A BALANCED LOWER BODY
& TRUNK ROUTINE
 
 
By Leith Darkin
August 2006
 
Abstract
 
This article is a follow on from two of my previous articles “The Key Ingredients” and “A Balanced Upper Body Routine”. Before reading this article I recommend that you read both of these articles, reading “The Key Ingredients” first and “A Balanced Upper Body Routine” second.
In this article we are going to look at what our evolutionary process has bestowed upon us as far as functional movement, then use this information to put together effective and balanced lower body and trunk routines.
 
 
I found that identifying the five push and five pull movement patterns, then using them to put together a balanced upper body routine was quite simple, but to be honest, when I initially took on the task of attempting to do the same for the lower body and trunk I nearly gave up due to the complexity of some of the muscle groups.
Most of the hamstring muscle group crosses two joints and therefore is responsible for two movements, the primary function of the hamstrings is to flex the knee joint, where the secondary function of the hamstrings is to extend the hip joint. The lower portion of semitendinosus, semimembranosus and one head of biceps femoris is responsible for flexion of the knee, while the upper portion of semitendinosus, semimembranosus and one head of biceps femoris is responsible for extension of the hip, but only when the knee joint is nearly straight to straight eg jumping, hopping, running, approaching the lockout phase of a squat or regular deadlift, or throughout the full phase of a stiff legged deadlift. Even though the upper portion of the hamstrings is attributed with extension of the hip and the lower portion of the hamstrings is attributed with flexion of the knee, there must be some degree of tension on both ends of the muscles for the muscles to be able to apply force. Most of the quadriceps muscle group only crosses the knee joint and is therefore responsible for knee extension, however rectus femoris has two heads, one of which crosses the hip joint, making it responsible for flexion of the hip. To make things even more complicated, the quadriceps and hamstrings are opposing muscle groups where the agonists and antagonists actually work together simultaneously to apply force (extension of the knee & extension of the hip). Due to the complexity of these two muscle groups, I decided that the best way to go about this was to go back to basics and have a look at the movement patterns that gravity has bestowed upon us so we could coexist together. In the end I decided on the following four movement patterns as they each play an important role in our every day life as far as functional movement goes and all compound exercises for the lower body and trunk seem to fit into one of the following four movement patterns.
 
1) To resist gravity and get from a lying position to a seated position, we have the sit-up.
2) To resist gravity and get from a seated position/squatting position to a standing position, we have the squat.
3) To resist gravity from a standing position and bend over to pick up an object off the ground, we have the deadlift.
4) To resist gravity and walk around in its presence, we have the lunge.
 
I next decided to look at all the muscle groups that were responsible for each of the individual joint actions in each of these four movement patterns/exercises, I then put the results into a table where I could analyse what was going on.
 
Exercise
Muscle groups involved at the trunk
Muscle groups involved at the ankle
Muscle groups involved at the knee
Muscle groups involved at the hip
Sit-up
rectus abdominis & obliques
.
.
.
Squat
erector spinae & multifidus
calves and other plantar flexors
quadriceps
glute max & hamstrings
Deadlift
erector spinae &
multifidus
calves and other plantar flexors
quadriceps
glute max & hamstrings
Lunge
.
calves and other plantar flexors
quadriceps
glute max & hamstrings
 
When I first looked at this table a pattern started to emerge, out of these four movement patterns/exercises we had.
1) Calves and other planter flexors (PF) utilised three times.
2) Quadriceps utilised three times.
3) Glute max & the hamstrings utilised three times.
The problem was that the hip flexors didn’t come into the equation at all, rectus abdominis (RA) and the obliques were only in the table once and erector spinae and multifidus were only mentioned twice.
I first looked at the hip flexor problem and realised that the only logical way to involve the hip flexors was to incorporate them into the sit-ups, which if you think about it, it makes sense. Over the years I’ve prescribed the majority of abdominal exercises as isolation exercises to really target RA, which when looking back now, doesn’t make sense. RA and the obliques work in conjunction with our hip flexors as a compound exercise (flexion of the trunk & flexion of the hip) enabling us to sit upright, try to sit upright by isolating RA, you cant! It also came to my attention that when performing sit-ups with your feet anchored, not only do you bring your hip flexors into the equation, you also bring your dorsi flexors (the forgotten muscle group) into the equation as well.
If we look at performing 1 set of squats, 1 set of deadlifts, 1 set of lunges and 3 sets of sit-ups with our feet anchored, our table now looks like this.
 
