When you spend long hours sitting at work, including lower body pull exercises in your routine can be very beneficial to your posterior chain, which includes tendons, ligaments, back, neck, hips, and legs. These muscles are responsible for simple regular movements such as rising from a chair or performing movements for your workout such as jumping, squatting, running, twisting, and bending.
To preserve smooth movement of your posterior muscles and avoid sore feelings, pain, and aches, upper body, and lower body pull exercise can definitely help.
Related read: Guide to the Best Pull-Up Bars in 2021
Simple Pull Exercises for Your Lower Body
Glutes and hamstrings are the primary movers in a lower-body pull exercise. These types of exercises dominantly work on your hip and hamstring. The following exercises don’t require heavy-duty gym equipment to be performed.
Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
For this exercise, you will need a pair of dumbbells. Use the weight you are comfortable with but will still provide you with resistance. For starting position, stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding the dumbbells on each side.
Keep your spine in a neutral position and shoulder blades squeezed. At this point, send your hips back while softening the knees and lowering the dumbbells at the shin level. Pull your hips forward, and straighten your knees to stand. During this exercise, maintain the dumbbells close to your body.
Stability Ball Reverse Hyperextension
You will need to prepare a stability ball for this movement. For starting position, place the stability ball under your abdomen by lying face down. Place your hands on the floor to maintain your balance and keep your body supported. Keep your feet extended at the back of the ball, then flex your glutes to lift your feet toward the ceiling into a full hip extension. Hold the position for a second before returning to the starting position.
Stability Ball Leg Curl
For this workout, keep the stability ball with you. To start into position, place the ball under your Achilles heel, with your feet extended, lying on your back. As for your hands, keep them extended on each side. Start the movement by raising your hips off the floor into full hip extension while your spine is neutral. Curl the ball toward your buttocks by pulling it with your feet. Get your glutes and hamstrings squeezed before returning to the starting position.
Barbell Conventional Deadlift
Prepare a barbell that you can lift. Place the barbell in front of you directly in front or against your shins. For the initial position, stand with your feet hip-width apart. To initiate the movement, send your hips back, the chest kept up, then bend your knees just enough to reach the bar and grasp it at the bottom.
While maintaining a neutral spine, brace your core. Raise the bar, and as soon as you pass your knees, extend your legs up, pull your hips forward and squeeze your glutes. To return to the initial position, descend by pushing your buttocks back while maintaining your chest up and run the bar across your lower body until the barbell is back on the floor.
Lower Body Pull Exercises with Gym Equipment
If you have your own home gym or are a regular gym-goer, here are lower body pull exercises that you can perform supported by heavy-duty gym equipment.
Good Mornings
This exercise will require you to have a squat rack or power rack (whichever you have) as you would pick up the bar to be placed on your back. Set up the bar at about your armpit height, then grab the bar slightly wider shoulder width. Push your hips back, slide your back under the bar and rest it down on your rear delts.
Keep your upper back tight to hold the bar in place. Never rest the bar on your hands as it is awful for your wrists. Always grip your hand above the bar. If you’re doing this for the first time, opt to use lighter weight.
Center your feet underneath the bar, push your hips forward to stand with the bar resting on your back, take three steps away from the rack, and keep your feet even but at least wider than shoulder-width.
To initiate the movement, push your hips back, bending only your waist while keeping your spine neutral and chest out. Keep your shins as vertical as possible with a slight bend on the knees. Drive your hips forward and repeat the movement.
Glute Ham Raise
You can use a Glute Ham Developer that can support this movement. Set your feet on the foot plane of the equipment. Adjust it in a way that your knees are about an inch away from the pad when your legs are extended. Make sure that your hips, knees, and ankles are absolutely extended with your toes pressed on the footplate.
To start, cross your arms on your chest with your hips straight, and your knees are flexed. To initiate the movement, straighten your knees to push yourself out, then bend at the hips while keeping your back tight and lowering your upper body as low as you can. Come back up to complete 1 rep.
Cable Pull Throughs
Use a cable machine for this exercise for training your glutes and put them in the lowest setting. Grab the tension cable and stand with your feet wider than hip-width. Open up the hamstring by pushing your hip back and walking a little bit away from the machine to find more tension. Pull the cable up as you drive your hips forward to complete one rep.
Conclusion
Training your posterior muscles not only help you build muscle and strength and allows you to work out lower body muscle to perform various daily tasks. It’s also important not to focus on the lower posterior muscles. You should also work on your upper body for full-body fitness. There should be a balance of push-pull exercises to incorporate full-body training.
