Since the legs are the largest muscle group in the body, the strategy for training them depends on the needs of the individual athlete. For example, leg exercises for football players are necessary to develop accuracy in hitting the ball - in particular, exercises with a fitness band improve neuromuscular communication.
Leg training in the gym can also vary. Weightlifters usually perform deadlifts and squats with a barbell, while beginners are more suited to exercise on machines without undue stress on the knees and spine.
Leg muscle training in the gym
The anatomy of the legs is an interweaving of dozens of large, medium and small muscle groups. The muscles of the legs are the most complex and interconnected system in the body, intertwined with the abs and lower back. Even relatively small calves are made up of a number of small muscles located at varying depths.
The largest muscles in this group are the quadriceps, gluteal muscles, and hamstrings (including the biceps). There are also muscles on the outer and inner surfaces of the legs that work during adductions and extensions.
The best leg exercises
It is recommended to pump the anterior thigh muscles with squats and pressing movements, and the muscles of the buttocks and back of the thigh with swings, lunges and steps. This is why leg training should include a regular rotation of different types of exercises:
Squats
Squats are a basic leg muscle exercise that develops the quadriceps, glutes and calves. It can be performed either with a regular barbell or in a special simulator (see illustration). In the latter case, a lower load on the spine and back is ensured.
// How to squat correctly?
Leg press in the simulator
Variation of squats performed in a machine increases the involvement of the hamstrings. The load on the muscles varies depending on the placement of the feet on the platform - in particular, the width of the arrangement and the angle of the foot.
Leg extensions in a sitting machine
An isolation exercise for pumping the front of the thighs (quadriceps). When performing, you need to ensure that your back remains straight and your abs are in a slight, conscious tension.
Leg curls in a lying machine
An isolation exercise to train the back of the thighs and lower buttocks. Beginners are advised to start with light weights - performing the exercise with each leg in turn and achieving maximum muscle involvement in the work.
Seated leg raises
An isolation exercise for pumping the buttocks and outer thighs.
Seated Leg Reduction
Isolation exercises for the inner thighs.
Functional leg exercises
Jumping rope, ball exercises and kettlebell exercises. Important for developing explosive leg strength.
Leg day - exercises
Beginners are advised to limit the number of exercises on the leg muscles, using only basic ones - primarily squats with a barbell and leg presses in a machine. A full leg day with isolation exercises is more suitable for advanced athletes
Leg day workout
- Warm-up - 3-4 minutes
- Leg press in the simulator, wide stance - 3-4 sets of 10-12 repetitions
- Barbell squats - 2-3 sets of 5-7 reps
- Leg curls in a lying machine - 3-4 sets of 10-12 repetitions
- Seated leg raises - 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Seated leg raises - 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps
- Extensions in a sitting machine (pumping) - 3-4 sets of 12-15 repetitions
The role of isolation exercises in the training process
Isolation exercises are needed for:
- Stronger pumping (blood filling) of the working muscles if performed at the end of the workout. This is also called “finishing” a muscle group.
- Improves neuromuscular communication and pre-fatigue of muscles if performed at the beginning of training.
- Improved muscle relief and proportionality.
- Full training without overloading the joint-ligamentous system and the central nervous system, for example, when recovering from injuries or illnesses.
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30-35 min.
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Other recipes
How to pump up leg muscles?
Difficulty developing leg muscles is a typical problem for beginner athletes. Not achieving rapid muscle growth by performing typical exercises, many people stop doing squats, limiting themselves to exercises or flyes in machines. But in order to pump up the leg muscles, they need to be pumped with a lot of weight.
Training the leg muscles is one of the most important in the development of the body - this muscle group makes up more than half of the body's skeletal muscle weight. Performing heavy squats with a barbell activates the production of testosterone in men, affecting not only the growth of legs, but also an increase in muscle mass throughout the body.
Barbell Squats: Technique
When squatting with a barbell, it is important to feel not only the work of the leg muscles, but also the involvement of the core muscles. At the starting point of the exercise, the bar should be on the bones of the shoulder blades - the hands should only support it, without putting excessive strain on the wrists. The upward movement with the barbell must begin by lifting the pelvis (not the head).