Exercise
Muscle groups involved at the trunk
Muscle groups involved at the ankle
Muscle groups involved at the knee
Muscle groups involved at the hip
Sit-up
rectus abdominis & obliques times 3
dorsi flexors
times 3
.
hip flexors
times 3
Squat
erector spinae & multifidus
calves and other plantar flexors
quadriceps
glute max & hamstrings
Deadlift
erector spinae &
multifidus
calves and other plantar flexors
quadriceps
glute max & hamstrings
Lunge
.
calves and other plantar flexors
quadriceps
glute max & hamstrings
 
Now when we look at the table we have.
1) Dorsi flexors utilised three times.
2) Calves and other PF utilised three times.
3) Quadriceps utilised three times.
4) Hamstrings utilised three times.
5) Glute max utilised three times.
6) Hip flexors utilised three times.
7) RA & obliques utilised three times.
The only problem now is the erector spinae and multifidus are only used twice, initially I thought of throwing in an isolation exercise to solve the problem, however that didn’t sit well with me. My belief is, if you are building a functionally strong body you generally don’t need to use isolation exercises (though in some instances it may be deemed necessary to introduce your injury preventative isolation exercises into your functional strength training). Once you have built a functionally strong body and you wish to move onto your sport specific training, you then maintain your functional strength and introduce your compound or isolation injury preventive/sport specific exercises. It took me a while before I realised that the missing erector spinae and multifidus movement was in our five pull exercises, exercise number 3 “seated row” or exercise 4 the “bent over row”. When combining our upper body training, our lower body training and our sit-ups, everything evens out. To make sure I was on the right path I got out my anatomy books and double-checked all the main muscles that were involved in each of our four movement patterns and found that there are 34 muscles involved in our sit-ups, squats, deadlifts and lunges.
Sartorius, iliopsoas, rectus femoris, tensor fasciae latae, gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, biceps femoris, semitendinosus, semimembranosus, vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, adductor longus, adductor magnus, adductor pectineus, adductor brevis, adductor gracilis, gastrocnemius, soleus, tibialis posterior, flexor digitorum longus, flexor hallucis longus, peroneus longus, peroneus previs, peroneus tertius, tibialis anterior, extensor digitorum longus, extensor hallucis longus, rectus abdominis, external obliques, internal obliques, multifidus and the erector spinae.
If you were to do 3 sets of sit-ups, 1 set of squats, 1 set of deadlifts and 1 set of lunges, you would find that all these individual muscles are utilised three times. There are 2 additional muscles (gluteus minimus & gluteus medius) that don’t fit into my equation and one muscle (biceps femoris) which is only partly utilised. Gluteus minimus and gluteus medius are only utilised once (in our lunges), there role is to stabilise the hip when performing single leg movements/exercises such as walking, running, lunges and single leg squats. Biceps femoris is only partly utilised as it has two heads, one of which crosses the knee and hip joint which is utilised in hip extension and one which only crosses the knee joint which is only utilised in knee flexion, which isn’t featured in these exercises. In total there are 36 main muscles listed of which 34 (or 94.5%) of these are utilised evenly over these four movements. Now this method isn’t 100% accurate when attempting to write a balanced program for the lower body and trunk, however this method is simplistic and I feel that it is accurate enough for prescribing effective, and functional lower body and trunk routines.
 
Exercises and their variations
 
In this section we are going to look at
1) Sit-ups, squats, deadlifts, lunges and their variations.
2) How the variations effect joint angles, alignment with gravity and involvement of muscles.
The joint angles listed in these exercises will vary slightly from individual to individual due to technique variations, exercise range of motions and differences in individual body structures, the point of listing joint angles is to demonstrate how the same muscles are utilised differently in the squat and its variations, the deadlift and its variations and the lunge and its variations.
 
