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Maximize your workout time at home or in the gym with this quick and gritty dumbbell lower body workout.

Make sure you pin this and tell a friend to tell a friend about it. 💪🏾

Intro: Dumbbell lower body workout

For the most part, I think you ladies have leg day down pat.

So, kudos to you. 👏🏾

But guys…

Let’s be real, this is by far the workout day we’re most likely to skip. 

But want to hear something funny? 

Back in high school, my track coach told me I had turkey legs (** gobble, gobble**). 🤣

Which was kiiiinda true, because I avoided leg day at all costs. 

Okay, okay. 

That’s a slight exaggeration from my coach.

My legs weren’t a step or two away from snapping in half but I want you to be better than I was and stop skipping leg day! 

Now, let’s dive into what you came here for.

The 3 keys to strength training success

1. Progressively lift heavier and heavier weights

This is unquestionably the most important concept to know as far as strength training goes.

It’s called progressive overload.

Aka gradually increasing the amount of weight you lift over time.

Lifting heavier and heavier weights places added stress on the body, which is the stimulus you need to build muscle and make progress.  

You don’t have cereal without milk and you won’t see results without progressive overload.   

2. Truly push yourself during your workouts

If you treat your workouts like a picnic, it’ll be evident in your lack of results.

You NEED to be pushing yourself during your workouts.

That’s the only way you’re going to see progress, by placing yourself in uncomfortable situations and challenging yourself.

Think about it like this: Progress and growth are on the other side of discomfort.

When I say challenging yourself, I mean pushing within 1-2 reps shy of failure on your sets. 

You want a fitter, more defined look, right?

It won’t happen if you just go through the motions! 

3. Form > Everything else

Form comes first.

Weight comes second.

100% of the time.

If you’re not performing exercises correctly:

A.) You won’t hit the right muscles.

B.) You’re just an injury waiting to happen.

Don’t let your dark thoughts win and try to lift weights you just know are too heavy for you because you think what you’re lifting is “too light.”

It’s not, it’s just right for you and if you stay consistent about hitting your strength training workouts, you’ll get stronger and graduate to lifting heavier weights.

It’s you against you.

Focus on getting just 1% better than you were yesterday. 

Don’t forget about the nutrition side of things!

You know how a hamster just runs on its little wheel, putting all this work in, but ends up going nowhere?

That’s how things end up when you neglect your diet. 

It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a calorie deficit to lose fat or want to put on muscle (I.e. make your booty pop or get bigger arms), nutrition will make or break your physique success.

Dumbbell lower body workout

Here’s an overview of the workout (We’ll go into more detail about each exercise below):

• 1.) Half rep into full goblet squat: 3 sets x 6-8 reps
• 2A.) Forward lunges: 3 sets x 8-10 reps each leg
• 2B.) Romanian deadlift (RDLs): 3 sets x 8-10 reps
• 3.) Weighted glute bridge: 3 sets x 12-15 reps

*** 2A and 2B are what’s called a “superset.” A superset means performing a set of each exercise before taking a rest. In this case, you would perform a set of lunges and then would immediately go into your set of RDLs. Once you’re done with a set of both exercises, you then rest. ***

As far as rest goes, a general guideline is 2-3 minutes between each set.

Take more rest if you need it though, please! 🙏🏾

The whole point of strength training is to lift as much weight as you can.

I know you might feel like you’re working hard when you go from set to set, exercise to exercise without resting, but that’s not true strength training.

You’re just doing cardio at that point, which should be kept separate from your strength training workouts. 

Save your cardio workout for another time

1.) Half rep into full goblet squat

Goblet squats are a great exercise to primarily work your glutes, quads, and inner thigh muscles.

Instead of just squatting down and coming back up, you’re adding a half rep in there.

So it’s squat all the way down, come up halfway, go all the way back down, then come all the way up.

This places greater tension on your muscles, which will help you get more out of the exercise. 

Place your feet roughly shoulder-width apart or a little outside of that.

Toes should be pointed outward slightly.

Now, there are a couple of things you can do to place more emphasis on certain muscles.

• If you lean your torso forward slightly (make sure to keep your spine neutral and not round your back), you’ll hit more glutes.
• If you keep your chest more upright as you’re squatting down, you’ll hit more quads. 
• A wider stance will target more inner thighs. 

2A.) Forward lunges

Lunges are an exercise for your glutes, hamstrings, and quads.

I want to point out a few things that will help you get more out of this exercise:

• If you struggle with maintaining balance with lunges, don’t think, “I’m stepping straight out.” Think, “I’m stepping out and a little to the side.” 
• You’ll work more quads by taking smaller steps with your lunges
• You’ll work more glutes by taking your lunge steps further out. 

Since lunges are part of a superset, you’ll hop right into a set of the next exercise before taking a rest.

2B.) Romanian deadlift (RDLs)

RDL tips:

• Keep your spine neutral and make sure you’re not rounding your back.
• Rather than drop the weights straight down, I want you to pretend you’re trying to shut a door behind you with your butt.
• Don’t have the weight so far out in front of you away from your body. Tilt out at around a 30-degree angle and guide it down your legs.
• You don’t have to go down anywhere near close to the ground. Once you feel a little stretch in your hammies/glutes, return to the starting position. 
• The straighter you keep your legs, the more hamstrings you’ll work. And while these shouldn’t end up being a squat, having more bend in your knees will target your glutes more.

3.) Weighted glute bridge

Really focus on squeezing your glutes at the top of the movement.

When you’re at the top of the movement, you should be able to draw a straight line from your shoulders all the way up to your knees.

Also, make sure to not overextend your back.

Want a 12-week workout program?

If you want more workouts like the one in this article, you won’t regret downloading my FREE 12-week dumbbell workout program. 

Everything’s all laid out for you in the program so you won’t have to wonder if what you’re doing is right from a workout perspective. 

All you have to do is show up with a pair of dumbbells and put in the work. 💪🏾