Never skip leg day, might you have heard this often. That is because leg days are an essential part to attain a completely balanced fitness routine. It provides speed, strength, and stability. It is also very much needed to stay consistent. It is absolutely necessary to have a balanced workout routine rather than just focusing on the upper body. Working the quads, hamstrings, and glutes will increase athletic performance. Make sure to train quads, hamstring, and glutes equally. Never overtrain a single area too much. Now, moving on to the importance of a leg workout.
The Importance of Leg Workouts
Major muscles of the body get engaged during leg workouts. This will result in proven athletic performance and aid healthy body movements in daily life. Leg workouts prevent chronic illnesses including diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and many more. These workouts make sure that the hormones get stimulated and the cores are fully engaged. Other importance of leg workouts include:
- Build strong muscles
- Sculpt legs muscles and tone it
- Core muscles get strengthened
- Promotes weight loss by burning calories
- Prevent joint pain
- Bones also get stronger
- Prevents chronic diseases
- Improves the posture of a person
Here is the List of 12 Best Workouts to Get Chiseled Legs
Here are the 12 exercises that will enable you to get chiseled legs. These exercises are easy to do and can be performed on your own inside your house without any supervision. All these should be performed in a well-balanced workout routine.
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Curtsy Lunge Exercise
- Glutes and quads. Glutes include the medius, minimus, and inner thigh region.
- Stand straight with your hands on your hips or stretch them forward
- Spread your feet apart and keep your back straight
- Cross your right leg behind the left leg as you bend
- Inhale as you bend down and exhale as you stand up.
- Builds lower body strength and provides more stability
- Shapes the leg region.
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Duck Walk Exercise
- Gluteus maximus. Fat in glutes and quads get burnt.
- Bend your knees and stay in a squat position
- Hold your hands together in the front and bend down further
- Start walking in that position
- One rep should last for at least thirty seconds.
- Increases ankle balance
- Provides flexibility
- Strengthens knees
Do it for 30 to 60 seconds to gain better results.
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Supported Single-Leg Deadlift
- Supported Single-Leg Deadlift works on the entire core, ankles, gluteus maximus, hamstrings, and gluteus medius.
- Start off by standing straight
- Bend forward with your trying to touch the floor
- As you do that, simultaneously lift either one of your legs backwards
- Do this 8 to 10 times to complete one rep.
- The posterior chain gets stronger
- That is the lower back region, core, hamstrings, and glutes.
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Step Ups Exercise
- Glutes, leg muscles, quadriceps, hamstrings, and most of the lower body region.
- This exercise is very similar to climbing a staircase
- Place a block in front of you
- Keep the right leg on the block and climb on it
- Get back down and place the other leg on the block
- Continue climbing on the block for twenty to thirty seconds to complete one rep.
- It is advised to continue this for 20 minutes at least.
- What are the benefits of "Step Ups Exercise"
- Increases strength of the legs
- Enhances stability
- They are very versatile.
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Resistance Band Clamshells
- Muscles Resistance Band Clamshells works on?
- Gluteus maximus and gluteus medius, hip.
- How to do Resistance Band Clamshells?
- Lie down on your side
- Place your hand to support you. You can place your hand under your head or flat on the floor
- Make sure to place the resistance band a little above your knee
- Keep your legs stacked and lift the upper knee
- Lift it as high as you can and lower it
- Repeat the process.
- Complete at least 15 reps for a single leg. One rep might last up to 30 seconds.
- What are the benefits of "Resistance Band Clamshells?"
- Helps in stabilizing pelvic muscle
- Tones the thigh muscles
- Strengthens the hips.
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Lateral Step-Out Squats
- Gluteus medius, rear region, hip adductors, thighs, and quads.
- Place a resistance band below your knee and stand straight
- Hold your hand in front of your chest
- Spread the resistance band along with your leg and squat down
- Be sure to move one leg at a time
- Repeat this exercise for both legs
- Do a minimum of 10 reps for each leg.
- Improves lower body strength
- Increases athletic skills
- Enhances stability.
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Pistol Squats
- Hamstrings (posterior muscle in the thigh), calves, glutes, and quads.
- First of all, stand straight. Keep your back and shoulder straight
- Stand in an erect position
- Keep the right feet flat on the floor
- Bend your left knee and squat down very low
- Hands can be used for balance
- Hands can be placed sideways or in front of the chest.
- Improves strength of the posterior chain
- Improves body balance
- Stabilizes leg muscles
- Enhances flexibility and mobility
- Legs get stronger
- Makes the ankle flexible
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Resistance Band Kickbacks
- Gluteus minimus, gluteus Medius, gluteus maximus.
