How to Do a Split Squat Lower Body Exercise

Video Transcript

"Hi , I'm Dr. Garrett Smith with Expert Village. This next exercise we're going to go into is called a split squat, also known by some people as a Bulgarian squat. What we're going to do, it's a build-up exercise to the king deadlift, as you'll see in the next exercise. Important thing on the split squat is that one foot is going to be supported behind you and you need to make sure your ankle's on something comfortable. I'm using this decline sit-up bench, the pad on it. A lot of people use typical weight lifting benches because they're padded around the edges. Again, hips are straight forward. Arms, you can do whatever you want with your arms. Most people use them for balance. If you start adding weight you can hold dumbbells or some people even put a bar behind their back. Basics of the exercise, you're just going to descend down as far as you're comfortable. I can go down that far with this certain decline bench, and then stand up. Again, we're building strength on one leg, we're forced to balance more with this leg up in that position. Also, it gives us a nice stretch in the front of the thigh, in our hip flexors. If you notice, that position at the bottom is very much like the good old quadricep stretch that a lot of us do. Split squat again. Make sure your foot's on something comfortable. If it's on the edge of something hard, it's going to make these real unpleasant. You're going down as far as we can, trying to keep the upper body relatively straight up, and lifting back up. That's a split squat and it's a great build-up to the next exercise where we don't use a bench, but we have our leg behind us called the king deadlift. "