An Australian woman who shed over 40kg is inspiring others with her effective leg workout routine for achieving toned legs. This routine combines cardio and strength training, and focuses on different muscle groups to achieve balanced and sculpted legs.
Understanding Leg Toning
Having toned legs means having strong and defined leg muscles. This involves exercises such as squats, lunges, and leg presses to strengthen and shape the muscles. Tone can also be improved by reducing weight, as muscle tone is more defined with less adipose or fatty tissue around it. Excess fat will accumulate around the muscles.
Diet and Exercise: The Cornerstone of Leg Toning
Losing fat in the legs and thighs involves a combination of exercises that tone the leg muscles and general changes to support weight loss. Overall, the best strategy combines strength training, aerobic exercise, dietary changes, and other adjustments to support a healthy lifestyle.
Balanced Diet
Eating a balanced diet with plenty of protein, fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats will help you to maintain a healthy weight, which is a key component to toning your legs. Limit your intake of unhealthy foods, such as processed snacks and sugary drinks. Cut out all fizzy drinks like cola and energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster.
Cardio
Aerobic exercise is cardiovascular training that increases the heart rate and breathing rate. It includes activities such as running, cycling, swimming, dancing, and walking.
- Walking: Aerobic activity like walking is one of the best exercises to tone legs.
- Indoor Cycling: Indoor cycling is one of the fastest ways to tone your legs. It’s a high-intensity workout, but it’s easier on the joints than jogging or running.
- Hill Sprints: Hill sprints put your legs to work. This powerful exercise will build muscle strength and improve your running stride.
Leg Workout Routine for Toning
The fitness coach trains her legs twice a week — one day focusing on glutes and hamstrings, and the other on quads and calves.
Compound Exercises
These exercises work multiple muscle groups simultaneously, burning more calories and encouraging weight loss. Multi-joint strength training exercises that can help tone and define the leg muscles include:
- Squats
- Deadlifts
- Lunges
- Leg presses
- Hamstring curls
Squats: The squat is one of the best exercises to tone legs. It also sculpts the butt, hips, and abs. Squats are ideal if you have back problems. Since they’re done while standing up and without extra weight, they won’t strain the back.
- Basic Front Squat (Bodyweight): Stand with your feet apart and arms forward. Squat, moving your hips back and keeping your knees over your toes. Then rise, keep your core tight and arms straight.
- Sumo Squats: Stand with your feet wide and toes out.
- Goblet Squat: Start by standing with your feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell in front of your chest, with your elbows pointing toward the floor. Push your hips back and bend the knees to lower into a squat. Press through heels to return to start.
- Hack Squats: After finishing three sets of standard squats, we move on to hack squats. Here, we do another 3 sets with between 8 and 12 reps.
- Barbell Squats: For this traditional squat exercise, starting position is with a loaded barbell and position your feet shoulder width apart. Grab the bar from the rack and place it upon your traps – not your neck. Begin slowly lowering your body through the entire range of motion until your thigh muscles are parallel or just beyond parallel to the floor. Contract the glutes to force yourself to stand up into an upright position.
Lunges: Lunges work your thighs, butt, and abs. This exercise is celebrated for strengthening and toning the legs and glutes, improving core stability and enhancing balance and coordination.
- Forward Lunges: Start with your feet together and step forward into a lunge, keep your front knee over your ankle. Don’t let your back knee touch the floor. Press into your front heel to stand and alternate legs.
- Reverse Lunges: Stand with your feet hip-width apart and step back into a lunge.
- Dumbbell Walking Lunge: Stand with feet hip-width apart and toes pointing forward, with a dumbbell in each hand. Draw shoulders down and back away from ears. Then, engage the core and inhale as you step right foot forward about two feet, making sure to keep it aligned with right hip. Redistribute weight evenly throughout foot. Slowly bend right knee to lower body to the floor. On an exhale, engage glutes and quads and press through entire right foot to straighten right leg. Without allowing left foot to touch the floor, take a step forward with left foot and repeat the lunge on left side.
- Lateral Lunge: Start standing, feet shoulder-width apart, knees and hips bent slightly (a). Keeping both feet pointed forward, step your left leg to the left, bending your left knee. Shift your weight to that leg and push your butt back until your thigh is nearly parallel to the floor (b). Press back to the start.
- Curtsy Lunge: Want more exercises for toned legs? Try one of these lower-body workouts that you can do with or without equipment.
Deadlifts:
- Romanian Deadlift: Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding two dumbbells, with your palms facing your body. Squeeze your armpits and belly button to maintain tension in your core and back while keeping a tight grip on the dumbbells. Breathe in laterally (to the ribs) through your nose and begin sending your hips back in space. Maintain minimal knee bend, hinging at the hips and allowing the dumbbells to move down your shins while your hips.