Squats, deadlifts and lunges
 
Front squat- In this particular squat the weight is sits anterior to the body, this means the body must stay fairly vertical throughout the exercise to keep the weight over the base of support. This results in
1 ) A slightly lesser degree of movement at the hip joint compared to a back squat, which results in a lesser contribution from glute max, hamstrings, erector spinae and multifidus.
2 ) The movement at the knee joint and the involvement of the quadriceps is pretty much the same for all your squatting variations.
3 ) The movement at the ankle joint and the involvement of the calves and other PF is pretty much the same for all your squat variations.
 
 
 
 Ankle joint 64-degrees.
Knee joint 63-degrees.
Hip joint 70-degrees.
 
Back squat- In this particular squat the weight sits posteriorly to the body which means the participant has to lean further forwards to keep the weight over the base of support (leaning further forwards means that the alignment with gravity is such that there is an increase in stress on the hip extensors and trunk extensors), this results in
1) A greater degree of movement at the hip joint compared to a front squat, resulting in a greater contribution from glute max and the hamstrings to extend the hip.
2) A greater contribution from the erector spinae and multifidus compared to a front squat, to keep the spine in the neutral position throughout the exercise.
3) The movement at the knee joint and the involvement of the quadriceps is pretty much the same for all your squatting variations.
4) The movement at the ankle joint and the involvement of the calves and other PF is pretty much the same for all your squat variations.
 
 
 
Ankle joint 67-degrees.
Knee joint 65-degrees.
Hip joint 53-degrees.
 

Single leg platform squat- In this particular squat the angles at the ankle joint and knee joint are the same as the joint angles in a front and back squat, where the angle at the hip joint is the same as the joint angle in a back squat, when weight is added the body position remains relatively unchanged so the participant can keep balance and keep the weight over their base of support. As the joint angles in this exercise are pretty much the same as the joint angles in a back squat, the contribution from each of the muscle groups will be much the same except for the erector spinae and multifidus who only contribute minimally until weight is added, even then their contribution will be considerably less than their contribution in a back squat due to the decrease in load that is needed for a single leg exercise. In this exercise there is a huge stability component (which will further increase the intensity) for the calves and other PF, quadriceps, glute max and hamstrings, this single leg stability component also places allot of stress on gluteus minimus and gluteus medius which come into play to stabilise the hip joint.
Key points to the single leg platform squat.
1) Platform squat can be performed on a bench of suitable height or you can make a platform for your power rack. Platform is made from a piece of timber 150-ml wide x 50-ml thick, the length of which is the width of your power rack. Platform is secured with bolts onto 2 pieces of tube or bar, the diameter of which is such that the tube/bar will go through the holes in your power rack where they are fastened to the power rack with locking pins.
2) Height of the platform/bench is the height of your kneecap when your foot is flat on the ground.
3) Lowering the foot to the ground is done in a controlled manner, you only briefly touch the tip of your toe on the ground (your foot does not support your body weight) before you start the concentric phase of the exercise.
 
 
 
 
 Ankle joint 65-degrees.
Knee joint 65-degrees.
Hip joint 55-degrees.
 
Regular deadlift- In this particular deadlift there is a lesser degree of movement at the knee joint compared to all your squat variations resulting in a lesser contribution from the quadriceps. At the ankle joint there is minimal movement, however there is quite a substantial isometric contraction from the calves and other PF to stop you from falling forwards (as the weight in this exercise is positioned anteriorly to the body). At the hip joint there is slightly more movement than a front squat and slightly less movement than a back squat, however, the upper body positioning at the end of the eccentric phase is almost perpendicular to gravity, in this position the alignment with gravity increases the stress on glute max and the hamstrings to extend the hips and places a considerable amount of stress on the erector spinae and multifidus to keep the spine in the neutral position throughout the exercise.
 
 
 
 
  Ankle joint 90-degrees.
Knee joint 130-degrees.
Hip joint 55-degrees.
 
