LEG WORKOUTS

Legs are composed of over half our total body musculature. With our largest muscle groups located in our legs it also makes it a highly effective calorie burning workout if we focus on them. So if you’re short on time, and want the most calorie burn, don’t spend time on your abs or biceps, hit the legs!

Leg workouts are for both guys and girls. Not to generalise or anything, but how often do you see guys focusing on their chest and biceps and neglecting their legs. Girls appreciate a nice butt, get squatting! Neglecting muscle groups also leads to injury, balance should always be priority. 

The muscle groups of the legs include your quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves. Exercise lists for legs are endless, variety is always best to keep your muscles challenged. Some leg exercises to incorporate in your next session: steps ups, deadlifts, calf raises, squats (front and back), single leg squats, hamstring curls, lunges and thigh abductor/adductor exercises.

Some tips:

- Play around with your tempo for more variety. E.g. if performing a calf raise, lift up quick, then hold at the top for two seconds, and then slowly make your way down over 5 seconds.

- Squat deeply but don’t compromise on form. If doing back squats, check your knees are not tracking in front of your toes and keep your chest up. It is a myth you shouldn’t go past your knee line, the lower the better, but keep it safe with correct technique.

- Choose different weight selections. E.g., try lunges with a bar, or lunges with one or two dumbbells on one or both sides. All this keeps your body guessing, your body won’t change unless you change up your workouts.

- Do plyometric exercises. Lunge jumps, squat jumps and box jumps help improve speed, endurance and explosive power.

Your Trainer Liz

Flexibility

I am not flexible. I need to work on this harder than most. My spine isn’t straight, this leads to further imbalances in the muscles and tightness as the body tries to compensate. Most people like me do not like stretching but it is an essential part of an exercise plan.

The better our flexibility the better the range of motion we have. Why do we need a great range of motion? You activate more muscles which leads to more muscle stimulation and more adaptations. We need adaptation for muscle growth, muscle strength and too create lean look.  Tightness creates shorter muscles.

I was doing a rotator plank today, a plank where you lift one arm up and move from 12 o’clock to 3 o’clock. My gosh, what a reminder that exercise was that I need to work harder on my shoulder flexibility. My range of movement was terrible, I couldn’t straighten my arm properly in the required position. I didn’t have the range, because of tight shoulders. This meant I wasn’t getting the most out of the exercise. Tightness restricts movements, you don’t stimulate as many muscles and you will be more prone to injury.

Squats, how many times do we see people squatting staying in the top half. Tight leg or hip muscles will prevent you getting low. But if you don’t have tight muscles and have the range, get low! The lower you go, the harder it is because you activate more muscles but isn’t this what you want? If you are going to do it, do it properly and get the most out of the exercise. The only person you are cheating is yourself. It is better to lift a lighter squat weight and do it right, rather than lifting heaving but only going down 25%.

Injuries can often be the cause of muscle imbalances and tightness. You can start to put pressure on joints as the body compensates, the wrong muscles will pick up the slack and work harder, and the ones that should be doing the work become weaker and weaker. We exercise to be healthy, you can’t be healthy if you are injured.

Reminder to myself, will use the foam roller every night and stretch consistently. Ask me this time next week if I’ve done it every day!

Your Fitness Trainer Sydney