Are you sick of having flabby legs? Have you been doing cardio every day but your legs still aren’t toned? In order to have nice and sexy legs, you need to do some resistance training instead of just cardio.
Continue reading to learn 4 very effective leg toning exercises that you can do without using weights. We have also included some Youtube videos (that weren’t created by us) to better illustrate and demonstrate the exercises.
1)Squats
In our opinion,squats are absolutely the best leg exercise possible. Squats work your entire bottom half which includes your thighs, your butt, and even some calves. If you were to only do one leg exercise, the squat is the exercise you want to do.
Instructions
1)Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and your toes pointing outwards.
2)Arch your back and slowly bend down until your butt is parallel to the floor (This really means going a tiny bit further down to have it parallel)
3)Slowly go back up and repeat.
4)Since you are trying to tone, we would do 4 sets of 15-20 repetitions.
Tips
1)Make sure your knees are bending in the same direction as the direction of your toes
2)Make sure your knees never go past your toes
3)If your knees hurt in any way, stop squatting! You are most likely doing it wrong so re-watch the video and change your form.
4)A good way to burn your muscles is to never go fully up. When you are going up, go only 90% and go back down. In this way, you are keeping constant pressure on your thigh muscles.
5)If this is too easy for you, try holding dumbells on each hand, let your arms hang, and squat.
2)Lunges
The 2nd best leg exercise you can do is lunges. This works your entire thigh and your butt. A variation of the one in the video is to just lunge your way across the room or the gym. Basically, all you do is alternate your legs when lunging and keep moving forward.
Instructions
1)Stand up with your feet slightly apart.
2)Step forward with one leg and bend down.
3)Continue and alternate leg when done.
4)Try to do 4 sets of 15-20 repetitions(for EACH leg). We know this is going to be hard but keep at it!
Tips
1)Make sure your knees are bending in the same direction as the direction of your toes
2)Make sure your knees never go past your toes
3)If your knees hurt in any way, stop Lunging! You are most likely doing it wrong so re-watch the video and change your form.
4)A good way to burn your muscles is to never go fully up. When you are going up, go only 90% and go back down. In this way, you are keeping constant pressure on your thigh muscles.
5)If this is too easy for you, try holding dumbells on each hand, let your arms hang, and Lunge. ( We know, the tips are exactly the same as the ones for squatting!)
3)Leg Lifts/Rotations
Another good exercise you can do are leg lifts/Rotations. Make sure to do this on a mat or you might scrap your knees. Try to do 4 sets of 15-20 for each leg. If that is too easy for you, try doing more! Your muscles grow when it is put under tremendous stress.
4)Back Thigh Exercise
Instructions
1)Lay flat on your back
2)Lift up with your pelvic area and squeeze with your butt
3)Try to do 4 sets of 15-20 repetitions
