“Don’t skip leg day!” Ever heard this saying before? Are you one of those who just dread leg days? Well we hate to be the bearer of bad news but our legs are just as important as every other part of our body! Why do we need to work on our legs? Well, it’s simply because we need to build a strong foundation in order to support the rest of our body. Whether you are going through an athlete’s training program, body building, or even just for weight loss, targeting your legs is an extremely important aspect. Not only will it improve our physique but also improve performance during sports and reduces the incidence of injury.
With that being said, let’s dive a little bit into the anatomy of the legs. The lower limb comprises of 4 main groups of muscle bulks. They are the Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Gluteus and Calf muscles.
Now that you’re familiar with the muscle bulks in our legs, let’s dive into our top workouts to target each of these muscle groups!
(1) Barbell Squats
Let’s start with one of the most common workout that majority of us have heard of. The famous Barbell Squat! This workout is specifically designed to work a large group of muscles, primarily in the lower limb. They work the Quadriceps, Hamstrings, Gluteus muscles and even the lower back. It is primarily great for those who are working to lose fat as this workout is a compound exercise which will increase our metabolism rate! There are different variations to this workout but the most common one would be the Back Barbell Squat as it is simpler to perform and not too complicated like the other variations.
(2) Deadlifts
Now let’s focus solely on the posterior segment of the legs. We’re talking about the Hamstrings, Glutes and the Lower Back. There are two main variations of this workout, namely the Straight Leg Deadlifts and the Conventional Deadlift. The difference between these two is just that the Straight Leg Deadlift requires us to keep our legs to be straight and the Conventional Deadlifts requires us to have a slight knee bend. How this affects us is that if we want to have more of an impact on our hamstrings, then the Straight Leg Deadlifts are our best bet as it enables our hamstrings to have a proper eccenteric stretch where as the conventional one is evened out between the gluteus, hamstrings and the lower back. The Deadlift is also categorized under Compound Exercises as they will increase muscle bulk, hence, increasing our metabolism rate for faster weight loss.
(3) Leg Press
If you’re looking on a primary isolation workout for your Quadriceps muscles, then look no further! The Leg Press is a primary isolation workout that focuses on our Quadriceps! The reason why people would categorize this workout to be an isolation workout is because our lower back and gluteus muscles are supported with the cushioned seat whereas the hamstring muscles are working as a secondary compensation muscle to the Quadriceps Muscles. The Leg Press doesn’t necessarily only have to work on the Quadriceps. By changing the position of our feet, we are able to isolate other muscle groups of our lower limbs as well!
(4) Weighted Walking Lunges
That’s right. We didn’t mention the Stationary Lunges. Why? Well, this is because we at Fitnacle believe that the Walking Lunges allows your trail leg to “step through” to the next rep. What this does is that by stepping through, we will be able to engage the full range of motion of the gluteus muscles causing them to undergo both Eccenteric and Concentric movements. This trains the gluteus muscles more effectively and dynamically. Besides that, it also puts less pressure on your knees due to the reduced need to start and stop.
(5) Calf Raises
In case you haven’t realized it yet, we have not once mentioned an exercise that works on our Calves. Well, this is it. This exercise works primarily on the Calves! The best part is that all you need is an elevated surface for your heels to reach the floor. Sometimes you may require weights and a dumbbell would suffice. Now here’s where the problem lies, majority of us tend to just move up and down and finish 40 reps and most of the time give up half way due to muscle fatigue. To fix this, the key is to tip-toe swiftly but take 3 seconds for the heels to reach the floor. This will cause a squeeze and contraction of your calves which in turn will cause hypertrophy and improved strength of your calves!
With all these information in mind, we just have to stress on one issue….which is to ALWAYS have the proper form whenever doing these exercises. Engage your core and regulate your breathing. This would prevent injuries that can be sometimes lifelong injuries. Better safe than sorry.
Now, go out there and CREATE THE BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF!