exercise. Why? Well, a lot
of times these Step Mills are actually powered, which means that as you step, the motor on the
machine brings your leg back down into extension, not the muscles in your body. That's a problem.
What makes this worse is the only muscles that are working are your hip flexors once again,
just to lift your foot up onto the next step, only to take that ride back down.
It's not going to get you where you want to be, and it could lead to some of that back pain we
talked about. Now, sometimes, if be lucky enough to find a version of the machine that you actually
power by driving your foot down into extension. But at the end of the day, any exercise that can
be done for many, many, many minutes in a row becomes less anaerobic and therefore less likely
to deliver muscle gains and more aerobic. It doesn't fit our categories or criteria here, and
therefore it also is going to get a big red X.
And so, if my ladies out there got maybe
a little bit mad at me, this time I'm going to give everyone a chance to, because the
next exercise on this list is the Leg Press. Now, look, I understand a lot of people have used
the leg press as an alternative to a squat, especially if they have knee pains and problems
and maybe even had seen some gains along the way. My issue is, as a glute developer, it's a
horrible exercise, there's no way around it. And I know people say, Well, Jeff, that's maybe
because you're doing it incorrectly. You need to put your feet high up on the platform in order
to get more glutes and hamstrings. It doesn't save the exercise, guys. And here's why.
First of all, when we put our feet high up on the plate, what we get is a lot of hip flexion, a
lot of hip flexion, actually. You may not be able to see it until I take the position at the bottom,
and I simply turn it to a standing position, as you would at the bottom of the squat. And there's
no squat you've done that's ever looked like this for good reason, because it's not a great way
to do a squat. With this amount of hip flexion what oftentimes happens is you get an extreme
amount of posterior tilt and lumbar reflection that can compromise the stability of the low back
and the SI joint. Two things we don't want to do, but more than that, when we go back and we extend
our legs, look at the excursion we go through, what is the range of motion on the exercise?
Remember, hip extension is what we're looking for when we're trying to train the glutes.
We've gone through very little hip extension, went from extremely flexed to moderately
flexed, but still never even close to neutral, let alone extended. The exercise does not do
a good job of targeting the glutes. Therefore, it's going to stay here at the bottom of the
list with the big red X right through it.
And so, with that, now I get to break out my
blue marker as we head up the charts here into the Better Category. And for this, we need to go
back and look at the same position we just talked about with the Leg Press. It's the Dumbbell
Reverse Sprinter Lunge. And yes, you might notice that same chest to thigh position, but there's
some very different things going on here. Number one, with that one leg left behind us,
we're actually neutralizing the pelvis a little bit and relieving some of that excessive posterior
tilt, which makes this exercise a lot safer. But more importantly, in terms of the effectiveness
of it, we're overloading that hip extension. We're getting not into that abbreviated range we
saw in the leg press, but we're able to overload it through much more active hip extension. This
is one of my favorite ways to do the movement. And for those of you who I mentioned that had knee
pain on squats, this is going to give you a chance to relieve yourself of a lot of that pain and
still get the gains that you were looking for in the first place. So, for me, it gets the
first blue circle in the Better Category.
Next up in the Better Category is one of those
step ups from the exercise that we're in the Worst Category. And if you're going to do those Heel
Presses, you might as well do instead a Standing Cuff Kickback. And this is where you take one
of those cuffs and put it around your ankle and just kick back against resistance. And that's the
key against resistance, because what was lacking in that first exercise, as you remember, was the
overload and resistance capable of creating any type of muscle growth. Well, here we can get
that. And more importantly, while it may still encourage some of those muscle substitutions that
we talked about with the Heel Press before being on your feet proprioceptively allows you to move
your leg back easier in a straighter line. So, while it's still a small range of motion, it's one
that you can perform more effectively and easily. And as I said, overload it. It gets the next up
in the Better Category with the blue circle.
And so when it comes to exercises that hit
that posterior chain, both the hamstrings and the glutes, the RDL and its many variations
are always going to find their way on that list. However, when we're looking for esthetics or
athletics and we want to get the balance that we might lack right now, splitting up the legs
one at a time is where we're going to turn to the Dumbbell Single Leg RDL to accomplish that. And
what I like about this exercise is it does give me a chance to either focus a little bit more on the
hamstrings by keeping the leg a little straighter or a little bit more on the glutes by allowing
the knee to bend more as I lean forward. So, if your main pursuit was to grow bigger hamstrings,
the overloaded aspect of this with the dumbbells will give you that leg up. However, because
the balance might become your limiting factor, it's not the best option for you. So, it's
going to get a ranking of Better, but just not Best yet. We have better options coming.
