By: Taylor Empey | CFT, SFN, SET, Elite Trainer Level I | Iron Allies Fitness | 3844 S. 300 E. Salt Lake City, UT 84115 | 801-263-5336 | ironalliesfitness@gmail.com | ironalliesfitness.com
What’s Up Allies!
Today we want to address a mistake we see made in gyms all the time by many people.
Tons of people universally neglect to train their legs or train their legs adequately. Often times people mistake cardio, running, or light bodyweight movements as adequate ‘leg training,’ but this is far from true. It’s a funny thing that people neglect these muscles since proper leg training will actually deliver dramatically better total body results overall.
Walk into any gym and you’ll see the bench press taken, the dumbbells being curled-and an squat rack being used for something other than squats.
Let’s be honest, leg exercises are tough, there’s no denying that, but the benefits of doing some of those challenging exercises is the results and benefits you’ll see by doing them frequently and consistently are worth the time and effort.
Your legs are a major muscle group and some of the largest muscles in your body, so it’s no surprise that training them will get you big time results. Training your legs will…
1. Help Reduce Overall Body Fat
As I mentioned above, leg exercises are tough. Your legs are a large part of your body, so each exercise literally moves your whole body. This is precisely why a good leg workout will benefit your entire body. Because your leg muscles are so large, you’ll burn more overall calories, thus helping reduce overall body fat over time.
2. Increase Metabolism
Due to the intense nature of a leg workout, your metabolism becomes elevated for more than 24 hours from the breakdown and stress placed on your body from leg training. That means that for an entire day or so your body continues to burn extra calories without any extra effort on your part in order to partition specific nutrients for recovery and repair.
3. Build Overall Functional Strength, Coordination, Balance and Endurance
How often do you use your legs? Most of us depend on our legs constantly throughout the day-so wouldn’t it make sense to strengthen our individual mode of transportation? Kind of like putting a supercharger on the engine of your car.
Exercising your legs isn’t only about increased strength; you’ll also improve your coordination and balance. This means that you’ll be able to do and experience things that you otherwise would have missed. These, among other benefits will translate directly into better performance during everyday life activities you enjoy.
4. Uncover natural muscle shape
Let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a pair of lean attractive legs? Exactly. I’m not saying that you’re legs will bulge with muscles (unless you trained and ate for that), but I am saying that consistently training your legs will uncover your natural lean muscle shape and definition; what many refer to as ‘tone.’
Many of our clients discover a whole new level of confidence after getting their legs back into shape. Women especially enjoy the freedom to wear shorts or a skirt without feeling embarrassed to show their legs. And guys feel more confident in their newly developed muscular legs when they train them.
Oh, and we should tell you that as you strengthen your legs you’ll also reduce the risk of injury to your lower back because you’ll actually learn to pick things up off the ground the correctly.
So here are some of our best exercises that activate your leg muscle groups…
Best Leg Exercises
Now that we’ve convinced you to pay more attention to your legs, here are three of the top exercises you should do. Each of these exercises have dozens of different variations, so have fun and always keep your workouts fresh and challenging.
The Lunge:
Start with your feet hip to shoulder width apart, take a large step forward, committing your weight and momentum biased to the front leg, and bend both of your knees down into a 90 degree bend in both knees. Exhale as you press yourself back up, pushing primarily through your front leg, bring yourself back into a standing position, and then continue on the same or alternate leg.
The Squat:
Start by placing your heels shoulder width apart, focus on activating your glute muscles by pushing your knees out slightly to the sides (preventing them from buckling inward). Maintain a straight back (neutral spine) providing support for your low back. Keep your chin and chest up and look forward. Inhale as you bend your knees, and focus more on sitting your butt backwards as you sit deep into your hips. Be sure to keep your knees from going past your toes. Exhale as you push back driving your feet through the floor, and squeezing your glutes together as you rise up to a standing position.
The Deadlift:
With the barbell placed on the floor with appropriate weight, grip the barbell tightly about shoulder width apart or slightly wider. Place your feet shoulder width apart, drop your hips down like a squat, raise your chin and chest upward, look forward, tighten your core and abs to support your spine. Take a breath, and exhale as you drive your feet through the floor, bringing your hips towards the bar and standing up straight while maintaining a straight back (neutral spine). While standing up in the deadlift be sure to keep your back muscles engaged pulling the bar towards you as you stand up.
By no stretch of the imagination are these three the ONLY leg exercises you should do. And that’s the other great thing about training your legs… you have tons of options and variations. However, they are some of the best exercises you can do for your legs.
Want to know more about leg exercises and which ones are the best for you? Are you finally ready to take that step and get started on a program that will actually work for you and you’ll be able to sustain?
Reply to this email, text, or call us at the info below and we’ll schedule a free week of group training classes and a private one on one consultation where you and we will review your fitness level, goals, motivations, and help you establish a sustainable plan that will get you where you want to go.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Team Iron Allies Fitness
3844 S 300 E Salt Lake City, UT 84115
801-263-5336
ironalliesfitness@gmail.com
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