Women - Toning Up Your Legs In Time For Summer

Women especially like to be ready for summer. The summer means bathing suits and bikini’s and everyone wants to look their best. There are many different areas for women to work on to look their best this summer in their new bikini. A few examples are legs/butt, abs/core, and arms/shoulders.

Today we are going to talk about legs and butt. I will give you a couple exercises to try and get ready for summer. All of these exercises are going to be high reps/low weights. Your goal should be to be very sore after these workouts. Just because you are not doing large amounts of weight does not mean you should not be tired/sore after these exercises, in order to see drastic improvements you have to push yourself in every activity and exercise.

Squats
The ultimate leg exercise, squats work the whole body, squats especially work your thighs, hips, and butt. I prefer normal squats (bar on shoulders) going to close to parallel. Make sure you keep your back tight and have a spotter.

You will not want to do very much weight, find a good weight that you can do 15 reps of. I prefer to do four sets of squats, a warm up set (ex. 15), then 3 more sets, 15, 15, 12 (reps). Take a good 1-2 minute break between sets. If the weight is to easy add a few pounds.

Lunges
Lunges have quickly became one of my favorite leg exercises. Lunges do a great job on many major muscles in your leg. Lunges work your butt (glutes), calves, quads, and hamstrings. I like to do very high reps with weights on lunges. I would recommend starting with 15 each leg to start, using 5lb weights (if you can’t use the weight at the start, just use your body weight). My legs are usually burning after 3-4 sets of squats at high repetitions, it is a great exercise.

           

Biking/Running
Biking and running are great ways to get in shape and lose weight. But they are also great for your legs. Biking really works your thighs, hips, and butt, and will help tone up your legs. Being a cyclist myself, I would recommend doing faster paced spinning classes (or ride in a higher gear) so that your legs are moving faster, it should really help tone up your legs. I would recommend the spinning class if possible since I know I look pretty silly riding my bike and my legs just going at a high RPM. Remember to wear your helmet!

Conclusion
There are many other great exercises out there that can help you achieve your goals for your legs. Different workouts and exercises work for different people. Remember despite what exercises you choose working hard is the most important thing, your legs should be burning and sore after your workout. Make sure to warm up properly and to stretch afterwards so you don’t become to sore. There really is no substitute for hard work, especially when you are working towards a goal is important.