How to Split Squat for Stronger Legs?

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How-to

1. Stand with your torso upright and hands on your hips. Step forward with one leg and backward with the other.

2. Lower your body down until your back knee comes in contact with the floor. Keep your torso upright and maintain balance.

3. Push from the front heel and glute and return to the starting position.

Muscle Worked

Primary Muscle Groups

Glutes

The glutes help you extend your thighs from the hips and drive you forward.

Hamstrings

The hamstrings flex your knees and extend and rotate your hips

Quads

"Quads" refers to your quadriceps femoris muscles which flex your leg from the hip joint and extend your leg from the knee joint.

Secondary Muscle Groups

Adductors

The adductors are the muscles on the insides of your thighs that move your legs toward the midline of your body

Calves

The calves are the muscles at the back of the lower part of your legs

Pro Tips

• Practice your balance before attempting this exercise. See if you can hold your weight on one leg, then shift to the other leg while simply standing up.
• Go deep into this squat exercise. Dropping your knee low to the ground will help you get more muscular engagement in this exercise.
• Try it with equipment. If you are finding this exercise easy, you may want to add a barbell, dumbbells, kettlebells or other equipment for resistance.

Benefits

• This exercise lets you activate your muscles unilaterally. That means you work one side of the body, then the other. If you’re stronger on one side, unilateral training addresses muscle imbalances between your left and right sides.
• Split squats can help strengthen your leg muscles.
• This exercise may help promote better balance by forcing you to balance on one leg, and then the other.

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