Hey, it's Lee Hayward here and in this video clip, I am going to show a squat assistant exercise workout that I did on January 5, 2009.
The first exercise in the workout is the arched back good morning. This is a great exercise to build up the spinal erectors, hips, glutes, and hamstrings. So, I sat up under the bar similar to how I would if I was doing a back squat. Then while keeping an arch in the lower back, bend over, add about a 45 degree angle or slightly more, and then by arching the lower back, bring the bar back up.
The arched back good morning is a great exercise to really help bring up your squat because it works all the major muscle groups that come into play while squatting but it doesn't place any stress on the knee joint.
After the good mornings, I move on to doing hyper-extensions and this works a lot of the same muscle groups, the spinal erectors, hips, glutes, and hamstrings but it works them from a different angle and incorporates a better stretch, like at the bottom of the move, you really get a good stretch of the lower back and the hamstrings.
So I do these with a 45-pound weight plate held to my chest and I'll do about 10 erectors so with the weight. Then after that, I'll put the weight down and continue on with just my body weight to really pump up those muscle groups and again, we get a good stretch throughout the lower back, hips, and hamstrings.
The next exercise that I am going to move on to is the glute kickback machine. Now I know a lot of guys probably consider this a girls' movement to help tone up the butt, but it's a fantastic exercise to really help build up the muscles that come into play when you are squatting. It works the hips, the glutes, the hamstrings, as well as the quads.
So this exercise, I really like it because it works each tide individually. So if you have one leg that's probably a bit stronger than the other, doing an exercise like this can really help to balance out your muscular development over time.
So as soon as you finish your reps for one leg, just switch the foot plate around and do your reps for the other leg. One thing that I want to mention here is when I am doing this exercise, I try to push through the heel because this activates the glutes and the hips more than, if you try to push through your toe and it also places less stress on your ankles, when you push through the heel. So when you set up, experiment with your foot positions and really try to drive the weight through your heels.
Now I am going to move on and do some abdominal work. Now this exercise here is the pull-down abdominal crunch and I like this ab crunch variation because it works the abs standing up. Now when you are doing like a squat exercise, your abs come into play as a stabilizer muscle and by doing your ab work in a standing up position, you work your abs very similar to how they will actually come into play while you are squatting.
I am doing this on the twin stack pull down machine, as you can see here. This variation just allows you a little bit more freedom of movement in the wrists but again, you could do this on your standard pull down machine with just a single pulley and the one handle attachment.
The final exercise of the workout is leg raises down here on the leg raise station. I really like this exercise because it works the lower abs and the hip flexors toward a great degree. These are critical muscles that come into play when you are squatting and they also help athletes because they are really good for running and a lot of agility drills, these muscle groups come into play, especially the hip flexors.
Sometimes, we will actually do this exercise hanging from an overhead chin-up bar and lift the legs all the way up until they actually touch the chin-up bar that I am hanging from.
For more workout programs and training tips, be sure to check out my website at www.leehayward.com. While you are there, make sure to sign up for my free 10-Part Muscle Building Tips E-mail Course. In this free e-mail course, you will get some killer tips and tricks that you can use to help build a leaner, stronger, more muscular body.
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