Strong legs are in! Not just because they look hot in shorts and leggings, but because they help you feel more badass on a long run, while pushing up a hill in your SoulCycle class, or when doing thrusters during your CrossFit WOD. This squat and lunge workout has a jumping element, known as plyometrics, which not only makes the exercises harder but also adds a little cardio in there too.
Squat Hop
- Before you start this move, visualize a large square on the floor, and you're standing in the bottom-right corner, feet hip-distance apart.
- Keeping weight in the heels, bend the knees and squat down. Take a huge jump forward to the top-right corner of that imaginary square, landing quietly back into a squat.
- Keep going around the square, jumping to the left, jumping back behind you, and jumping to the right. Now you're back where you started.
- Reverse your jumps around the square in the opposite direction.
- This counts as one rep.
- Complete three reps.
Lower Body: Wide Squat With Calf Raise
- Stand with your feet about three to four feet apart, toes turned out. Bring your hands together in front of your chest, and squat down so your thighs are parallel with the floor, knees over the ankles.
- Raise your left heel off the floor, and begin to pulse the hips up and down, isolating the left calf.
- Do 10 pulses with the left heel raised, then do 10 pulses with the right heel raised.
Split Lunge Jumps
- Stand with your feet together and your knees soft. Jump and come into a lunge with your left leg forward.
- Push off with both feet, jumping them together, then hop into a lunge with your right leg in front.
- Jump your feet back together to complete one rep.
- Complete 10 reps.
Lower Body: Alternating Side Lunge
- Start with your feet directly under your hips. Step your right foot wide to the side and come into a lunge with your left fingers touching your right foot. Your right knee shouldn't go beyond your right toes. Keep your chest lifted and your weight in your heels.
- Push into your right foot to return to standing, then lunge sideways to the left to complete one rep.
- Do 10 reps.
Gate Swings With Cross
- Start with your feet in a wide, second-position stance with your toes pointed slightly outward. Bend your knees and lower into a squat, using your hands to help push your knees wide apart to deepen the inner-thigh stretch.
- Push off your knees to get leverage, and jump your right leg in front of your left, landing in a standing cross-legged stance.
- Immediately jump your legs back out to a wide squat with your hands at your knees.
- Push off your knees and jump your legs together, crossing your left leg in front of your right.
- This counts as one rep.
- Complete 10 reps.
Squat With Side Kick
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width distance apart, feet parallel. Hold your hands out in front of you for balance. Bend your knees, lowering your hips deeply into a squat, keeping weight back in your heels.
- Then rise back up, straightening the legs completely and lifting the right leg out to the side, squeezing the outer glute.
- As you step the foot back into shoulder-width-distance position, squat down again. Then stand up and do a side leg lift on the left side. Lower the leg back to the starting position.
- This counts as one rep.
- Do a total of 10 reps.