And so, with that, I now get to break out my yellow marker as we continue to work our way
up the charts, this time to the Better Still Category. And what I like to do here is give
you that next best option that I just mentioned. And we're talking about the Single Leg RDL, well,
let's start doing it with a cable rather than a dumbbell. Because what this does is it gives us
all the same benefits, we just talked about with more stability. Why? Because the cable actually
gives us more control in the frontal plane.
What I mean is if you held that dumbbell in
your hand, it can kind of float in all three directions. But with the cable, you're actually
controlling that side-to-side frontal plane motion a little bit. Which actually lends additional
balance to you, which takes that exercise that was supposed to be driving those glute and
hamstring gains and actually allows it to do so without having your balance undercut you. So, it
gets the first in the Better Still Category.
And so, I promised you I wouldn't bury the
Hamstring Curl all together, that I give you a better option. Well, all you have to do is
change the way you perform the exercise. And this is sitting on your butt. That's right. A Seated
Hamstring Curl is a much better option. Why? Because we're fixing all the things we saw
wrong with the earlier versions. And you can see that when you perform the exercise from
this position, your knees and thighs actually go down towards hip extension rather than into
hip flexion as you bring your knees back. And what's good about this is you still get
the ability to grow those hamstrings through isolated knee flexion and overload. But we don't
have to have that negative side effect that came by just being in the opposite prone position
where their knees driving into hip flexion, all those low back pains go away,
but the gains are actually here. So, the Seated Hamstring Curl is a much better
alternative for those looking to use a machine.
And speaking of improvements, let's keep them
coming. Instead of doing those Heel Presses or even the Standing Cuff Kickbacks, we have
another option here it's the Banded Step Through. And what you'll notice about this exercise is that
it gives you more range of motion, so therefore more resistance through hip extension, making
it a better exercise. And once again, the bands will give you the opportunity to progressively
overload to a higher resistance band, which will continue to allow you to progress the exercise as
needed. Now, this is one that I like to use with my athletes. Not just because of what I just spoke
about, but also because it tends to help you as a mobility drill to get into deeper and deeper hip
flexion. There's a lot of good to say about this, and it's certainly the best variation we've talked
about so far to accomplish the same thing. So, the Banded Step Through gets the yellow circle.
Now the criteria for this list was to choose exercises that were capable of driving high
levels of conditioning and power. Then this next one would be way at the top of the list, but
it's not, so, it falls here. We're talking about the Kettlebell Swing. Now, this exercise is one
of the best ways to train the glutes and to do so explosively. But it also almost automatically
guarantees that you learn to hinge properly. And the hinge is the foundation of glute activation.
If we can learn to hinge properly at the hips, then we can engage the glutes at the right time
and learn to ultimately recruit them and grow them better. Now, the limitations oftentimes
is the load that we use here, unless you have access to a very heavy kettlebell or one that's
challenging for you, you're not going to find the ability to overload this enough to keep the
gains coming once you've reached a certain point. But it certainly is an amazing exercise and one
that deserves a spot here up high on the list and the last one in the Better Still Category.
And so now I get to break out my green marker as we continue to work our way, all the way up
to the top. But we're stopping just short here in the Almost Best Category in the place we're
going to start is with an improvement on those Kettlebell Swings. We're talking about the Pull
Through. Now, once again, we have a ground-based exercise like the Kettlebell Swing, which I like.
But we also get a chance to load this a little bit more heavily because we have the option to just
move that pin up the weight stack more and more to accommodate our increasing strength
gains and ultimately size gains. Now, I also like the fact that this is once again
reinforcing all the good things about the swing through that hip hinge overload. And what's nice
about this exercise is oftentimes for people, when you remove the speed component of the Kettlebell
Swing, they have a much easier time getting to a good glute contraction, which ultimately is
going to drive the hypertrophy you're looking for. So for me, the Pull Through gets the first
green circle in the Almost Best Category.
To me, this next exercise is one that's way too
often underutilized, but one that we use often with our athletes and it's the Dumbbell Leaning
Forward Step Up. And what's great about this movement is you can easily load it depending upon
the weight of the dumbbells that you grab. But what's nice is just by changing the orientation
of your body prior to starting the exercise, you can shift the load more from the quads to
the glutes and hamstrings. So, we just assume this forward tilt of our torso before we start
the ascent on every rep. So, what this does is it just preloads the glutes. So now as I press
down through my foot and drive myself up and get as close as I can to full hip extension,
and I even have that good eccentric loading on the way back down again. I can train one leg at
a time to overcome those muscle imbalances and weaknesses. It's going to get another green
circle here in the Almost Best Category.
