Exercises and Workout Routines » Workout Routines
Effective Leg Workouts For Women
As you probably know, women tend to enjoy wearing shorts and skirts during the warmer summer months, and let’s face it, they tend to look pretty great too.
Yes skirts and shorts during the warmer summer months are far more pleasurable than leggings or hot and restricting tight jeans, which is why women tend to favour them.
For some women this isn’t a problem, but for others whose legs aren’t quite as svelte and toned as they’d like them to be, this could potentially be pretty embarrassing indeed.
If our legs aren’t quite in as great a shape as we’d like them to be, many of us tend to simply just throw on a pair or leggings or jeans instead. Rather than being embarrassed or self conscious about your legs however, what you can instead do, is work on your legs more to help strengthen and tone them so they’re looking smooth, toned, lean and muscular in the process.
Working the legs is not difficult, and to prove it here’s a look at a few effective leg workouts for women.
Cardio circuits
Although cardio is mainly based on burning calories and losing fat, it can still benefit the legs in a couple of different ways.
For a start there’s the fact that as cardio burns fat, your legs will carry less fat on them so they’ll immediately appear leaner.
Secondly there’s the fact that cardio often requires using your legs, running and cycling for instance.
For that reason, running on a treadmill, working up a sweat on the cross trainer, and cycling on an exercise bike in the gym are all great for the legs.
Try a basic circuit of:
- 15 minutes on the exercise bike at a moderate pace followed by,
- 15 minutes of moderate pace on the cross trainer (aka elliptical), and finish up with,
- 15 minutes of walking on a steep incline, or jogging on a slight incline on the treadmill.
By the end of the workout you’ll have burnt some major calories and your legs will be on fire.
Basic leg workout 1
Another great workout for the legs is the one we’ll be providing you with now. It’s quick and simple, and it will target all of the major muscles in the leg, and it goes like this:
- Bodyweight squats: 3 sets of 15 reps
- Walking lunges: 10 lunges per leg
- Calf raises: 2 sets of 15 reps
Leg workout 2
Here’s another great workout that is very similar to the one above, you could even alternate between the two every week so that your training has plenty of variety.
- Sumo squats: 3 sets of 15 reps
- Leg extensions: 3 sets of 15 reps
- Hamstring curls: 2 sets of 20 reps
Jane King
Miss Jane King's true passion is defintely spending time at the gym. She does personal training for her clients and specializes in endurance and nutrition.
This would work well for men too. With more weighted squats of course. And deadlifts.