- Your shoulder muscles also get stronger when you perform this exercise on the floor.
- Wear a resistance band near your ankle
- Hold on to a pole or the floor for balance
- Kick your leg back slowly. Make sure to lift your leg as high as possible
- Repeat this for both legs separately
- Continue it for 20 to 30 seconds to complete one rep
- Do at least 5 to 8 reps per routine.
(This can be performed on your knees as well as with your arms supporting the floor.)
- Improve the strength of the muscle
- Tone the thigh muscle
- Provides better stability.
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Banded Glute Bridge
- Posterior ankles, lower back, hamstrings, and glutes.
- Place the resistance band above your knee
- Lie down on the floor
- Bend your knees and keep your palms facing the ground
- Lift up your hip and hold it there for a few seconds
- Repeat this several times.
- Activates glute muscles.
- Relieve back pain (lower region)
- Enhance deadlifting performance
- Improve squatting posture
- Provides better athletic capacity
- Acts as a great warm-up exercise.
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Kettlebell Isometric Squats
- Quadriceps, Abdominals and Obliques, glutes, Upper Back and Lats, erectors, and Hamstrings.
- Stand straight on the floor
- Put your hands together in front of your chest or hold a kettlebell
- Keep your feet apart and steady on the ground
- Keep your spine and shoulder straight
- Bend your knees and go down
- Hold for a few seconds and return back to the initial position
- Complete at least 3 reps.
- Improves body control
- Activates core
- Enhances body balance
- Improves strength during squats
- Provides training novelty.
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Lying Lateral Leg Raise
- Outer thighs, hip abductors (gluteus minimus and medius).
- Rest the left elbow on the floor and lie on your left side
- Place the arm in a strong manner to provide stability
- Stretch the left leg on the floor and keep the right leg bent over it
- Slowly lift your left leg as high as you can. Without any other body parts
- Lifting it to things high and returning back to the floor is considered the first rep.
- Balances strength
- Engages core muscles
- burn calories
- boost cognitive
This exercise is said to be underrated but is very effective.
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Stability Ball Hamstring Curl
- Hip, glutes, quadriceps, calf muscles (gastrocnemius and soleus muscles), biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus.
- Lie flat on your back with both arms on either side
- Place your legs on the ball where it makes a 45-degree angle
- Make sure that your feet rest on the ball
- Slowly move the ball towards you with your feet as you simultaneously lift your hip
- Doing this once is one full rep. Do 10-15 reps (min) to make it effective.
- Strengthens hamstrings, core muscles, and glutens.
Do's and Don'ts for Leg Workouts
Here are a few tips to keep in mind before starting your leg day workout.
Do's on Leg Day
- Keep yourself hydrated and hyped up - A leg workout is always intense, so make sure you are hydrated and filled up with essential food supplements for rigorous training.
- Make sure to warm up first - Do not let your warm-up tire you. Keep warm-up exercise limited on leg day.
- Focus on unilateral exercise - Perform exercises like walking lunges, single leg presses, single leg extensions, and split squats.
- Simple and perfect - Make sure that you perform the exercises in the right manner. Watch the technique and the form, correct yourself and make it more effective. Though it might be a simple exercise, make sure to do it in the perfect way.
Don’ts on Leg Day
- Focus on mobility work - Make sure you maintain your body properly with the right exercise and the right number of reps.
- Do not engage in too many exercises - Do not choose too many exercises that focus on the same areas of the body. Have a balanced workout. Ask your trainer for help if you can’t form a balanced workout.
- Do not cave your knees inward - Avoid folding or bending your knee inward. If you find yourself struggling with it, make use of the resistance band. Once you get used to it, you can lose the band.
- Watch your back - Keep it flat and make sure it stays that way till the end of each rep.
- Never skip leg day - Do not ever think about skipping a leg day. You will surely regret it in the future.
Remember these do's and don'ts, as they will help you along the way. Moreover, these points are short and can be easily remembered.
Conclusion
"If it was easy everyone would have done it". Leg day is an essential part of the journey to a fit lifestyle. Never find an excuse to skip or escape a leg day. Leg workouts make sure that the other muscles get engaged as well. For example, a simple squat will engage muscles present in the glutes, core, and quads. So, now you will understand the importance of leg day.
Leg workouts cause multiple muscles to move which causes the heartbeat to rise which will result in the strengthening of the cardiovascular system. These above-mentioned leg workouts are easy to perform and can be done by yourself at your home itself.
