Great Leg Exercises to Include in Your Weekly Routine

To strengthen your lower limbs, it's enough to add some simple and effective exercises to your workout routine. Here are six great leg exercises.

No matter your objectives, you should include a few of these great leg exercises in your weekly routine. In fact, you should make sure that you do a leg workout in at least one of your weekly training sessions. If you really don’t know where to begin, here are some great leg exercises and how to do them.

The best leg exercises for your weekly leg workout

It’s not necessary for you to spend more than 30 minutes a week doing leg exercises. This is the appropriate amount of time if you want to accentuate your muscles, slim down, and tone up.

Although for many people the lower limbs are forgotten and never worked out, there are many great leg exercises to choose from. Among them are the following:

1. Squats

Squats are one of the preferred leg exercises. In addition, squats help strengthen the hips, glutes, and back. It’s essential to do squats the proper way, with your back straight. If you don’t, you risk suffering from pain and injury.

To do squats, stand with your legs shoulder-width apart. Lower your torso gradually by bending your legs and leaning back with your glutes. To keep your balance, stretch your arms out in front of you.

Lower yourself until your knees are at the imaginary line above your toes. Hold this pose for a few seconds. Finally, slowly return to the start position.

2. Swinging kettlebells

Kettlebells are one of the most well-known CrossFit accessories and you can use them for a variety of great leg exercises. If you work out at home and don’t have a kettlebell, you can always use a dumbbell, a disk, or some plastic bottles filled with sand.

Start with your legs slightly apart and hold the kettlebell with both hands. Then, bend your knees and bring the kettlebell to the center. Now, lift your arms upward until they are perpendicular with your shoulders and straighten your legs.

3. Deadlifts

In order to do this exercise, you’ll need a bar with weighted discs. Use the heaviest ones you are able to lift. Standing with your feet together, hold the bar with both hands and keep your arms tight against your torso.

Then, bend your knees and push your glutes backward. Additionally, don’t forget to always keep your gaze facing forward.

Now, the idea is that the discs are touching the floor and that the bar is at the same height as the bridge of your foot. Hold this pose for a few seconds and then come up slowly, without arching your back at any moment.

4. Step-ups

If you don’t have access to this well-known accessory, popular among lovers of cardio and fitness, you can always use nearby stairs. This exercise is great for toning your legs, glutes, and thighs. It even helps to strengthen your knees and your heart!

Step-ups are so much more than climbing stairs. In any case, you must keep your back straight and your head upright. In addition, make sure your gaze is forward and not downward. To begin, step up and down a few times.

Then, you can do some elevations with each knee. Step up with the right leg and then, instead of stepping up with the left leg, bend it and raise it as high as you can.

5. Mountain climbers

This is one of the most complete leg exercises because it also allows us to do cardio and abdominals. The “mountain climber” exercise can be done in the following way: support yourself on the floor with both hands and on the balls of your feet. Now, bend your legs while the rest of your body is suspended in the air.

First, bend your right knee as if you were trying to climb a steep hill and, after a few seconds, bring it backward again. Now, at this moment you will need to bend your left knee and alternate the movement. Whenever one leg is bent and raised, the other is stretched out behind you.

6. Lunges

The last of these great leg exercises in this workout series is called a lunge or stride. Begin by standing with your legs together. Now, step forward with your right leg and bend your right knee until it is directly above the toes on your feet.

In addition, you need to bend your left leg so that your knee is as close to the ground as possible. After a few seconds, return to the start position and do the same movement with the left side.

By doing only six great leg exercises per week, your legs will look more toned, slimmer, and stronger. Putting in 30 minutes of effort is totally worth it for gorgeous legs.