4 Tips to Strengthen Your Legs
As hard as you try during weekly training, you’re still not achieving the results you expected. Has this ever happened to you? Try to focus on your body as a whole and make use of other useful recommendations. You can strengthen your legs. Don’t lose hope!
Here, we’ve put together a series of tips for strengthening your legs. Try them out and see the results for yourself!
What is leg strength?
In general terms, power refers to the effort required to perform an action. It’s related to the amount of force required and the speed that the action can be performed. Essentially, power is a measure of how much force is applied over a specific period of time. The greater the force or the faster an action is performed, the greater the power.
So, leg strength is therefore about the power of the legs – how much force they can exert and how quickly. Obviously, we use our legs on a daily basis, but if you’re an athlete, you may need to develop greater strength or better techniques in order to perform better in your chosen discipline.
Can I strengthen my legs?
As it happens, most sports require strong legs. However, some sports require truly excellent leg power. So, is this something that you can achieve yourself?
Most people focus on leg training to increase muscle mass to increase the physical capacity of their legs. And whilst this is fine, training routines will only work if they’re planned and executed correctly.
Tips to strengthen your legs
To increase the power of your legs, you need to follow a good training routine. But we’ve also put together a list of other things that’ll help.
1. Remember to work on your stability
Muscle tone is the name given to the passive partial contraction of the various muscle groups which occurs to continuously maintain the body’s posture. However, when taking part in sports, these muscles need to be stronger in order to keep the body stable.
If you’re looking to strengthen your legs, you can’t just focus on the legs. This could lead to instability in the long run. As a result, you need to also include exercises that strengthen your core.
2. Work your glutes to strengthen your legs
A very common mistake when strengthening your legs is to focus on the quadriceps or gastrocnemius. But it’s really important not to forget other important muscles such as the glutes.
Besides providing stability and good posture, working these muscles greatly increases leg power. It’ll also help to prevent injuries in other muscle groups, such as the lower back or hamstrings.
3. Focus on both strength and speed
Muscle power is the combination of strength and speed. This means that you can’t just look at force alone. We recommend the following exercises:
- Squats: there are many variants and the best ones are those that involve weights.
- Deadlift: this works the hamstrings and the glutes.
- Plank: this helps work on core stability and muscular endurance.
- Plyometrics: jumps are excellent for building explosive strength. You should do them consistently and at high intensity.
4. Strengthen your legs: incorporate competition in your training
Ideally, strengthening your legs should be about improving your capabilities and protecting yourself against injury. However, in order to truly increase the power of your legs, it can be a great idea to compete against someone with greater strength than you.
This’ll help motivate you to force your body a little beyond what you normally do. Any competition should be healthy and controlled. In fact, you might just want to practice with a friend.
Always take care when strengthening your legs
If you want to achieve success at a competitive level, strengthening the legs will be very important. But it’s also a key way to prevent muscle or joint problems.
But regardless of why you want to strengthen your legs, you should always make a visit to your GP before undertaking any new training routine. You may also want to seek advice from a personal trainer to supervise you through your development.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Angulo, M. T. (2010). Fuerza, trabajo y potencia muscular. Reduca (Enfermería, Fisioterapia y Podología).
- Rebelo, A. N., & Oliveira, J. (2006). Relação entre a velocidade, a agilidade e a potência muscular de futebolistas profissionais. Revista Portuguesa de Ciências Do Desporto. https://doi.org/10.5628/rpcd.06.03.342
- Hansen, J. T., & Lambert, D. R. (2006). Miembro inferior. In Netter. Anatomía Clínica. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-84-458-1580-9.50004-7