Stiff-legged deadlift- During a regular deadlift and squat, as you descend, the bending of the knees distributes part of your body weight posteriorly to your bodies centre line of gravity, while the bending of the hips distributes part of your body weight anteriorly to your bodies centre line of gravity, this ensures that your body weight is distributed evenly over your base of support. In a stiff-legged deadlift, the mechanics of distributing your body weight is different as there is no movement at the knee joint, resulting in no contribution from the quadriceps. As you descend into the lift, the bar runs down the thighs (this helps to alleviate some of the shearing force on the spine) as the calves and other PF contract isometrically to stop you from falling forwards, when the bar approaches the knees there needs to be a shift in body weight, as at this point there is too much weight anteriorly to your bodies centre line of gravity, to counter this, the movement at the ankle joint goes beyond 90-degrees to around 110-degrees which now brings your dorsi flexors into play (at this point your bodyweight is over your heels). As you ascend, your dorsi flexors initially contract until there is around 90-degrees at the ankle joint (at this point the bar is around knee height), then your calves and other PF come back into play to stop you from falling forwards as you ascend back to the start position. At the hip joint there is lesser degree of movement compared to a regular deadlift (though this can vary depending on your flexibility and your ability to keep the spine in the neutral position), however as there is no contribution from the quadriceps, glute max and hamstrings do all the work. The body positioning at the end of the eccentric phase is perpendicular to gravity, in this position the alignment with gravity increases the stress on glute max and hamstrings to extend the hips and increases the stress on the erector spinae and multifidus to keep the spine in the neutral position throughout the exercise.
 
 
 
 
Ankle joint 110-degrees.
Knee joint 188-degrees.
Hip joint 80-degrees.
 
Walking lunge- In this particular lunge there are two noticeable contractions at the ankle joints, an approximate 20-degree contraction at the ankle joint of the front leg, which de accelerates the body through the eccentric phase of the exercise and approximate 30-degree concentric contraction at the ankle joint of the rear leg, which assists in driving your body forwards. The degree of movement at the knee joint and hip joint is approximately the same as all your squat variations, though this can vary depending on how deep you lunge. There are phases in this exercise where only one foot is in contact with the ground, which means gluteus minimus and gluteus medius come into play to stabilise the hip joint. In this exercise there is no load on the erector spinae until you add weight either in the form of a BB placed on the shoulders, DB’s held in each hand or a weight disc held over head (these load variations can be applied to all lunge variations), even then the stress on the erector spinae and multifidus is minimal compared to your regular squats and deadlifts as the upper body remains vertical throughout the exercise, aligned with gravity.
 
 
Alternate lunges- In this particular lunge you alternate your feet with each repetition, the joint angles at the knee and hip are the same as your walking lunge providing the depth of your lunge stays the same, this will result in the same contribution from your quadriceps, glute max and hamstrings. The movement at the ankle joint of the front leg goes from around 85-degrees at the end of the eccentric contraction to around 120-degrees at the end of the concentric contraction (around 35-degrees in movement) to assist in driving the body back to the start position.
Other differences between a walking lunge and an alternate lunge are.
1) When you perform an alternate lunge, your planter flexion, knee extension and hip extension in the initial part of the concentric phase, must be performed in a slightly more explosive manner to return your body back to the start position.
2) When you perform walking lunges, the distance you stride is twice that of an alternate lunge, which means a greater contribution from gluteus minimus and gluteus medius to stabilise the hip.
3) A walking lunge better replicates the movement patterns of walking and running.
When performing a walking or an alternate lunge, you’ll find that the angles at the knee joint and the hip joint will vary considerably depending on the depth of your lunge. The deeper you lunge the greater the stress on glute max, the shallower you lunge the greater the stress on the quadriceps.
 
 
Ankle joint 85-degrees.
Knee joint 82-degrees.
Hip joint 85-degrees
 
Rear leg lunge- In this particular lunge we are targeting the rear leg, so it is important that you position your body weight directly over the rear leg, to minimise the stress on the front leg. There is approximately 20-degrees of movement at the ankle joint in this exercise which is similar to that of your squats. Ideally there is no the movement at the hip joint on the rear leg, which means there is no contribution from the glute max and hamstrings. At the knee joint of the rear leg there is a considerable amount of movement (more than any other squat or lunge), resulting in a huge contribution from the quadriceps. Like all lunges there is no load on the erector spinae and multifidus until you add weight, even then the stress on the erector spinae and multifidus is minimal compared to your squats and deadlifts as the upper body remains vertical throughout the exercise, aligned with gravity.
Key points to the rear leg lunge
1) Initially you measure the depth of your lunge by aligning the knee of the rear leg with the heel of the front leg.
2) You slightly lean backwards keeping your body weight directly over the rear leg, ensuring that there is a straight line from the wrists (if holding weight over head), through the shoulders, through the hips and down through the knee of the rear leg.
3) This particular lunge is a static lunge; you only work on one leg at a time until you complete your reps, then you swap legs.
 
