My Simple 5-day Workout. Friday: Legs

Last workout day.. we target the Legs. There are several muscles found in the legs, and we focus on the largest three.. the quads (quadriceps), hams (hamstrings), and calves. The quads are the biggest and are made up of four different muscles, thus the name. They are located on the front, upper leg, or thighs. (I am missing one of those quad muscles on my left leg due to a car accident back in 1998) The quads are responsible for the extension of the legs. The hams are located opposite the quads, on the back of the upper legs. The hamstrings are the muscles that pull or bend your leg back. The calves are actually one of the strongest muscles. They are located on the back of your lower legs. Calves basically pull your heel up towards your body, pushing you up and forward, and they also stabilize.. in short, they play a huge role in your walking, and jumping, and tippy toeing.

This workout is a bit shorter, but no less intense. It can leave me walking slowly (even slower than usual) and if I bend my legs too much, I might be visiting the floor.

In my opinion, the king of all leg exercises is the squat. It mainly works the quads since you are extending your legs, first slowly releasing the pull, or actually doing the opposite of extending (bending) during the downward part of the squat, then really working those quads as you stand back up to the beginning. A host of other muscles are helping to stabilize, balance, and control the movement, too.

Bodyweight Squat

3-6 sets X 15-30 reps (there really is no limit on this one. I only do this many, but it's entirely up to you and how much is needed for you to feel the burn. One guy who wrote a book on body-weight workouts would do at 100 squats at a time, and does 500 squats in a workout)

*I keep my arms out to help with balance (I really suck at balance) but you could try what works best for you.

*I go very slow or else I might throw myself off balance, but I think a 'I luv steemit' tempo for each down movement, and then again for the up movement of the squat would work nicely.

*Something to definitely try when these regular squats are just too easy for you, would be the 1-leg squat, also called pistols.

Also, to make both the regular squats and the pistol squat even harder, try holding some dumbbells of the appropriate weight while you do them.

To workout the calves I like to do calf raises. I prefer to use a 'step' of some sort so I can lower my body down and start the movement with the calf muscles fully stretched. If I just can't find any steps, I just do raises from flat foot to tippy toe raises. (go slow and hold and squeeze at the highest part of the raise.. like you're trying to push yourself up just 1 more cm)

Calf Raises

3-6 X 25-50 (like with the squats, do as many as it takes to feel the burn)

*To increase the resistance, just try doing raises with 1 leg, then you can add weight by holding a dumbbell if you need more resistance.

The last exercise is more of a cooldown for the leg muscles, but is probably the most important thing to do in real life activity, as in it's what you want to your legs and cardio combined to be able to do for you whenever you need to. It's the stationary bike. (that's the one I like, but you could just do the treadmill, or eliptical, or just go jogging or power walking or whatever)

I just do 5-10 minutes, but that's me, I dislike doing this.. you might do 20-30 minutes or even more.. its totally up to you.

Thanks for coming along with me during this workout. I have posted my entire (5-days) workout that cover what I do for the entire week. Please head to my blog and read all those posts, too.

Sincerely,

Ben

*photo credits go to:

http://www.rch.org.au/limbrecon/for_health_professionals/Physiotherapy_above_the_knee_exercises_before_surgery/

http://www.fix-knee-pain.com/knee-strengthening-exercises/

http://workoutlabs.com/exercise-guide/bodyweight-calf-raises/

and to my daughter ysa and wife @jazzybells.