The leg muscles (quads, hamstrings and calves) are some of the largest muscle groups in the body, and training them helps you build lean muscle mass, burn calories and improve balance, flexibility and stability. Leg training is also an essential component for those who play sports like football, basketball, soccer or baseball. Without it, you risk looking like Hercules upstairs and Chicken Little from the waist down.
The key to maximizing your legs’ potential for strength and tone is combining proper technique with adequate training volume, or sets and reps, to stimulate muscle growth. The best way to find a safe and effective workout routine is to get guidance from a fitness professional. Future matches you with a personal trainer or physical therapist who can help you build a strong foundation for your training, while guiding you to make progress toward your goals.
Before performing any leg exercises, it’s important to warm up your body with a light to moderate intensity movement that’s relevant for your current skill level and fitness goal. This can be in the form of dynamic mobility work, or a pre-activation drill that prepares your muscles for more demanding movements. Once warmed up, you can move on to your specialized leg exercises.
This week’s leg träna ben day includes six different exercises that target the quads, hamstrings, calves and glutes. It will take an hour or slightly longer to complete because it’s a tough, taxing workout that requires long rest periods between each set. In general, you should train your legs two to three times per week – but remember that it’s crucial to avoid back-to-back days that place increased stress on the same muscle group, preventing proper recovery and inhibiting muscle growth.
Leg exercises are challenging because they can target many different muscle groups in the same movement, such as squats, lunges or deadlifts. As such, it’s important to focus on the correct technique for each exercise in order to minimize your chance of injury and optimize your performance and results.
For example, when performing a lunge, begin by standing up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart. Then, with most of your weight on the front foot, slowly lower until your thighs are parallel to the floor or as far down as your range of motion allows, before pushing back up into the starting position.
This movement will not only strengthen the quads, hamstrings, and glutes but also challenge your core and balance, and engage many smaller stabilizing muscles in your hips, knees and ankles. In order to maximize the benefits of your lunges, perform them for 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions on each side. Rest for 3-to-5 minutes between each set.
