While working out, you must always concentrate on muscle growth. This also includes strengthening the muscles. Concentrating on the muscles also helps you with fat loss because you start burning all the stored fat and you start replacing that with muscles instead. There are certain exercises that can help you in targeting more than one muscle group. This not only helps you in reaching your goal faster but it also helps you in recovering quickly. This can also improve your stamina extensively. One such workout that can help you in targeting the lower body is Split Squats.
A lot of people try to establish a difference between split squat and lunges but in a competition, if split squat vs lunge, split squat takes away the trophy. Talking about the Split Squats, this is one exercise that not only targets your leg muscles. The target area for this movement is quads, hamstring, and even glutes. In addition to this, the Split Squats also help you in the development of abdominal muscles. With all these being the target group for Split Squats, it makes really sense to add the exercise to your workout regime. Let us talk more about this wonderful exercise to give you a better picture of it
Split Squat Benefits to Look Out For
We have already discussed one of the major benefits of the split squat which is the fact that it targets a larger group of muscles which in turn ensures that you are able to reach your goal faster. Let us now look at some other benefit of Split Squat.
- The first benefit that we are going to talk about is the fact that the split squat improves the flexibility of the lower body and at the same time, it also increases your body movement. The increase in flexibility is drastic and it is one of the best stretching exercises.
- With the help of a split squat, you can also learn to balance better. This exercise requires a lot of balancing act because of which you end up learning coordination better.
- Another amazing part about the split squat is that it is going to help you in strengthening your muscles which in turn improves your performance drastically. This can also help you in the development of abs.
- There are many variations available for split squats which can help you in increasing the difficulty level. In split squat vs lunges, split squat always wins. You can try various variations like a split squat barbell and split squat dumbbells.
With these benefits, it becomes important to integrate split squat in your daily workout regime. You can perform this on alternative days and it would also help you with the warm-up. Let us now look at the right technique to perform Split Squat.
Split Squats Movements
In this section, we are going to tell you how to do a Split Squats effectively. Remember that your form holds a lot of importance here as having an incorrect posture can lead to injury or it can lead to a waste of effort. To perform a Split Squats, stand straight and take a long step forward. The step should be like you are performing a lunge. Ensure that the heel of the back foot is raised. While keeping your torso straight, start lowering yourself until the knee of the back foot starts touching the ground. Now, slowly start pushing yourself in the original position where you need to stand straight.
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To perform the exercise effectively, you can first complete all the reps on one leg and then you can move on to the other leg to complete the set. While doing the exercise, ensure that your knees are in line with your toes. Check this especially for the front leg. Also, another tip that can help you in reducing the risk of injury is ensuring that you initiate the movement with the help of the back leg instead of the one in the front.
As you progress, you might want to try different variations of Split Squats. It is certainly a good thing to try such variations and you can increase your intensity by adding more resistance to your regime. You can slowly increase the difficulty level by adding the weight while performing Split Squats. There are two options.
The first option is to hold a dumbbell in each hand. This can help you in starting with the lower weights. You can even choose to hold a kettlebell against your chest while performing Split Squats. A lot of people prefer Split Squat dumbbells but as they progress, they adapt to the barbell split squats. Let us now tell you more about this variation of Split Squat.
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To perform a split squat barbell, you need to first engage the upper trap just like you would do while performing a barbell squat. Now, take a long step forward and perform the Split Squats just like you would do normally. This way, you can perform Split Squats barbell effectively.
Risks of Split Squat
Whenever we talk about an exercise, we always ensure that we tell you about the risk associated with the exercise. If you are looking for the same information or split squat then let us tell you that it is quite safe to perform this extension. You just need to ensure that you align your toe in the right position so that you do not get imbalanced. Apart from this, you just need to go slow. If you performing split squat barbell then ensure that you only take weights that you can handle.
Final Verdict
This was all about Split Squat and we are sure that this information will help you in performing your workout better. You can check out different variations of this exercise and as you progress, you can perform them for increasing the difficulty level. With time, you will notice a drastic improvement in your performance and in your lower body strength. Just pay attention to your form and ensure that you have adopted the right form while performing the split squat.