Best Leg Exercises
When you begin planning your workout, there are several exercises that target specific areas of the body. When you want to tone, slim, and build your legs, you may be wondering what the best leg exercises are. There are many exercises that are great for legs and most of them have a multi-layered benefit. The more goals you can achieve with one exercise, the better your overall health and fitness.
Cardio and Toning
When your goal is to improve your cardio and tone your legs at the same time, there’s nothing better than simply walking. Design an exercise plan that will increase your distance, time, and speed each week to continue raising your heart rate, burning calories, and strengthening your legs. Whether you walk outdoors or on a treadmill, every step will help improve your overall health.
Legs and Butt Together
When you want to have stronger legs and a great view from the rear, then squats are the answer. There are several variations of squat exercises that will build your glutes and thighs as well as calves. Your legs and butt will be stronger and firmer once you integrate squats into your workout.
Building Mass
The Leg Press is a machine that can help you build overall mass in your legs. By changing where you place your feet on the sled of the leg press machine you can put more or less emphasis on the quads, hamstrings and glutes for a full leg workout.
Muscle Definition
Lunges are the answer to clearly defined leg muscles. There are variations that will help you work every muscle group in your legs and tone those muscles. Calves really benefit from lunges.
Raise the Plateau
Using a leg extension machine is a great way to work past a plateau. Whether you want to increase reps or weight, the leg extension is a single joint exercise that you can slowly increase as your strength builds.
Building a great set of legs from top to bottom requires a great deal of dedication and not just a little bit of pain. Anyone who has limped home from the gym, winced every time they had to sit down, or had to soak in a hot tub in order to be able to move without pain knows that leg work is most often to blame. But, no pain no gain, and great legs are possible as long as you’re prepared to work for them.