 
Ankle joint 100-degrees.
Knee joint 70-degrees.
Hip joint 180-degrees.
 
Lunge alternatives- Dragging a sled and using a weighted wheelbarrow are a couple of excellent lunge alternatives, both of these exercises utilise walking and/or running with load. The length of your stride is somewhat shorter that your “walking lunge” and “alternate lunge” (unless you are running), which means reduced joint angles all around. As there are phases in these exercises where only one foot is in contact with the ground, gluteus minimus and gluteus medius come into play to stabilise the hip joint.
 
 
Summarising the squat, deadlift and lunge
 
Squat- (Static exercise where the body moves vertically) The movement pattern of the squat replicates being able to stand upright along with jumping vertically. The squat places more stress on the quadriceps than the deadlift and lunge (with exception of the rear leg lunge) and places more stress on the erector spinae and multifidus than the lunge.
Lunges- (Dynamic exercise where the body moves horizontally) The alternate lunge and walking lunge replicates the movement patterns of walking, running and jumping horizontally (when taking off on one leg). The planter flexion at the ankle joint is performed explosively compared to your squats and deadlifts, the single leg stability component brings the hip stabilises (gluteus minimus and gluteus medius) into the equation which aren’t utilised in your regular squats and deadlifts.
Deadlift- (Static exercise where the upper body moves back and forth from vertical to horizontal) The movement pattern of a deadlift replicates lifting. The alignment with gravity at the end of the eccentric phase of the exercise places more stress on glute max the hamstrings, erector spinae and multifidus, than the squat or lunge.
I like to think of the front squat as the most functional squat, the walking lunge as the most functional lunge, the regular deadlift as the most functional deadlift and all other squats, lunges, and deadlifts are variations of these three movements, which can be utilised for variety.
 
Sit-ups
 
Sit-ups - In this exercise we are going to use an incline bench and perform sit-ups in either the supine position (bench lying flat on the ground) or in the decline position for those who are more advanced. Using an incline bench brings gravity into to equation, this inturn increases the stress on your hip flexors, RA, obliques and dorsi flexors, the greater the degree of incline the greater the stress on these muscles. Once you reach maximal height on your incline bench, your next progression is to hold a weight to your chest, which will further increase the stress on your hip flexors, RA, obliques and dorsi flexors.
 
Method 1- Working RA and the obliques isometrically by keeping the spine in the neutral position throughout the exercise, in the same manner that the erector spinae and multifidus are utilised when performing squats, deadlifts and bent over rows.
 
 
Method 2- Working RA and the Obliques concentrically and eccentrically by bringing the ribcage towards the pelvis (shortening RA & the obliques) through the concentric phase of the exercise, then moving the ribcage away from the pelvis (lengthening RA & the Obliques) through the eccentric phase of the exercise.
 
 
There are literally dozens of different ways to perform sit-ups and other abdominal exercises, this variation of the sit-up where the knees are bent at 45-degrees while the feet are anchored has been around forever and utilises important muscle groups that often don’t get utilised in other exercises.
 
Analysing these four exercises and putting together effective training routines.
 
Upon first looking at these four movement patterns/exercises it appears that the joint actions and muscle groups involved in the squat, deadlift and lunge are almost identical and the joint actions and muscle groups involved for our sit-ups are complete opposites. This may lead to the belief that you don’t need to perform a squat, a deadlift and a lunge in a set training routine/training phase. My belief is if you are building a functionally strong body, or looking at maintaining a functionally strong body, then you need to utilise each of these three movement patterns. Each of these three movement patterns are individual and specific movements that contribute to humans being able to coexist with gravity and although each of these three movement patterns utilise the same muscles.
1) The contribution from each muscle group is different in each of these three movement patterns.
2) The neural patterns that activate these muscle groups are all individually different.
3) Each of these three movement patterns is specific to a different evolutionary task.
 
