basic questions, squats, lunges plies

[ARTYGIRL]

Well, alot of the trainers I've seen teach their clients to DL with a rounded back!

<begin rant>
Yeah, but it's no secret that a lot of "trainers" are complete dunderheads. The number of trainers I see encouraging people to do things that aren't safe and/or won't be effective is just one of the reasons I keep seriously considering going for my certification. The gym I belong to doesn't even require its personal trainers to have any kind of cert (although they do require CPR and basic first aid), and they run them through the "company" one-day trainer program and send 'em out on the floor. Not that it's rocket science, but a little more actual preparation seems like it would be in order.

</rant over>

Marie

[Seabush]

Here's a tip published in Muscle and Fitness Hers on doing Romanian deadlifts.

Exercise 6: Romanian Deadlift

Hold a pair of dumbbells in front of your thighs with your palms facing your body.
Keeping your chest high and your back straight, begin lowering the dumbbells by bending at your hips.
Try to keep the dumbbells as close to your legs as possible all the way down.
Lower the weights until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings.
Squeeze your glutes and contract your hamstrings while lifting the weights back to the starting position.
Training tip - Don't allow your back to round while lowering the weights; try to maintain its natural curve throughout the exercise. This movement also targets the hamstrings

[RovinUSA]

Originally posted by Seabush
Front Lunge - primarily works the quadriceps but your glutes, hamstrings, and calves are worked as well.

Static lunge - same as front lunge. This exercise is easier as you to don't to worry about the balance issues associated with a front lunge.

Step ups- pirmarily works the quadriceps but your glutes, inner thighs, calves, hamstrings are worked as well.

Rear lunge - primarily works the quadriceps but your glutes, hamstrings, and calves are worked as well.

Squat - primarily works the quadriceps but your hamstrings, calves, inner thighs, and glutes are worked as well.

Plie squat - primarly works the quadriceps but your inner and outer thighs, calves, butt, and hamstrings are worked as well.

Deadlifts - works the hamstrings primarily but the glutes and lower back are worked as well.

So ALL of these lower body moves, with the exception of deadlifts, works the quads primarily ? No wonder Firm tapes, which contain a LOT of sets of ALL of these exercises in EVERY workout (except for deadlifts) produce overdeveloped quads in me and many others. I'm thinking I would be better off doing just one set of each (at most) and then doing deadlifts and inner and outer thigh work so my muscles are worked in a balanced way.

[Loretta S.]

Originally posted by RovinUSA
I'm thinking I would be better off doing just one set of each (at most) and then doing deadlifts and inner and outer thigh work so my muscles are worked in a balanced way.

Sounds like a good plan to me!!

[Seabush]

Yes. These exercises primarily work the quadriceps. You'll feel these exercises in other areas (especially the glutes), but the target area is the quadriceps. The quadriceps and the lower body in general is a large muscle group. That fact means it will be worked hard by those putting out videos. There does seem to be an inordinate amount of compound exercises out there for the lower body. Maybe it's done to avoid doing isolated floor work or because it's time efficient (working lots of different muscles at the same time). I think it can be overkill for some. The only standing leg work exercises I do now are plie squats, leg presses, deadlifts, and calf raises.

Crystal

[KarenP]

I think the reason that videos use so many overlapping exercises for the lower body is that these muscles are large and most people can work up to lifting a lot of weight before reaching failure. Yet this is impractical and unsafe to do with a video -- and without a safety device (power rack). So videos take the cumulative fatigue approach. If you want to use a lower volume approach, then you would need to lift heavier.