Basic Lower Body Power Movements

A “power movement” is any movement of the body which can be accomplished with the addition of external weight above and beyond body weight. Power movements are the basic form of exercise used for weigh lifting both on machines and with free weights. Because the resistance of free weights is in the direction of gravity rather than the pre-positioned direction of an weight machine, free weights do resemble real life situations outside of the gym more directly. Almost every object we move outside of the gym exerts its resistance on our body through the weight of gravity and is therefore a free weight.

Power movements of the lower body are slightly more complicated than power movements of the upper body because they rarely occur in isolation in real life. Power movements of the lower body only apply loosely to the regular motion of our body. The power movements of the lower body include, bending the leg at the knee, straightening the leg at the knee, pointing the foot at the ankle, raising the foot at the ankle and lifting the entire upper body to a standing position from a leaning forward position at the waist.

Standing the body from a leaning position at the waist - This is the least obvious power movement of the lower body. Generally if we think of standing up from a leaning position at the waist we envision our back doing most of the work. This is not the case, however, because muscles of the back don’t cross the line of the hips into the legs. Therefore, they mostly offer support to the spine during this movement rather than exerting much of the power to lift the body. The muscles that actually raise the torso from a leaning position are primarily in your rear end and in the back of your thigh - your hamstrings. These muscles right the pelvis which is attached to the spine, and through the use of those back muscles, the body straightens up. To picture this, imagine a bath tub lying on it’s side. The bath tub is your pelvis. Now picture several people trying to right the tub by pulling on the high edge of the tub. These several people would represent the major muscles of your lower body trying to turn the tub upright - which would right your pelvis, and in turn raise the rest of your upper body. These movements are most commonly practiced with dead lift or occasionally good morning exercises. They require extreme attention to proper technique to avoid injury.

Bending the leg at the Knee - The back of your leg, your hamstrings, have another function - lifting the lower leg off the ground. Any time you pull your heel upward or backward toward your rear end, you are contracting the hamstring muscles. A basic hamstring or leg curl machine forces this motion under stress. If you think about this movement, however, you’ll have trouble finding an activity which would mimic this type of strength outside of the gym. Leg curls are designed to make the backs of the legs larger and stronger.

Straightening the leg at the Knee - This is the opposite movement of bending the leg at the knee. In this circumstance, the muscles in the front of your thigh, your quadriceps lift the lower leg from a bent position to a straight one. This movement is similar to kicking as in sports like soccer or martial arts but again is not something we would naturally engage in while in a seated position (as most leg straightening or leg extension exercises position us). This motion is designed to strengthen and increase the size of the front of your thigh.

Pointing the foot at the ankle - If you point your toe, straightening out your foot, you are pointing the foot at the ankle. There are some tendonous muscles at the bottom of your foot which help do this movement but most of it is a function of the powerful muscles in your calf. In regular movement, this pointing of the toe will often happen in conjunction with a bending of the leg at the knee - allowing processes like walking or running. Restricted to weight bearing isolation in the gym, we strengthen the calf by using calf raises, donkey calf, or heel raise exercises. Although it is possible to gain size in the calf it is rather difficult because of the tendonous nature of these muscles.

Raising the foot at the ankle - This is the least utilized motion in traditional strength exercise. The muscles which allow you to keep your heel planted on the floor but lift the ball of your foot off the floor are actually located in the front of your lower leg next to and around your shin bone. This movement of the leg is much less significant in regular mobility of the body, so the muscles are much smaller than the contrasting calf and, though they can be strengthened and size gained, they will not have nearly the pure strength of the calf muscles on the back of the leg. They should not be neglected, however, as they are an integral part of balancing the joints in the foot, ankle, and knee.

Truly, the lower body is active in almost any movement we make unless we are sitting or lying down. Even under those circumstances, our legs and rear may counter balance movement of the torso and arms. Properly isolating the lower body is somewhat precarious and easily offers one up to injury. This is not to say that lower body isolation is wrong - just difficult. Care must be taken to perform power movements of the lower body with precision and as full a range as can be stably maintained. Our bodies were certainly meant to do lower body power moves - every time we sit down, we both squat and dead lift our own body weight. So go ahead, make your lower half stronger, just make sure you know what you are trying to do before you undertake the challenge!