Easy home Lower Body Program
I put everyone on a pretty generic lower body program, doesn’t matter if they are injured or not. The reason why I can do that is because the lower body is pretty “limited” in what it does. Every exercise known to man is basically some variation of the below.
All you have to do is take the above movements and add load to them. This is why a generic workout program yields results because 1) it’s all the same muscle groups and muscle patterns and 2) it’s infinitely scalable for any level.
The table below is my 3 go to exercises for the lower body (left) and a sample training session (right).
Let’s look at the exercises:
Side lying hip abduction
I’d start with the wall because EVERYONE screws up this techinque. Ensure your entire body, bottom of foot on bottom leg, and heel of top leg, are on the wall. Move away from the wall once you FEEL the lateral glute working. You can progress this exercise by using an ankle weight/heavy shoe, or doing it while holding an actual side plank.
Single Leg Bridge
I’d prefer you feel the glutes, so generally the cue is to “push through the heels.” If you get a hamstring cramp, you may have to “slide the feet forward.” You can progress this by elevating your feet or your body, as pictured below.
For feet elevated, ~ 12 inches is probably as high as you should go. Higher than that and you start bridging more lateral instead of up, so it makes the movement easier. With the back elevated on a bench, it is harder to control the low back, so pay attention to that. Back elevated is more like a “hip thrust.”
Bottoms up Split Squat
Starting on the ground makes this smooother. The key here is that the hip bone only goes up and down. So, take your finger and place it on the side of the hip of the forward leg. You finger should only go up/down as you do the movement, not forward and back.
Again, this is infintely scaleable. Hard to do? Place hands on a table. Too easy, add weight like he is (goblet), hold dumbbells like a suitcase, wear vest/backpack, hold a child, etc etc. Try to keep the weight increases consistent and use % of your own bodyweight.
Is that it?
Yes.
There are plenty of other (better) exercises I can add in later (rdls, step ups/single leg squats, hip flexion) and other lateral things, but I just want you to get started. The resistance isn’t that high, but it can get you “good enough,” especialy when combined with a good conditioning program.
This is good for 1-3x a week, and can easily be 1) combined to an upper body program or 2) have upper body movements done on the same day.