Lower Body Exercise Burn-out (Legs and Booty)

Enhance your lower body exercise routine with a burn-out session at the end. Have you ever tried a burn-out or burner workout at the end of your workout? If so, you know how effective they can be to really hit those target muscles. And if not, today is your lucky day! We will burn-out with lower body exercises to blast through whatever energy you have left in the tank. The goal is to have those legs on FIRE by the end, hence the name “Burn-Out”.

I taught group fitness for 2-3 years and absolutely loved the energy in the room when people were giving it their all. You know the feeling, where the room is electric. Well on nights like those, we always did a burn-out, either lower body exercise or upper body exercise, depending on what we had focused on that day. I would ALWAYS do these moves with my classes and holy cow I remember thinking, they must think I’m evil for this! These moves will challenge you mentally and physically, especially after a long workout.

There are a few different ways I would do this with my classes, either timed or counting reps. I found that when we counted reps, it would keep people on track and they were more likely to keep going when they knew how many they had left, so it’s the method I prefer. But if you instead would like to use a timer, that’s totally fine. Set up for 45 seconds for each move and go to town!

The moves in this lower body exercise burn-out are not super technical. If you are trying to get your cardio in after a session of heavy lifting, this is a great way to do it. You can also add in 10 jump squats, jump lunges or mountain climbers after each set to really get the heart rate going.

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Lower Body Exercise Burn-out:

Do each exercise for 20 repetitions, repeat the circuit 3 times.

Squats: Start with feet slightly wider then hip’s distance. Brace the core and lower down like you are going to sit in a chair, keeping your knees over ankles, trying not to extend knees past the toes. Pause at the bottom of the move, then squeeze your butt and your core as you push through your heels to lift back to standing. Note: If you have the mobility and flexibility, you can lower past 90 degrees, and the knees will likely come out past your toes, but for this exercise, I usually just try to lower down to as close to 90 degrees as I can get.

Plie Squats: Legs out wide, toes turn out 45 degrees.Squat low keeping core engaged. Squeeze the butt on the way up!

Closed squats: Keeping ankles and knees together, lower down into a squat trying not to let the knees extend past the toes. Lower down like you are going to sit on a chair but change your mind at the last second. Push through the heels and squeeze the glutes as your raise up.

Squat Pulses: Lower down into a squat. Raise up just a few inches, not coming all the way to standing. Pause for one count then lower back down. As you raise up squeeze the butt!

Pile Squat Pulses: Legs out wide, toes turn out 45 degrees.Squat low keeping core engaged, knees don’t move past the toes. From here, lift up just a few inches. Pause and lower back down. Keep the pulses small. Be sure that abs are engaged and back if flat during this exercise.

Closed Squat Pulses: Keeping ankles and knees together, lower down into a squat trying not to let the knees extend past the toes. Lower down like you are going to sit on a chair but change your mind at the last second. Push through the heels and lift up just a few inches. Pause and lower back down.

Back lunges: Stand with your weight in your right leg. Lunge left leg back until the right knee is at 90 degrees. Pause, press into right foot to straighten your right leg and bring your left leg forward. Core is engaged, press through that front foot to engage the glutes as well. After 20, switch legs so the right leg lunges back and the left leg is grounded.

Lunge pulses: Stand with your weight in your right leg. Lunge left leg back until the right knee is at 90 degrees. Pause, press into right foot and left foot to raise the body just a few inches up. Pause then lower back down. Be sure to keep the core engaged and really squeeze the butt as you lift up. After 20, switch legs!

Bridge pulses: Lay on your back, knees at 90 degrees. Keep your shoulders pressed against the floor while you raise your hips up in the air, squeeze the butt then lower down just and inch or two. Immediately squeeze the butt and raise back up. These are little pulses.

Donkey Kicks: Start on all 4’s knees under hips and hands under shoulders. Kick one foot up into the air, keeping knees at 90 degrees for 20 counts, switch legs.

Make sure to hit that upper body too with this Upper Body AMRAP.

What About You?

• How do you like to finish your workouts?
• Have you ever done a burnout at the end of your workout?
• What is your favorite lower body exercise?

Samantha Rowland has been in the fitness industry for more than 10 years. She is a certified NASM Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, Precision Nutrition Coach and Fitness Chef. Samantha has a wide range of experience in the fitness industry including running her own healthy catering company and owning and operating her own women-focus fitness center in Austin, Texas. Today, Samantha is an online health coach and focuses on inspiring everyone she can to live a healthy and happy life!