If you cannot consciously tense your abs during barbell squats, the effectiveness of the exercise will be significantly reduced. This, in turn, will not allow you to maintain the correct technique when working with heavy weights.
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To successfully train leg muscles, beginners are recommended to perform basic leg exercises - squats with a barbell and leg presses in a machine. For advanced trainees, a separate “leg day” is recommended, consisting of both heavy basic exercises with a barbell and light isolation exercises with dumbbells or on machines.
What are isolation exercises?
Isolating exercises are those in which the load, unlike basic exercises, is strictly local in nature - you load only one muscle group (or a separate section of it), while flexion/extension of only one joint occurs.
Such a load is much easier to accept by the body. Performing isolation exercises is easier both physically and psychologically. They do not cause serious post-workout stress, so they are not growth factors in themselves; the meaning of their implementation is somewhat different.
What results can be expected from static gymnastics?
The effectiveness of this small program depends on many factors. Let's discuss each of them one by one.
Nutrition
The healthier and more varied your diet is, the more significant results you can expect. There are many excellent articles and books written about nutrition. Here we will limit ourselves to only the most important and obvious recommendations. Here are some tips for healthy eating:
1. You should eat food at least 4-6 times a day in small portions. It is very important! If you don’t have time to eat a full meal on time, it means you don’t have time for your own health and beauty. A cup of coffee with candy or cookies is not considered a healthy meal.
2. At least a third of the food you eat should be fresh fruits and vegetables in the form of salads and other practically unprocessed dishes.
3. Most fats should be obtained from vegetable oils. Remember, vegetable oils do not make you fat, but make you healthier, more energetic and beautiful.
4. If you like sweets and starchy foods, be prepared for decreased results from training, especially in terms of losing excess weight. The program will improve your body shape and make you firmer due to muscle tone, but the desired weight loss may not occur due to too high calorie intake.
5. Immediately after training, you should eat some sweet fruit or drink a glass of fruit juice (close the carbohydrate window). But the ideal option is to take one serving of whey protein (sports nutrition) diluted in clean water.
6. Do not torture yourself with hunger strikes, and do not follow painful and ridiculous diets, especially from glossy magazines. Always eat what you love and what is available and produced in your area (does not require a lot of time and money to get and prepare it). Eat as much as you want. But adjusted for health and attractive appearance.
Do you want to be healthy and attractive? Then fall in love with what brings you health and attractiveness. Give up endless cakes and cookies, coffee and jam.
7. Pay attention to dried fruits and nuts. Many people are not even aware of their diversity and benefits. Use them daily, but in moderation, as they are very high in calories.
8. Give preference to those products that are made from plants that grow specifically in your region. And if it is meat or fish, then let it be locally produced.
Regularity of static gymnastics classes
Do not miss classes without a good reason. Valid reasons include only a few really important things: illness, serious world disasters, serious family problems and events. All other reasons are nothing more than laziness and an excuse for your inability to organize your daily routine. The more often you skip classes, the less results you will achieve. This has been verified and is beyond doubt.
Complete rest
Such is the nature of the human body that it needs quite a significant amount of time to restore spent energy. This is doubly true when it comes to special physical activities designed to give exquisite shape to the body and improve health. Give yourself time to rest: get enough sleep, take days off if necessary, do not train if you feel overworked - all this will ultimately lead to the desired result faster than stubbornly following an unrealistic plan.
Additional workouts
The small program for the waist, hips and buttocks given in this publication can become part of your existing training program. Or it can become the basis for your future individual training program.
If you wisely include this training complex in your program, you will speed up the achievement of the desired results. This is definitely true!
However, you can easily use this complex as an independent training program. Just do it 3-5 times a week (every other day or even every day).
Positive mental attitude
What do I call a positive mental attitude? There is nothing supernatural here. Just believe that you can make your body more perfect, just be sure that everything will work out. Don't allow the slightest doubt. Just tune in to positive changes in your life, in your body.
Learn to maintain your mood at the right level. This is an extremely important skill in life in general, and it will bring wonderful results in fitness classes.
