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People don't like to swing their legs. The main reason is that this is the largest muscle group, which requires maximum effort to work. At the same time, legs are the most important stimulator of anabolic processes; their intensive training causes the body to experience maximum stress.
Many athletes have probably experienced a feeling of serious strength that prevents them from walking the next day after training. Pain means you have given your legs enough exercise to allow them to grow/shrink/get stronger. If you're serious about working out your lower body, it's important to know the best leg exercises to use.
A little about the anatomy of the legs
Before choosing effective exercises for the legs, it is worth studying their anatomy. Like other large muscle groups, the legs are made up of several large muscle groups and many small ones. It makes no sense to work small muscle groups, since they are involved in basic exercises and do not respond well to isolating load.
As for the large muscle groups, they are conventionally divided into the following groups:
- Thigh muscles. These are the quadriceps femoris, biceps femoris, adductors and abductors of the thigh. It is these muscles that decide how the buttocks will look after training.
- Muscles of the knee joint. These are the hamstrings and quadriceps. All of them are responsible for flexion and extension of the leg when walking.
- The muscle of the ankle joint. These are the gastrocnemius and soleus. These also include the opposing muscles, which are responsible for moving the toes, but their training is impractical.
Understanding which muscles work in which exercises is especially important for women: by selecting the right exercises to strengthen the leg muscles, it is easier to carry out local body correction.
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Squats
You can quickly pump up your legs using various variations of squats. Increasing the number of repetitions with each workout and reaching 100 squats, it is recommended to perform them with weights.
You can squat with or without weight
You can use dumbbells or a barbell for this. To pump up your legs at home, you can use plastic containers of various sizes filled with sand or water as additional weight.
It is important to follow the execution rules. The body must be kept straight and the back straight. During a squat, your thighs should be parallel to the floor. When squatting, you cannot push your knees further than your toes.
We have previously written about exercises for girls to pump up their legs at home and recommended bookmarking this article.
Training Recommendations
Unlike the pectoral muscles and back corset, our legs work almost constantly, and therefore require a special approach to training for growth.
- Remember, your legs are used to high reps, so you need to perform low reps with maximum weight.
- Watch the position of your socks. If necessary, use wooden planks to accentuate the load. Depending on the position of the heels and toes, the load in the same basic exercise can differ radically.
- Remember the rule: first the basic ones, then the isolating ones.
- Legs should not be heavily trained more than once a week.
- Pay attention to your calves right away. Since they participate in all the basic exercises, they need extra stimulation from the very beginning, otherwise they will not grow at all.
- Don't forget about traction. By eliminating deadlifts on leg day, many athletes experience serious hamstring lag.
Outer side
Squats on a bench with dumbbells
- 3 sets of 8-15 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Dumbbells
Lunges with a barbell
- 3 sets of 10 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
Deep squats with a barbell on the chest
- 3 sets of 8-12 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
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If you want to tone your inner quadriceps, squat with a wider stance and feet turned out.
Exercises for the gym
Exercises to strengthen your legs don't have to involve basic work or classic machines. Today in the gyms there are a huge number of cardio-oriented equipment that perfectly work the legs.
- Rider. A machine in which you need to lift your own weight with your feet. A key design feature involves isolating the load exclusively on the gluteal muscles.
- Climber. Combining a stepper and a treadmill. Perfectly simulates climbing a high ladder.
- Exercise bikes. A classic exercise machine for working out the thigh muscles.
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- Ellipsoids.
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Final stage
Deep squats with a barbell
- 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
Lunges with barbell to the side
- 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
Lunges with a barbell
- 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
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That's the whole secret of powerful legs and toned thighs - super effective training with the right technique! Monitor your body during each exercise and when you finish working out in the gym, remember to eat healthy and eat healthy habits. Only comprehensive work on yourself will bring you the long-awaited result!
Taking sports supplements - creatine, arginine, intra-workout, bcaa amino acid and pre-workout complexes will help you increase your strength. These sports nutrition products are specifically formulated to improve performance in sports and fitness for men and women. Just add it to your diet and go ahead to conquer new heights!
Exercises with non-standard equipment
The legs are involved in almost all daily movements and sports. Therefore, you can easily work through them using specific equipment.
Note: This is not a complete list of specific equipment available to everyone.
- Running with weights. It enhances the cardio effect and also creates additional stress on the hamstrings, which are responsible for bending the leg. Because of this, the legs become slimmer, and the load shifts from the quadriceps to the buttocks.
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- Working with a rubber band (loop). Their list is quite wide. Using a loop, you can simulate any exercise for the leg muscles using iron.
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- Norwegian walking. For this exercise you will need ski poles. You will look very comical on the city streets, but you will be able to completely turn off your quadriceps, focusing the load on the quadriceps femoris muscle.
