Leg day isn’t all about getting under heavy weight and straining through back squats. Changing up your load and tempo can open up new challenges and push your whole body even further.

That’s what Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel does with this tough leg day series, the goblet squat tension finisher. According to Samuel, the key to the exercise is moving though the position with intention.

“You’re spending time in the most mechanically challenging position of the goblet squat and you really get to focus on body positioning during the hold,” he says. “This will also help you pattern good squatting form, especially if you’re intentional in the hole and note knee position and chest position.”

You’ll also crush out your core given the position of the load—just be sure that you use a challenging weight. If you don’t feel any strain to keep your spine straight, you’ve gone too light; if you find yourself leaning forward, you’re too heavy.

To perform the goblet squat tension finisher, all you need is a kettlebell or dumbbell. If you don’t have any heavy kettlebells on hand, check out this beast from Onnit. Watch this helpful Form Check video to brush up on your goblet squat before taking on the finisher.

Men’s Health/Eric Rosati

• Grab your weight with both hands and hold it at chest level. If you have a dumbbell, cup one end of the weight with both hands; for kettlebells, hold either the handle or the weight.
• Squat down until your thighs are roughly parallel with the ground. Hold that position for a 5 seconds, bracing your core to keep your posture strong.
• Raise up from the hold position and immediately perform 5 goblet squat reps.
• After completing those reps, squat and hold for 4 seconds.
• Perform 4 goblet squat reps.
• Continue counting down until you hit zero.

The hold position doesn’t just create a ton of time under tension to stimulate your lower body—you’ll also be honing your squat form. “This is also a good drill to help you eliminate any butt wink/lower back rounding,” says Samuel. “If your mechanics lead to rounding as you shift into the bottom portion of the squat, you’ll notice it during that hold and get a chance to correct that.”

Add the goblet squat tension finisher to your leg day workout with 3 sets of the countdown series. For more tips and routines from Samuel, check out our full slate of Eb and Swole workouts. If you want to try an even more dedicated routine, consider Eb’s New Rules of Muscle program.

Source: Read Full Article