So, if the maximum number of conditions are met, you can fully count on the following: Reducing body weight - 2-6 kg per month. Reduction in the circumference of the waist, hips and buttocks by approximately 3-10 cm per month.
Note! All this with five half-hour workouts a week and without any diets!
Classic forward/backward lunges
The basic forward lunge exercise is performed as follows:
- the legs should be shoulder-width apart with a straight stance, the back should be straight, the chest should be straightened and the arms should be lowered along the body;
- the working leg is put forward with a wide step, bent at the knee - the supporting leg is lowered, almost touching the floor;
- returning to the starting position, the back leg must be placed next to the front;
- the next lunge is performed with the other leg.
You need to do 5-6 lunges, straining your abs. Back lunges are performed in the same way: the leg is tilted back at an angle of 90° and squats are performed.
Start of training: warm-up and warm-up
A workout always begins with stretching and warming up. The safety of exercise increases after a good warm-up. Muscle tissue is less injured, and its strength potential increases.
The duration of the warm-up is 10 minutes.
- Warm up the neck - circular movements of the head in different directions.
- Swing your arms in a circle back and forth.
- Turns the body to the right and left.
- Bend forward: legs together, knees do not bend, hands need to reach the floor.
- Tilts of the straight body to the right and left. Feet should be shoulder-width apart, arms straight along the body. With each bend to the side, the opposite arm is raised. You should stay in this position for a quarter of a minute.
- Hanging on the horizontal bar for more than 30 seconds will allow you to stretch your spine and straighten the muscles of your upper body.
- Exercise “butterfly” - you need to sit on the floor: your legs are bent at the knees, your feet touch one another and your hands are pulled closer to the groin, your knees are spread apart - you need to try to touch the floor with them. Duration – 1 min.
- Quadriceps stretch - Sit on your knees with your feet on either side of your buttocks. You need to place your hands on the floor behind your back and lean back. Duration – 1 min.
Isolation exercises for the buttocks and legs in the gym can begin with aerobic exercise for 5 minutes. (jumping rope, jogging).
If you have cellulite
If you are already familiar with my course How to get rid of cellulite forever, then you probably already know that one of the key reasons for the occurrence and development of cellulite is a slow metabolism in a woman’s body. This is a direct consequence of a sedentary lifestyle and poorly organized, irregular nutrition.
The training program presented here is ideal for stimulating and significantly speeding up your slow metabolism, thereby reducing not only excess weight (if any), but also eliminating the most important cause of the hated cellulite. By actively using the static gymnastics training complex given in this report and carefully carrying out the necessary procedures from the anti-cellulite course, you will soon feel the true value of these seemingly simple recommendations.
Thus, this program is an excellent addition to the general course of anti-cellulite procedures, which you learned about by studying my course on this topic.
Gluteal bridge
To perform a bridge, you need to lie on your back, leaning on your legs, bent at the knees.
Hands are placed freely along the body.
- Exhaling deeply, you need to raise your pelvis so that your back and legs create an even diagonal line.
- In the upper position, you should tense your buttocks as much as possible, without relaxing them when lowering.
- As you inhale, gently return the pelvis down.
Romanian deadlift
Deadlifts can only be performed in shoes with flat soles.
- You need to approach the barbell tightly, with your feet shoulder-width apart and your legs straightened at the knee joint.
- You need to take the bar slightly wider than your shoulders and lift it with a straight back.
- Raising the barbell, the pelvis moves forward in the top position. It is advisable to squeeze your shoulder blades slightly together and tighten your body as much as possible.
- With the shoulder blades pulled together, the barbell is lowered down, the pelvis and buttocks are pulled back, achieving a spinal deflection in all departments.
- There can be no jerking at the bottom point. Lifting weights occurs through the work of the hamstrings, not the lower back.
It is important to lift the barbell correctly - pushing your feet backwards from the floor. Arms and legs should be slightly bent, and knees should not bend more than 50° while bending.
Bulgarian tilt
Starting position: straight stand with arms down along the body. One leg in a relaxed state is placed back, the body leans forward until a straight line is formed, parallel to the floor.
During the exercise, the arms are pressed to the body, bent at the elbows. For each leg you need to do 15-20 bends.
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