Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Exercise of the Day: Sumo Squats

Time to get those glutes burning and lifted! One of my favorite exercises to work the glutes and your inner thighs is doing any version of a sumo squat. Because of the exaggerated way that you space your legs, you hit your inner thighs and your glutes in a more specific manner than you do when doing a standard squat.



1-To get into position, place your feet well-past shoulder width apart. The perfect spacing of your feet is when you go down into the squat, you can lower your thighs to being parallel to the floor and your knees are directly above your ankles. You want your toes pointing at almost 180 degrees, or straight away from your body. The positioning of your toes is imperative for the direct use of your inner thighs rather than your quadriceps.

2-Begin with your feet spread in their sumo position, your torso straight and active, and your legs holding you up in a standing position.

3-Lower your torso straight down until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Hold for a count of 2.

4-Creating as much resistance in your muscles as you can, squeeze your glutes and inner thighs to raise you back into an standing position. This is one rep.

5-Repeat the sumo squat for 1 minute.

One of the best things about the sumo squat is that there are many variations of the exercise. For example, you can try doing the squat with your heels raised, you can lower yourself down into the squat and then walk forward and backward for 1 minute, and you can do plyometric sumo squat jumps.

Make the exercise your own and have fun with it as you tone up your legs and glutes, just in time for summer!

ENJOY!

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