Inner side
Quick box squats using expanders
- 3 sets of 8-15 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
Sumo style deadlift
- 3 sets of 8-15 reps
- Body part: Hamstrings Equipment: Barbell
Lunges with a barbell in the Smith machine
- 3 sets of 10 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
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During training, imagine how the muscles of your legs are growing and how your hips are enlarged. Professional athletes claim that such visualization puts you in the right mood and helps you achieve exactly the result you dreamed of!
You've already done a great job, all you have to do is take a little leap and finish off your regular full-body workout with this thigh routine.
Regarding weight loss
When training your lower body, remember that exercises for losing weight on your legs and thighs, no matter what your trainer tells you. Losing weight in legs occurs due to the combination of several factors:
- Global fat burning.
- Toning “flabby muscles”.
It is due to this that the very effect of exercise for losing weight on legs is manifested. In fact, the legs do not lose weight, it’s just that when pulled up, the muscles are in better tone, which means they don’t sag so much from the attachment point.
If your goal is to exercise to lose weight in your legs, follow a few training principles:
- Training in pumping mode. High reps, low weights.
- Progress solely through increasing the number of repetitions. Any increase in weight threatens muscle hypertrophy, which will lead to their increase.
- Focus on cardio-oriented exercises, they burn fat much more effectively, which allows you to quickly get ideal, slender legs.
If you have already pumped up your legs, you should reduce the weight as much as possible and work in aerobic exercise mode in basic exercises. That is, instead of a 40 kg barbell for 20 repetitions, use a 20 kg barbell and a number of repetitions over 50. This will cause catabolism in red muscle tissue and create conditions for myofibrillar hypertrophy of white fibers, which are much smaller than red ones.
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Comprehensive hip development
Deep squats with a barbell
- 3 sets of 8-12 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
Lunges with barbell to the side
- 3 sets of 8-15 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
Lunges with a barbell
- 3 sets of 10 reps
- Body part: Quadriceps Equipment: Barbell
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To work out your thighs in more detail, use these training programs: for the inner and outer thighs.
How to pump up a girl’s legs at home
Pumping up legs for girls is not fundamentally different from regular men's workouts. The difference is as follows:
- Less projectile weight.
- Fewer sets and more reps.
Reference. The squat should be at full amplitude, this is what develops the gluteal muscles - girls pay special attention to them. As for male athletes, they prefer to do half squats precisely for this reason - it hardly develops the buttocks.
Thin girls should pay more attention to working on mass, and fat ones - on relief. Those who have too much distance between their thighs should pay more attention to the hip adductors.
Alexander Shestov
TRX Certified Trainer
Ask a Question
If a girl wants to lose weight, in addition to pumping up her legs, she also needs to run. It is during running that all unnecessary fat is burned in the best way.
Strictly speaking, knowing the principle of pumping up your legs, you can optically correct their unevenness by pumping up the necessary muscles.
It seems that everything is simple, but each person has his own tastes and preferences: someone simply does not like to do certain exercises - for this there are all kinds of auxiliary ones, which also give a certain effect. For example:
- All types of “scissors” - lying on your back, reclining, lying on your side, etc.
- Exercises using a ball. For example: squeeze it with your knees while lying on your back, do the same while standing, in a half-squat.
- Side leg lunges.
Any girl wants to see her butt perfect - there are many reasons for this, including male attention. A great exercise for this is “butt walking.” “Steps” are taken while sitting on the floor or bench, alternately. Thus, the athlete slowly moves forward or backward with the maximum amplitude of “steps” - this is very important. You can make auxiliary movements with your hands (in the air) with turning the body.
Reference. This exercise is beneficial not only to those who care about a beautiful butt. For men, it will help not only strengthen the gluteal muscles and remove excess fat from them, but also maintain the prostate in a healthy state or even cure it in this way, if necessary.
Working out the calf muscles
If a girl has very thin, thin legs with well-developed hips, then this creates a disproportion. Exercises for the calf muscles will help solve this problem: calf raises and bench presses with a sports band.
The calves “respond” poorly to the load, so you shouldn’t expect quick results.
One leg calf raise
The exercise can be effectively performed with dumbbells or any other weight.
Sequencing:
- Take dumbbells in your hands and place them on the sides of your thighs.
- Bend your left leg at the knee, transferring your body weight to your right.
- With quick, short movements, perform 30-45 lifts on the toe of the right foot.
- Perform a similar exercise with your left leg.
The number of approaches is 3-4. The time interval between episodes is 1 minute.
It is important not to place your foot on your heel while lowering your body - this will avoid the “dead” zone (the moment of no load) and increase the effectiveness of the training.
Sock press with elastic band
The exercise should be performed in combination with calf raises. They can be alternated or done sequentially.
Technique:
- Sit on a sports mat, straighten your left leg in front of you (bend your right leg at the knee).
- Take a rubber band (elastic band) in your hands and firmly grasp its ends.
- Throw the middle part of the expander over the toe of your left foot.
- Pull the band towards you and perform 40-60 forward foot presses.
- Perform a similar exercise with your right leg.
The number of series is 3. You should rest no more than 30 seconds between approaches.
