I know...maybe I'm a little
TOO descriptive in my exercise titles...
The idea behind the original
dumbell split squat exercise is single leg training...plus,
holding the dumbells in your hands allows you to push until
you have to set the dumbells down, instead of worrying about
re-racking the weight.
Then you add the bench with
your back leg up on it. This further increasese the demands
of the exercise - more glute work and much greater balance
component.
So the next step up from that
is THIS...holding just one dumbell (which messes up your balance
even more and puts cross-torsion on your core) you don't keep
your body upright throughout the movement but instead lean
forward like a Good Morning style of exercise.
This increases lower back and
glute involvement significantly, especially because of that
single dumbell effect.
It really helps train your body
to exert force in awkward positions (perfect for sports training)
and helps injury-proof the lower back area because of how
you're putting uneven force on the lower back but not in a
harmful way. Gives your body a chance to build up some resistance
to that kind of torsion.
So here's what it looks like
- set the dumbell a few feet in front of the bench and set
your back leg on top of the bench (top of your shoe on the
bench). Set your front foot beside the dumbell.
Make sure you're grabbing the
dumbell with the opposite hand to the leg you're using. You'll
need to do that for balance. If you hold it on the same leg,
it'll be outside of your base of support and you'll either
have to use a lot less weight or you'll probably fall over
a lot.
Now bend forward and pick it
up. Try to keep a tight arch in your lower back and keep your
core tight throughout the movement. It looks a lot like a
speedskaters position (little known fact, when I was a teenager,
I was a nationally-ranker short track speedskater - that's
fun stuff!)
Now stand up on the one leg,
bringing your torso vertical as you stand up. The movement
itself looks like you're reaching down to pick something up
off the ground on every rep. But, of course, you keep that
dumbell in your hand the whole way through.
Do your reps on one leg then
repeat on the other.
This is GREAT work for the lower
body and entire posterior chain, all the way up through your
lower back and core.
