Easy home exercises to rock perfect legs all year around
Working a fulltime job, sometimes six days a week, commuting to work everyday, stopping by your buddy’s happy hour to keep your social life interesting means that you probably feel that there is not time left to add the gym into your routine. But that doesn’t mean you can’t work out and get strong, sexy legs to show off when summer kicks-off. Wellness Fingerprint has put together a simple, no-equipment workout you can do at home to keep these legs of yours beautiful!
You can do this workout anywhere—your lounge, a hotel room, a park — as long as you have enough floor space and a chair, bed, box handy. So this workout is basically the ultimate zero-excuse leg burners!
Squat Jump
Jump squats are great to strengthen your legs, especially your calves, gluts, hamstrings and quadriceps.
HOW TO DO IT: With your feet shoulder-width apart, squat until your thighs are parallel to the floor, and then jump as high as you can. Lower your body back into a squat when you land then pause in deep squat position for one full second, and then jump again.
Do 3 sets of 10-15 reps.
Hamstring walkout
Hamstring walkout is a simple but powerful exercise for strengthening gluts and hamstrings, the big muscle groups in your legs and gluts.
HOW TO DO IT: Lie on your back and bend your knees with feet flat on the floor close to your gluts, shoulder width apart. Push your heels into the floor and lift your hips into the air while engaging your gluts and abs. Walk your feet out, small steps and one at a time until your legs fully extend — but keeping your hips up. Hold for a breath, and then walk them back to the starting position. Then do it again.
Do 3 sets of 10-15 reps.
Calf Raises
Calf raises are a key exercise to getting your calves into shape. Many exercises for strength training focus on the quads and hamstrings, but your calves are an essential muscle to building strong legs that maintain the skeleton’s proper alignment. You’ll need a step for this exercise.
HOW TO DO IT: Stand the edge of the step with your heels hanging off the edge and tailbone tucked in. Then lift your heels up on your tippy toes as much as you can. If you feel unstable you can use a wall to help keep your balance. Hold the position for two seconds and then lower your heels down, below the step, feeling a stretch in your calf muscles.
Do 3 sets of 10-15 calf raises and try sing leg calf raises once you have mastered the move.
Skater’s lunge
The skater lunge is an essential move to shape your butt and tone your quads and hamstrings and core. Glutes are often overlooked during a leg workout, but they are key to developing balanced muscle groups.
HOW TO DO IT: Start in a small squat, with your feet shoulder-width apart. Jump sideways to the right, landing on your right leg and crossing your right leg diagonally behind the left without it touching the floor. Reverse direction by hopping to the left with your left leg. Then do it again.
Do 3 sets of 20 reps.
Goblet Squat
The skater lunge is an essential move to shape your butt and tone your quads and hamstrings and core. Glutes are often overlooked during a leg workout, but they are key to developing balanced muscle groups. This squat will lift your butt as well as tone your cores and quads. Goblet squats are squats that requires you to hold a weight (dumbbell, kettle bell, medicine ball etc.)
HOW TO DO IT: Hold a weight at your chest using both of your hands and stand with your legs spread apart wider than your shoulders, feet pointed outwards. Squat down until your knees are at a 90° angle and sit back into your heels, keeping your chest up. Come back up, and then do it again. If that isn’t challenging enough for you, increase the weight or slow down the downward portion of the workout.
Do 3 sets of 20 reps.
Pistol Squats
This one legged squat combines mobility, stability, strength and flexibility and work your hamstrings, quads, gluts and calves.
HOW TO DO IT: Stand with your feet together. Lift your right leg a few centimeters off the floor and flexed, foot pointed in front of you. Until you master the move, it may help to straighten both arms in front of you or grab on to something sturdy like a pole to add a counterbalance to the bodyweight. Bend your left knee, hinge forward at the hips and slowly sit down into a squat, keeping your left foot flat on the ground. Once you have reached a deep squat position, apply pressure into the left foot and go back into a standing position on the working leg and repeat.
3-4 sets of 8-10 reps, resting as needed. Repeat on the other leg.
