It’s all about legs (woo-hoo!) So many people want more defined & leaner-looking legs. Shapeliness can add the illusion of length, and strong pins will benefit every-day life too (not just in your gorgeous skater skirt – um, oh, right, or your super hot short-shorts, boys). You walk faster, lift heavier, and the joints around your knees & ankles are more protected).
Yep, legs are pretty amazing.
If you’re not a regular exerciser, implement small steps (like these challenges) throughout your day and build up as you go. You’ll see improvements in strength and tone, and because these exercises target the whole legs, they burn the most calories.
This is for those of you who don’t work out too much yet so keep that in mind. I’ll do an advanced one too. In the meantime, add weights if this is just tooooo easy. And if you don’t have legs? No problemo, there’s a core one coming & an upper body challenge.
Without further ado… (find technique below workout)
[♥] Days 1-5
+ Do calf raises whenever you brush your teeth - You brush your teeth twice a day, right? For two minutes? (Say yes!) So 4 minutes a day, at least, hopefully..
+ 15 wide full squats, increase by 5 each day (so day 5 will be 35 squats)
+ Hold your squat, pulse it out for 10, increase by 5 pulses each day (day 5 will be 30 pulses)
+ 15 wide plie squats, increase by 5 each day
+ Hold your plie squat, pulse it out for 10, increase by 5 pulses a day
[♥] Days 6-11
+ Calf raises whenever you brush your teeth (but don’t touch the ground – pulse it out the whole time)
+ 40 wide full squats and 40 pulses
+ 40 wide plie squats and 40 pulses
+ 20 slow standing hamstring curls on each leg
+ 20 slow standing side leg-lifts on each leg
How to?
Pulse an exercise
- this just means you don’t rest between repetitions
- hold the exercise in the most difficult phase (like the bottom of a squat, or the middle of a calf-raise) and move only a couple inches
- just remember the key here is to keep tension in the muscle, so as soon as you feel a release, you know you ain’t pulsing
Calf raises
- feet hip-width apart
- legs straight, body upright
- raise onto the balls of your feet as much as you can & lower
Squats
- feet a little wider than shoulders
- chest & chin up, abs tight
- stick your butt back like you’re sitting on a low chair (keep the weight in your heels)
- knees don’t go forward, butt goes back
- make the squat last for 4-5 seconds
squats: work your behind more by clenching your glutes to bring you up
Plie Squats
- keep feet wider than shoulders
- chest & chin up, abs tight, body upright
- activate your glutes to come up
- should last for 4-5 seconds
plie squats: the lower the better
Hamstring curls
- Stand with your supporting leg straight and strong and lift the working leg behind you (straight) as high as it can go
- hold onto something for support if you need to
- moving only the knee (by hinging it) slowly squeeze your hamstring (back of your thigh) to bring your foot into your butt
- resist on the way out, it works better (go slowwww)
Standing side leg lifts
- Stand with supporting leg strong and lift the working leg directly out to the side of you (straight) as high as you can
- hold on for support if needed
- move ONLY the working leg (keep core tight) and squeeze it up, slowly resist it down
- go slow, don’t move with momentum
Ta-daaaa! I know I wrote like, 600 words… but once you get the technique down, it’s super easy and just keep doing this type of training (just increase the reps or hold some weights with your squats and calf raises) & add in different targeted exercises for a full-body routine.
And it only takes a little while each day (:
Questions? Answers! Just let me know.
Umm clench happy!
xxxo Faith
