After you achieve the perfect six pack, you must get some toned legs. All women strive to get nice legs and get rid of cellulite and fat. When men gain weight as they age, it is usually gained in the abdomen region. Unfortunately for women, when they gain weight, they gain it in their legs. Try out these tips along with a healthy diet, and you'll have some toned legs in no time!
Top 5 Easy Ways to get Toned Legs:
1. Cardio: This is the only way you're going to burn the fat off of your legs. You have pretty muscles just waiting to be revealed under the fat, you just have to burn it off. This is easy to do by just adding some cardio to your daily routines. You'll need to walk, jog, run, bike, swim, or just about anything that gets your heart rate up. You'll need to do this for 30-60 mins at least 4 times a week to get the maximum benefits. It might be hard to find all the spare time in your day, so you can help yourself out at work or out shopping by parking farther out, using the stairs, and taking the long way around to your destination.
2. Squats: This is the best exercise that will target almost every muscle in your legs, and you can do this just about anywhere. When doing squats, you must make sure you have proper form; if not, you can injure your vertebral disks and mess up your knees. You can do this with or without weight. To get them toned, you'll need to add some weight on the barbell - but not too much, because you'll want to aim for 15-25 reps. You first duck under the bar, making sure the bar is resting on the back of your shoulders ( your traps), grasp the bar about shoulder width apart, and slowly lower yourself down while inhaling, then exhale when returning. To make sure you do this right, when performing it, stick your chest out and look up with your back slightly arched, lower yourself to where your legs form about a 90 degree angle (or like your sitting on a bench) then return back up. It is very important that when you do this, when you are going down, that your knees don't go beyond the tips of your toes. If you can't quite do weight yet, you can always do it without weight, or you can even use a wall to do some wall sits. You can also adjust your legs wider apart when squatting or narrow for variations. After you do about 3 sets of high reps your legs should be burning.
3. Lunges: This is another good exercise that will hit almost all parts of your upper legs along with your glutes. You can do this one anywhere too, with or without weights. To do these you stand erect, then step forward with one foot far enough to where when you bend down that your knee doesn't go beyond your toes. You want your knee of the opposite leg that didn't go forward to almost touch the floor. After you go forward with one, and then back up, switch legs and do the other leg. You can do these with barbells and walk down hallways with them or standing in place. You want to see if you can do them with light weights and then walk about 100 feet and back about 3 times, or do about 3 sets of 15 standing.
4. Hip Abductor/Adductor: You perform these exercises on machines in your local gym; they are very good at targeting your glutes and all around your hips. For the hip abductor machine, you sit and bring the machine in to where your legs are touching, then you push your legs apart. For the hip adductor machine, you start with your legs as far apart as comfortable, then push your legs together. In both of these exercises you want to push, and then when returning to starting position, try to go as slow toward starting postition as possible, to make sure to get some negative reps in. You want to perform at least 3 sets of 12 on each machine.
5. Calf Raises: These can be performed on machines or on an elevated surface, like a stair. You stand with half of your foot hanging off, legs together, and just a little more than your toes hanging on the stair (or whatever you might be doing it upon). You then slowly lower your heels down below your toes, then back up again. You can easily burn your calfs doing sets of 25 on stairs. You can vary the different parts of the calf you're working by pointing your toes in opposite directions, pointing them towards each other, or doing one foot at a time (for the more advanced). You can also do these on leg presses after you do your squats there; drop your heels over the edge and burn out your calves.
Make sure you have a good diet with enough sleep as well. By adding these tips to your normal workouts and daily lives, you can see results in no time. It takes motivation and time to get the toned legs you want; but if you stick with it, you'll be ready just in time for the beach.
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photo credit: www.vitalitynow.co.uk/
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