In building up your lower body, the front-foot elevated split squat with plate hold is one of the most effective workouts for improving your form, balance, control, and overall strength.
But as beneficial as this lower body workout is, many people unfortunately tend to get it wrong.
While standard lunges are good, raising your front foot works harder on your quads and holding a weight plate helps to fix posture concerns.
If you are seeking to level up your training, this exercise is great for building muscle, enhancing balance and control, and improving overall form. But before delving head-on into it, you need to know exactly why this works so well to change your physique.
The Science of the Front-Foot Elevated Split Squat Workout
The front-foot elevated split squat exercise requires effectiveness and not just effort. By raising your front foot, this workout allows for a deeper knee stretch and better range of movement than a normal squat. This extra depth is the key to hitting muscles you may normally miss.
And as your knee moves through this deeper range, it shifts focus from training major lower body muscle groups (quads, glutes, hamstrings, calves, and core) to effectively targeting more specific smaller muscle groups like the adductors (inner thighs), hip stabilizers (gluteus medius & minimus), deep hip rotators, hamstring stabilizers, calf and ankle stabilizers, foot intrinsic muscles, and vastus medialis oblique (VMO).
The added physical benefit of the weighted plate hold during this workout is your exposure to a much greater engagement of stabilizers that help to support your upright posture as well as the activation of postural muscles, and the increase in anti-rotation demand.
Focused Quad Development and Posture Improvement
The key benefit of the front-foot elevated split squat with plate hold exercise is that it places more focus and intensity on quad development. Because your front knee bends deeper, your quads are forced to work harder to push you back up. But the elevation is only a part of it, holding a weighted plate at your chest level helps you to maintain an upright posture throughout the range of motion for the split squat.
And when you hold the plate closer, your cores are braced, your torso stays upright preventing leaning which is a major issue for any leg day workout.
This focus on your posture ensures that the heavy loading and tension is on your muscles and not your joints. This is the key to any successful leg day workout.
Mastering Unilateral Training for Proper Balance
Because the front-foot elevated split squat exercise focuses on each leg individually, it reveals any imbalances you might have. Training one leg at a time with a variation of split squats corrects the strength gap between your left and right side thereby helping you to avoid injury.
This further helps to build your overall balance and coordination forcing the smaller muscles in your hips and ankles to work perfectly together. The exercise also supports the building of practical strength that transfers into sports and daily life activities, but you can only achieve this if your form is perfect.
How to Execute the Weighted Plate Hold Front-Foot Elevated Split Squat with Control
To maximise your gains from performing the front-foot elevated split squat with weighted plate hold workout, start with a low platform and a light plate.
Next, hold the plate at chest level with your elbows in and place one foot on the elevation.
With one foot on the elevation, follow this movement with a slow, but controlled lowering of your back knee towards the floor.
Pause for some seconds before your knee hits the ground, this is to eliminate momentum so that your elevated front leg is forced to do all the work.
Push through your heel and mid-foot to stand back up, while maintaining an upright posture and firm, tall chest throughout the repetition (rep).
Make sure that you don’t rush through this exercise, so you can optimize the gains and not lose out on the physical benefits. Make sure that you focus on the tension that this exercise transmits to your muscles rather than worrying about the rep count and switch legs to complete the routine.
When to Perform the Front-Foot Elevated Split Squat with Plate Hold on Leg Day
You should include the front-foot elevated split squat with plate hold exercise to your scheduled leg day workout routine.
You can start with between 2 to 4 sets with 6 to 12 reps per leg.
Try performing this exercise 1 to 2 times per week preferably at the midpoint or towards the end of your lower body routine. You can make this exercise as challenging as possible by either slowing the tempo or increasing the weight of the plate.
Who Is This Unilateral Training Great For?
This unilateral training is great for the core, hamstrings, glutes, and quad development of lifters. It is also great for athletes that want to gain balance, explosive leg strength and power while fitness enthusiasts that are keen on performing a joint-friendly leg workout that also helps in correcting lower body strength imbalances can benefit greatly from performing the front-foot elevated split squat with plate hold exercise.
Whether you are a beginner, intermediate level, or advanced bodybuilder, leg day is an unavoidable part of your workout program and including this leg day workout will go a long way in helping you achieve your lower body, and overall fitness goals.
In Conclusion
This split squat variation is more than just an exercise, it’s a performance booster, a range of motion enhancer, and a workout that ensures you train with control.
And when you improve your range of motion and combine it with proper form, you are building functional, powerful legs in the process.
Finally, make it a priority to master your form, and control your tempo whenever you perform the front-foot elevated split squat with plate hold exercise.
