Strong legs can be the foundation of your fitness program. Learn how to shape up your lower body with home exercises.
Leg exercises are secondary to upper body exercise for many weight trainees, for several reasons. First, leg work is hard and upper body exercises are more fun. Also, upper body size and shaping is considered to add more to appearance. However, for general fitness, and even for weight loss, leg exercises are important. Working large muscles does more to release growth hormones and raise metabolism, which contributes to weight loss and muscle gain. The lower body muscles are the largest in the body, so working your legs indirectly helps to develop your upper body. Devote at least one-third of your workout time to lower body. Walking, biking, and other cardio exercises don’t count here. Although they help with general conditioning of the lower body, they use the type I, endurance, muscle fibers but not the type II, strength, fibers. It’s the type II fibers that do the most for muscle growth and toning.
Because your legs are strong, you need to give them quite a bit of resistance in your training. Many home gym machines are better for upper body than lower body work. Typically, you will have a leg extension attachment that is adequate, but often a hamstring attachment that is either uncomfortable or nonexistent. The more expensive machines often have a leg press and sometimes a squat station. Squats may be adequate alone as they work the whole lower body, so if you really want to streamline your workout, you can do only squats. Leg presses can also be used alone, but adding hamstring exercises is preferable. Don’t do just leg extensions (quads) without doing something for the opposing muscles (the hamstrings). If you do just leg extensions and hamstring curls, you may be neglecting your gluteus muscles, which do get involved in squats and leg presses. You can combine machine and free weight exercises to work the whole lower body.
Barbell squats, with the bar on your shoulders, require a rack of some kind, as you take the bar on your shoulders by ducking under the bar, placing the bar on your shoulders, then standing up which lifts the bar off the supports, and taking a step back before doing your exercise. You need a spotter or something like a power rack that lets you set the bar on the pins and get out from under the bar if you can’t complete your repetition (rep) of the exercise. You can also do squats productively holding dumbbells, or even with body weight if you’re a beginner.
An excellent home exercise is the one-leg squat. This is the basic squat done on one leg at a time. You can hold on to a chair or slide your hand on a wall for balance. You can hold the non-supporting leg out diagonally in front of you or bend it so the foot is in back. You can put the toe behind you on a bench. Try it different ways. Don’t be surprised if you can get your thighs parallel with a two-leg squat but wobble too much to get that far on one leg. Body weight is enough to start with for most people, though you can hold dumbbells when you become more proficient.
The lunge is another good home exercise for the lower body. Although both feet are on the ground, one takes most of the weight, so you can use less weight than you do for the squat. Holding dumbbells at your sides, take a long step forward with your right foot, and sink down until your left knee is a few inches from the floor. Keep your right knee over, but not beyond your toes. Push back with your right leg and return to the start position with your feet together. Repeat with your left leg, alternating until you complete the desired number of reps with each leg. An alternative is the split squat, which is like the lunge except you straighten your forward leg without bringing your foot back, bend the knee again, and repeat for the desired number of reps. Then do all reps on the other leg. The lunge is especially good for working the muscles on the inside of the thigh (adductors).
Step-ups are another good exercise that is somewhat neglected. The step will be any sturdy bench or platform that is no higher than your knee. Step slowly so your thigh muscles have to work. The usual cadence is step up with your right foot, bring your left up, down right, down left. Change to lead with the left on the next set. You can do variations. Hold on to something for balance, if necessary. A lower step will be easier and one at knee height hardest. Make it harder yet by holding dumbbells, or a barbell on your shoulders if your balance is good and you have a spotter to steady you.
These exercises work quads (front of thigh), glutes (the buttocks), and hamstrings (back of thigh), but may emphasize quads. You can make sure the hamstrings and glutes get enough work by adding stiff-leg deadlifts. Stand with your feet comfortably apart, knees slightly bent. Hold a barbell or dumbbells hanging in front of you at arm’s length, with an overhand grip. Tighten your back muscles to maintain the lumbar curve, as in squats. Lean forward from the hips without bending your knees until the weight is at mid-calf, keeping the weight as close to your body as you can. Keep your head up and your shoulders back so your back doesn’t round. Stand back up by contracting the muscles of your glutes and hamstrings.
Put together a routine that has something for your quads and something for your hams and glutes, or just effective squats, lunges, or leg presses if you have limited workout time, and you’re on your way to great looking legs and a toned and muscular body.