Triple play legs: bring up your glutes, quads and hams with these three targeted leg workouts

Muscle & Fitness/Hers, Jan-Feb, 2005 by Lara McGlashan

BY A SHOW OF HANDS, WHO'S SATISFIED WITH HER LEGS AND GLUTES?

Just what I figured--most of us continue to seek new and more effective ways to modify the shape, tone, size or leanness of our lower halves. Perhaps your leg workout covers all your major muscles, but does it focus on each area individually? That could be the key, and that's just what this series of workouts intends to do. You can personalize your leg training, focusing on your quads, hamstrings or glutes by alternating three distinct workouts or sticking with one for several weeks to bring up a lagging area. [paragraph] To assist us in creating foolproof routines, we enlisted three top pro fitness competitors, each of whom has years of experience helping women with their lagging lower bodies. So assess your own assets and use these problem-specific workouts as a prescription for what fails you.

GLUTES GET YOUR REAR IN GEAR

LOVENA STAMATIOU-TULEY, MPT

JOB PRO FITNESS COMPETITOR AND PERSONAL TRAINER

LOCATION LAWRENCE, KANSAS

CONTACT INFO WWW.GETOFFYOURASS.BIZ

LOVENA STAMATIOU-TULEY thought she had a great rear view--until she dieted down for her first pro show 10 years ago. "I was shocked to see that I had a saggy bottom!" she remembers. "It wasn't the big booty I thought I had."

So Lovena christened the following year the Year of the Butt, dedicating herself to rounding out her glutes. She focused primarily on compound moves that worked her legs in a functional way and recruited her glutes as much as possible. "Exercises that have a balance element or that are done on one leg challenge the glutes tremendously," she says. "They engage to stabilize your hips, especially the gluteus medius muscle (the smaller one that's higher up on your hip) that a lot of girls complain about being flat. Training these smaller muscles gives the illusion of a 'butt lift' by rounding out the top one-third of your tush. I call this the 'J.Lo effect.'"

Lovena starts her routine with a superset of single-leg leg presses and a move she calls "bow to the queen." For the leg press, she places her working foot directly in line with her knee and hip and puts her nonworking foot on the floor. She brings the platform as low as she can with good form, then presses it up explosively. She moves directly into a set of bow to the queen. "You should almost look like you're bowling when you're at the bottom of the motion," explains Lovena. "Getting in this position puts the glutes on stretch, so when you stand back up, they're forced to work much harder."

From there, she moves to another superset of one-legged motions: skater lunges combined with single-leg dead-lifts. "Step with your toes pointing straight ahead for the skating lunges, not turned out to the sides, to save your knees and best hit the glutes," she advises. "And for the one-legged dead-lifts, hold a pair of dumbbells in front of you, keep your standing knee soft and bring your nonworking leg up behind you like a scale for balance."

Lovena finishes off her workout with one final move: the barbell squat.

LOVENA'S GLUTE-FOCUSED ROUTINE

EXERCISE              SETS  REPS

One-Legged Leg Press  3     10 per side
superset with >>
Bow to the Queen      3     12 per side
Skater Lunge          3     12 per side
superset with >>
One-Legged Deadlift   3     12 per side
Barbell Squat         3     10-12

HAMS HAM IT UP

LAURA "MAK" MAKOWSKI, MS, CSCS

JOB PRO FITNESS COMPETITOR, PERSONAL TRAINER, FASHION DESIGNER AND SUPPLEMENT ENTREPRENEUR

LOCATION MARINA DEL REY, CALIFORNIA

CONTACT INFO WWW.LAURAMAK.COM

AFTER A FEW DISAPPOINTING contest placings in the physique rounds, fitness competitor Laura Mak queried the judges about her shortcomings. Their responses prodded her to whip her hamstrings into shape, particularly the glute-ham tie-in right underneath the cheeks. She attacked her legs with twice-weekly sessions, dedicating one day to total leg training and the second to hamstrings and glutes only.

Laura's ham-focused workout begins with a superset of walking lunges combined with seated leg curls. "I lunge a lap in the gym, 12 steps up and 12 back, holding a set of dumbbells, then get right onto the seated leg curl for 20 reps," she says. "I like to lean forward slightly instead of resting against the backpad because it puts my hamstrings on a greater stretch, making them work a little harder than normal."

She continues with another superset, this one consisting of stiff-legged deadlifts and step-ups. "Keep a flat back and lower only as far as your flexibility allows on the deadlifts," Laura advises. "I do the step-ups quickly, focusing on the plyometric aspect of the upward motion to really hit that ham-glute tie-in."

Finally, she rounds out her routine with an extended set of lying leg curls, a dedicated hamstring movement. "I do 10 reps with each leg separately, then increase the weight slightly and burn out another 10 reps with both legs together," she says. "Keep your hips flat, and don't pull with your back when doing the single-leg curls."

Although she keeps her reps pretty high, Laura doesn't shirk on her poundage. "You need to use at least a moderate weight to get anything out of an exercise," she points out. "If you don't, you're not giving those large leg muscles anything to work with, and you won't make much visible improvement." She also recommends stretching. "Sometimes people have problems bringing up their hams because they're too tight," she notes. "This tightness can impede your development because you don't move through a full range of motion. I like to stretch hamstrings every time I train."