Lower Body Workouts (Week 1 and 2)
(Isolation workouts)
By Elizabeth Kilgore 8/22.2015
If you have stomach or lower back problems but still need to or want to workouts these exercises can help you. I have always loved to work out my whole life I have always done some kind of physical activity. For the past five years I have suffered from diastasis rectus which is the separating of the abdominal muscles, and right in the middle of the separation I have a hernia. So when I started working out after many years of not being able to , and after my abs started to go back into place you can imagine the pain I felt. Pain because as my stomach muscles started to go back to normal they pressed on the hernia cause a lot of discomforts. I really wanted to work out but knew I couldn’t do anything that would strain my stomach muscle. After taking a month to heal I decided to make an isolated workout where I could work out and to do a little cardio without utilizing my stomach muscle to the point of hurting myself.
After only two weeks of trying this new workout routine, I notice a big change in muscle tone and placed before and after photos online. After receiving many texts, and emails from people asking what I have been doing to get a good workout without using my stomach I realized that I wasn’t alone. Many people suffer from back pain and stomach problems and want to work out just as much as I do. This made me decide to share my story and this routine.
Activate Your Muscles
Before starting the first week do one set of the workouts to let your body know that you’re going to start using them and to see if you need to do fewer repetitions. If you muscles are soar take a day or two to heal before starting this routine. One of the most important things to remember is to never workout when you are in pain. If your muscles are sore take a day or two for them to heal and adjust your workout so that you can get proper exercise without hurting yourself. A big myth when it comes to exercising is that you have to feel pain to know its working. Working out should not hurt you, and you shouldn’t feel like you are going to die afterward. After you do the workouts and you have had time to heal because you most likely will get soar don’t adjust the workouts until you have tried to do the first day of week one, because you might not be soar after the trail day.
Week 1
Make sure to do every exercise three times a day for five days straight, weekends are your healing time and you may find that even though you aren’t working out your muscle still forms on the weekends. Giving your body time to rest can also help your muscle to grown, and keep them from getting strained and injured. Parts of the body being worked.
Key areas this routine workouts on is glutes, thighs, hips, calfs, and hamstrings.
Squats 10 repetitions. Make sure that when doing these squats to keep your back straight and push your butt out, and when you come back up to the standing position do not tuck your butt in keep it out little these are squats, not plie's and ballet dancers don’t have big nice glutes ;).
Standing Donkey kicks 10 repetitions on each side. For this week do the Donkey kicks standing up, find something to lean on that is as close to your hip height as you can get rest your forearms there (like in photo one) and kick your leg back with your knee bent to a 90-degree angle (like in photo two). Lift it as high as you can.
Single Side leg lifts (lying down) 10 repetitions on each side. Lay down on your side with your elbow resting on the ground. Lift your leg as high as you can 10 times on each side.
Glute bridge 10 repetitions once a day. Glute bridges are very important, they can help repair and even strengthen the pelvic muscles this is very important for men, and also important for women especially women who have had children. Although it is important and can help people suffering from back and stomach problems, you should only do this exercises once a day anymore can be painful for people suffering from stomach and back pain.
Week 2
You can try wall sits in week two I did these for about three days once a day but I stopped.
Single leg squats 10 repetitions on both sides. Find something stable and safe to stand on hang one of your legs off the side and squat down with the other.
Crab Walks 10 repetitions on each side. Bend down into a squat and take ten large steps to the right, then take ten large steps to the left.
Single Side leg lifts 10 (standing up) repetitions on each side. Do these the same way you did them laying down only your standing up now. The extra weight on your hip muscles well help develop them, and you should feel the difference.
Repeats From Week One
(In week 2)
Squats 10 repetitions on both sides.
Donkey kicks 10 repetitions on each side.
Glute bridge 10 repetitions once a day.
If your muscles get sore sometimes stretching helps. In the middle of week two, I started drinking protein every morning. It's half a glass of V8 protein mixed with half a glass of milk on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, and half a glass of Bolthouse farms protein mixed with half a glass of milk on Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturday.
Keep a look out for the next lower body workout post part 2 when I wrote about weeks 3 and 4.
