This workout can help you get a great butt, if that’s what you’re after. Even more importantly, I would argue, is that when done properly these exercises can make significant improvements in movement efficiency and pelvic, hip, and knee stability. Building strength and a mind-body connection with these exercises can improve your performance in lower body lifting workouts, or intense HIIT, but they also benefit any number of everyday life activities; each step that you take or stair that you climb, each time you sit or come back to a standing position, every time you lift grocery bags, etc.
Related: 5 Key Tips For Getting Back to Fitness After Injury
The key to seeing benefit from these types of workouts is largely in focusing on clean movement - that is equal on either side of the body, with a close eye on how your hips are aligned all throughout. Put your hands to your hips bones, and notice the change in alignment as you tilt your hips forward and then back, sink one side down as the other hip rises up, then rotate/twist so that one hip is forward and the other is back. As you go through these exercises, focus on keeping your hips and back in neutral alignment, trying to avoid/minimize doing any of the motions explained above in order to complete the exercise.
A resistance band is helpful for targeting these smaller muscles, but even if you don’t have any equipment at all, you can still get in a great workout with this routine. If you have a dumbbell nearby, you can also hold onto that while doing some of the other intervals, in order to further step up the challenge.
Related (with FB Plus): 3 Types of Pelvic Tilt: Breaking Down Lateral, Posterior and Anterior Pelvic Tilt
How to use this workout
Lower body workouts like this one, that target the smaller glute muscles, can be a great add-on, both before or after a lifting or HIIT workout. When done before the workout, they’re great for warming up the muscles for more thorough muscle or glute activation during the actual workout and strengthening the mind-body connection (especially helpful for people with lazy glutes). Done after a workout, it can be an excellent burnout round on already-worked muscles - you may even be able to “feel” these exercises more, after completing your regular workout. Like I mention in the video, people tend to be pretty split in terms of whether they like to do lower body resistance band workouts before or after. Which do you usually prefer? The good news is that there is no real “right” order to do these things in (though I do recommend switching it up now and again so that you can reap the benefits of both methods), so do what works best for you.
Workout Structure
45 Seconds Active, 15 Seconds Rest
No equipment necessary; resistance band or dumbbells
Warm up and cool down not included
Printable Banded Lower Body Workout
Monster Walk
3 Diagonal Taps & Switch
3 Point Squat
Side Lunge
Good Morning + Squat
Curtsy Tap + Outside Tap
Squat + Side Tap
Quadruped Hip Abduction
Other Side
Prone Taps
Bridge + Bow
How will you use this workout - before or after your strength or HIIT routines? I hope that you enjoyed this new banded lower body workout, let me know what you would like to see next!