When putting together effective routines, you can include.
2 sets of squats, 2 sets of lunges, 2 sets of deadlifts & 6 sets of sit-ups.
Or.
3 sets of squats, 3 sets of lunges, 3 sets of deadlifts & 9 sets of sit-ups.
Or
4 sets of squats, 4 sets of lunges, 4 sets of deadlifts & 12 sets of sit-ups.
If you wish to incorporate either a rear leg lunge or a stiff-legged deadlift into your training, then I would recommend that you put both of these exercises into the same training routine as the rear leg lunge has no movement at the hip joint, where the stiff legged deadlift has no movement at the knee joint. When putting these two exercises into a routine, you would include
2 sets of squats, 2 sets of rear leg lunges, 2 sets of stiff-legged deadlifts &
4 sets of sit-ups.
Or
3 sets of squats, 3 sets of rear leg lunges, 3 sets of stiff-legged deadlifts &
6 sets of sit-ups.
ETC
 
Injury preventative exercises
 
In our lunge, squats, and deadlifts our hip adductors and hamstrings are both utilised in there secondary role, if you are involved in sports where injuries to the hip adductors and or the hamstrings are common, then you should consider additional isolation exercises to specifically strengthen these muscles in their primary role. These exercises can be introduced in a “general preparatory training phase” and or a “specific preparatory phase” depending on how you rate their relevance.
 
Knee flexion- Acute, moderate or severe hamstring strains are common injuries among sprinters, hurdlers and long jumpers. They also occur in other sports involving sprinting, especially football and field hockey.
P Coburn (2002).
The involvement of the hamstrings in our functional training is to extend the hips, which primarily involves the upper portion of semitendinosus, the upper portion of semimembranosus and the portion of biceps femoris that crosses the knee and hip joint (even though there is some degree of tension at both ends of the muscle) this means that the lower portion of semitendinosus and the lower portion of semimembranosus doesn’t get utilised as much as the upper portions and the portion of biceps femoris that only crosses the knee joint doesn’t get utilised at all. As the majority of hamstring injuries occur in sports that involve medium to high intensity efforts of sprinting, I would recommend that all individuals who participate in these types of sports to consider incorporating hamstring curls into their resistance training programming.
 
Hip Adduction- Adductor muscle strains are a common injury in sports that involve sudden changes of direction
C. Bradshaw (2002).
Concentric and eccentric hip adduction should be considered for participants of sports that involve twisting, turning and rapid changes of direction, although all five hip adductors are utilised evenly in our functional training, they are utilised isometrically in a secondary role of hip flexion, although this contraction can be quite substantial, additional concentric and eccentric training that is more specific to their primary role of hip adduction should be considered.
 
Gluteus minimus & gluteus medius- Throughout our lower body and trunk training, gluteus minimus & gluteus medius are only utilised in single leg exercises such as walking lunges, alternate lunges, lunge alternatives and single leg squats, this means that these muscles are under utilised compared to the other 34 muscles that contribute to our lower body and trunk training. This deficit can be made up by performing exercises for the upper body while standing on one leg (this is mentioned in “The Key Ingredients”), exercises must be gauged as to their suitability and posture must be maintained throughout the exercises (especially hip alignment). Rotator cuff exercises with thera-bands are an excellent exercise to perform standing on one leg, at the end of the concentric phase, the tension on the thera-band is pulling your body towards the origin of the thera band, this results in a huge stability component for the ankle joint, knee joint, hip joint and transversus abdominis to stabilise the body throughout the exercise. Other isolation exercises for the upper body are also suitable to perform while standing on one leg due to the decrease in load that is needed to perform isolation exercises.
 
Conclusion
 
Understanding our evolutionary process and functional movement, makes putting together a balanced and effective lower body and trunk routine just as simplistic as putting together a balanced and effective upper body routine. When combining our four movements from our lower body and trunk routine with our four movements from our upper body routine, we have a functional and balanced program for the whole body.
 
References
 
C. Bradshaw (2002): Clinical sports medicine 2nd edition.
Chapter 15 Hip and Groin Pain, page 378.
 
P Coburn (2002): Clinical sports medicine 2nd edition
Chapter 22 Posterior Thigh Pain, page 411
 
 
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