crystal said:
I'm going on holiday in exactly six weeks and my legs are the fat part of my body! Does anyone know any exercises to tone legs? I've got an exercise bike which I've been using for 30 mins 5 days a week but it doesn't really make a difference. Plus I can't get out the house so I'm kinda stuck!!
Hi Crystal-
I used to speedskate, so I'm full of leg exercises (and not so full of things to do for your arms). My advice is:
1) Don't do plyometrics unless you know you have no knee or ankle problems and you've been shown how to do them properly. Plyo's are really good for a lot of things, but jumping and landing wrong is an easy way to get hurt.
2) if you can't leave the house, go buy dumbells.
Use dumbells to do walking lunges, squats, and step-ups (3x15 - higher reps are better for people like you who don't want bulk). I like doing side walking lunges too (you kind of look like a frog doing them). Remember when you lunge and squat to try and keep your back straight by isometrically contracting your abs and don't let your knees go over your toes.
3) get ankle weights-
go on your hands and knees and do "butt lifters" (lift leg back with your knee bent, do small pulsing hip estensions to work glutes and hamstrings). Then do larger movement by first bringing your knee to your chest, then pushing your foot back up to the cealing. Lastly, do "air leg curls": hold your leg straight back with your knee flexed, then extend your knee Do 3x15 on each leg for each exercise. When you are done, lie down on your side and do leg lifts to work your adductors (goin muscles), and then do leg lifts the other way to work your hip abductors.
4) Balance drills-
try to do squats on one leg, you won't get far, but you will work all sorts of muscles! There's other balance drills, but they are hard to describe here... let me know if you want to know more.
5) Bridges- lay on your back with your knees bent and feet on the ground. Clench your butt and abs (do a little anterior pelvic tilt) and bring your butt off the floor until your back is flat and parallel with the line of your legs. 3x20. This one is hard to add weight too- when you get good you can start to lift one leg off the ground.
*When you lift you have to keep increasing the weight you do- so start with no weight and then add 5 pounds after you've done a workout twice. If you don't get a little delayed onset muscle soreness you probably didn't work hard enough.
Speedskating leg suff:
1) Sandbags: take a tire innertube and fill it with sand (use like 10, 20 or even 30 pounds of sand). The bags sit nicely over your hips and comfortably on your shoulders so you can use them for step ups, squats or my favorite: verkerks (one legged squats with the free leg resting on a bench).
2) Turn cables: Essentially these are long elastic cables used to practice corners on dry land, but they have multiple uses. Use any kind of elastic cable or cable machine with an ankle attachment to train adductors, hip flexors, abductors (doing one-legged stuff and abduction will give you a nice dent in the side of your butt).
3) Wall Sits- Put your back against a wall and bend your knees 90 degrees. Stay put for as long as you can, or 3x60 sec. Ouch.
4) Dryskating: Immitation of skating on dry land. Hard to describe the movement in print, but it works your legs hard and requires no equipment.
wow, I'm into writing novels today
-RR
