5 Leg Workouts You Can Do At Home Without Equipment
These basic workouts are simple but very effective for toning your legs
and buttocks from anywhere in your home.
leg-workouts-at-home Legs are an essential part of any type of physical
activity. Keeping your legs in shape is within everyone’s reach. It’s all
a matter of doing a few simple leg exercises focused on the different
muscle groups that make up the lower body, to strengthen, tone and slim
legs, with no need to leave your home and without any equipment.
For those who have little sporting habit, these five exercises can be
performed twice a week in three sets of ten repetitions. For those who
already have a more established habit, four sets of 15 repetitions would
be the ideal amount. Between exercises it is advisable to rest between 30
and 60 seconds depending on each body.
Here are five simple workouts to tone your legs at home.
1- Basic Squat
The squat is one of the best known and most useful exercises when it
comes to working your legs without using much space or equipment. This
simple movement consists of bending your knees until they are at a 45º
angle. A well executed squat strengthens the legs, glutes and many other
lower body muscles as well as contributing to improved mobility and
keeping joints and bones in good shape. But poorly executed they can lead
to lower back and knee problems, so it is very important to execute them
correctly.
It is important to start from a comfortable posture standing with feet
shoulder width apart and gradually proceed to make a movement like sitting
on a chair keeping the abdominal muscles active and legs in tension. We
must avoid pulling the knees inward in the process or putting the weight
of the body too far forward or backward. As a general rule, the knees
should not go beyond the tips of the toes when performing the flexion, but
people with good ankle mobility may feel comfortable in that position and
the exercise would not be poorly executed.
You can repeat this exercise for 20 times.
2- Sumo Squat
This variation of the previous exercise helps to focus the work on the
gluteal muscles and is performed using the same technique as the basic
squat but with the feet wider apart. As its name suggests, the sumo squat
is inspired by the position adopted by sumo wrestlers in their matches.
During the bending of the knees it is important to keep the back straight
and contract the abdomen and gluteus to activate the muscles we want to
work. When descending, it is important that the knees are not pulled
inward, just as when ascending to avoid injury to this joint. Breathing is
also important in this exercise, we must take air up, keep it during the
descent and expel it when going up.
This workout can be performed with weights to intensify the work and add
upper trunk activation in muscles such as dorsal, trapezius, shoulders or
arms since the weight, which is usually a kettlebell, is held with the
arms extended between the legs.
Set your goal of 15 repetitions.
3- Abduction with rubber band
This exercise strengthens the inner thighs and is based on performing leg
extensions from a seated position. This movement can be performed simply
with the resistance offered by the body or add a rubber band or short band
to add resistance to the movement and thus work with greater
intensity.
During the execution of the movement it is important to keep the back
straight, without curving it, to avoid lumbar problems and to focus the
effort on the gluteus and the inner and outer thighs.
Perform 15 repeats
4- Lunge
Lunge is an exercise in which you step forward or backward and bend your
knees until the one behind you approaches or touches the ground. There are
many variations of this movement depending on the muscle on which you want
to focus the work, but the basic one focuses the work on quadriceps and
gluteus and consists of lowering the knee straight to the floor.
From a vertical position, step forward keeping the torso as straight as
possible and perpendicular to the ground during the movement, avoiding as
much as possible the swing. Once the front foot is supported, proceed
downwards avoiding that the leg that moves forward does not bend more than
90º at the knee.
Continue this exercise for 20 repeats
5- Calves
You can also do a series of exercises to tighten your legs by stretching
and contracting your calves. To do this, stand with your toes on a step,
stand on tiptoe and slowly lower yourself down until your heel is below
the line of the step. In this way, the movement and contraction of the
calf will be more extensive.
Stand on tiptoe and remain static for 20 seconds. Rest for 3 seconds
and repeat this exercise 20 times.
To find out more, like us on Facebook and share this leg workouts with
your friends. They’ll thank you later!