- Single-Leg Deadlifts: The single-leg deadlift will sculpt your butt, hips, and upper legs.
Leg Press: Sit in a leg press machine with your feet apart on the sled. Extend your legs, pushing through the balls of your feet to lift the sled. Lower slowly back.
Isolation Exercises
These exercises target specific muscle groups in the legs.
- Leg Extensions: After warming up our legs with squats, we begin to isolate individual muscle groups, starting with 4 sets of leg extensions. Each set should have at least 12 repetitions, so be sure to use a weight you can manage.
- Leg Curls: We then continue to isolate individual muscle groups with 4 more sets of leg curls. Shoot for between 12 to 15 reps with a challenging weight.
- Standing Calf Raises: We finish the routine by working the calf muscles. We complete 5 sets with a heavy but manageable weight, aiming to complete between 15 and 20 reps in each set.
- Seated Calf Raises: Sit with a weight on your lap and your feet on a platform. Push through the balls of your feet to lift the weight, focusing on using your calf muscles. Lower back to start.
- Leg Press Calf Raises: Sit in a leg press machine with your feet apart on the sled. Extend your legs, pushing through the balls of your feet to lift the sled. Lower slowly back.
Other Effective Exercises
- Plank Leg Lifts: Regular planks target the upper body, core, and hips.
- Stability Ball Knee Tucks: Doing knee tucks on a stability ball will tone legs fast.
- Step-Ups: Step-ups are like one-legged squats. Stand in front of the step with your feet facing forward, hip width apart. If you want to, you can hold a dumbbell in each hand. Place one foot on the step, using it to push your body upwards until you can place the other foot on there too. Stand tall and squeeze your glutes, then place the first foot back on the floor, slowly lowering yourself down. Repeat, alternating each leg.
- Box Jumps: You can also do box jumps on a plyometric box.
- Speedskater Jumps: Speedskater jumps, or lateral jumps, engage your leg muscles.
- Resistance Band Leg Presses:
- Bridge: Start lying on your back on an exercise mat. Bend your knees to a 90-degree angle with your feet flat on the floor. Your feet should be facing forward and your thighs should be parallel to each other. Lift your bum up from the floor with your hips facing upwards and keep your arms and shoulders on the ground. With control, lower yourself back to the starting position and repeat.
- Chair Pose: The Chair Pose is a powerful yoga stretch. It works the hips, legs, and ankles, making it a great exercise to tone legs.
- Single Leg Half Squat: Stand on one leg, and bend your knee to the 1/2 squat position. Make sure when you squat you keep the middle of your knee cap in line with the middle toes of your foot. Do not let your knee drift off to one side. Also keep your hips and pelvis level as you squat, so you go down in a straight line. Be careful not to slump forwards as you squat, maintain good posture.
- Single-Leg Reach: Stand upright with one foot off the floor, knee bent at 90 degrees and your arms by your sides. Bend forward at the waist, lowering your torso down and reaching toward the floor, keeping your standing leg straight. Push off the standing foot to return to the upright position. Perform 8–10 reps each side.
- Plyo Split Squat: Stand upright in a split stance with your arms at your sides. Lower your body toward the floor, bending at the hips and knees and leaning your torso slightly forward with your weight on your front leg. Push off your front foot and jump up off the floor. Land in a split squat and repeat quickly. Complete all reps on one side before switching to the other side.
- Dumbbell Hip Thrust: With knees bent and feet flat, place your upper back and shoulder blades against a bench. Hold a medium-weight dumbbell on your hips (a). Push through your heels and raise your hips until your body forms a straight line from shoulders to knees (b). Pause, then lower. That’s 1 rep; do 3 sets of 12.
- Bench Adduction: Lie on your left side, with your forearm on the floor. Place your right calf on a bench. Your left leg should be straight and directly under the bench. Tighten your core (a). This is the start. Now raise your torso so you form a straight line from legs to shoulders (b). Pause for 2 seconds, then return to the floor. That’s 1 rep; do 3 sets of 10 per leg.
Important Considerations
- Proper Form: What’s important when doing this leg exercise, or any exercise for that matter, is that you perform it correctly. If you are not using the proper form, you could injure your back, knees, and hips, putting you out of action for several weeks and, worst-case scenario, months.
- Listen to Your Body: It’s normal for one leg to have more mobility than the other.
- Stay Hydrated: Stay hydrated before, during, and after your workout to protect your joints and organs and improve your digestive health.
By following this comprehensive guide, you can develop an effective leg workout routine to achieve toned and sculpted legs after weight loss. Remember to combine exercise with a balanced diet for optimal results.