And so, I mentioned before that the glutes
and hamstrings prefer to work together. If we had an exercise that allowed us to overload
and resist knee flexion and also hip extension, then we would have a great exercise. Well, this
pair of exercises actually allows you to do just that. And regardless of whether you have access to
the equipment, you're going to have an option to do it. And we're talking about either the Glute
Ham Raise or The Slick Floor Bridge Curl. And what you can see here is, again, that coordinated
effort between the glutes and hamstrings. On the Glute Ham Raise you get that initial contraction
from the glutes to stabilize the pelvis and assist in the driving of the whole body up into this
knee flex position. And of course, this is a tremendous overload on the hamstrings. And we can
actually increase the load here as we want to by simply adding additional plate if needed.
But let's say you didn't have access to this machinery. Well, you can do what I always
show here is a The Slick Floor Bridge Curl, and this is a body weight variation and it's a
lot harder than it looks. You're basically doing the same thing here, you're starting with a glute
bridge through good hip extension, maintain that throughout and then actively and dynamically using
your hamstrings to curl your legs in and back out. A good eccentric overload here, too. The key,
as always, is to keep your glutes really, really high while you're moving your feet back and forth.
And even here, if you want an additional overload, try to do this one leg at a time. It is not easy.
Either way, you're getting that holy grail, that good combination of the activation of both those
muscle groups together, and therefore it gets that big green circle in our Almost Best Category.
And so, as we've done here a few times on this list already, we've made the improvements and now
we're going to make that ultimate improvement when it comes to the RDL. So instead of the single leg
variations, we can now move towards the classic Barbell RDLs and with good reason. Because if
you're pretty confident that you don't have any of those underlying left or right imbalances,
then this is going to give you the best chance to overload the exercise and create the most
growth in both the hamstrings and the glutes.
And again, with a lot more stability since
you're not in any single late balance situation. An additional plus for the exercise is
it's a good accessory movement to help you if you struggle at all with that and range of a
deadlift. It just has a lot of utility here and it's one of the best exercises you can do for
the posterior chain. It has to be on this list, and it has to be somewhere at the very top,
it belongs to the Almost Best Category.
And so, any good list of leg exercises wouldn't
be good if it didn't have some variation of a squat on it. For us, it's going to be the
low bar variation. And there's a reason for this because it sets your body up to recruit
the posterior chain muscles more effectively. By simply carrying the bar lower on those
lower rear delts, you're going to have to pitch your torso forward at a bit of an
angle. What this does, as I mentioned before, is it recruits those posterior chain muscles more
effectively, and it carries through as you go down into the bottom portion of the squat. Allowing
you to more effectively drive out of the squat and also handle heavier loads. The progressive
overload was never in doubt here, nor was its placement at some point on this list. Ultimately
here, way up high, the Low Bar Squat is going to be the last and the Almost Best Category.
And so, some of you might be thinking, but what about some of the other exercises that Jeff
has shown in the past that have been very, very helpful? Well, I would consider those corrective
exercises either done for neuromuscular activation or to overcome a glute medius weakness or
some sort of hip imbalance. They wouldn't necessarily find a home on this list when we're
talking about hypertrophy and growth. However, stay tuned, that one's coming.
And so that leaves us with only one. And of course, there can only be one
when it comes to the best of the best. You weren t looking over my shoulder the whole time,
were you? Well, whether it's a surprise or not, we're talking about the Barbell Hip Thrust. And
this exercise simply checks all the boxes when it comes to glute development. Yes, you can
progressively overload it very easily. Yes, you can perform it safely. And yes, it's
going to provide the muscle hypertrophy that you're looking for. Or as Jesse said,
It's going to help you grow that juicy booty. The reason why this exercise sits way up here at
the top, even above our beloved squat, is because muscle activation studies will prove how much more
superior this is when it comes to recruiting the glutes on any exercise. Throw in the fact that
the resistance curve here is superior as well, ensuring that we have a heavy load placed on those
glutes in peak contraction. Guys, this is just the best exercise when it comes to delivering the
gains that you really want. And it also has those hamstring isometric benefits built in as well.
This is going to get that Green Star as the best of the best in our glute exercise rankings.
So, if you're looking for quads, that's coming soon. If you're looking for a chest or shoulder's
ranked video, you can find them here. And also, if you're looking for a complete program,
you can get them over at athleanx.com. Guys click subscribe so you never miss a
video when we put one out. See you soon.
