Jacqueline's legs!

Ladies, do you yearn for lovely shapely legs? Does the thought of wearing leggings, skinny jeans or shorts bring you out in a cold sweat? If you think running, cycling, aerobic classes or even Zumba will give you pins to be proud of you are sadly mistaken! No, if you want legs with WOW factor and a bootylicious butt you need to incorporate some serious strength training into your workouts.

Let’s clear up a few misconceptions first

• Running (and most other forms of cardiovascular training) does not lead to shapely legs – take a look at long distance runners’ legs if you don’t believe me! Long steady state cardiovascular sessions destroys muscle and as muscle has a greater calorific requirement than fat this is a double edged sword. First you destroy valuable muscle then the body becomes less efficient at burning fat, even at rest. So keep your long steady state cardiovascular sessions to a maximum of once a week and substitute your other workouts with some high quality intervals and short speed sessions.
• Weight training will not lead to freakishly large manly muscles. It is actually very difficult to build big bulging muscles, even if you want to. Ask any body builder who will happily tell you how much blood, sweat and tears have gone into developing their physique! Women have less testosterone than men, the hormone necessary for muscle growth, so weight training will not lead to large bulky muscles but instead lead to improvements in muscular definition.
• Which leads me to – toning; what exactly is toning? This one word is likely to make me hyperventilate! Women commonly say they want to ‘tone up’ whereas men more often talk about ’building muscle’. Guess what – TONING IS BUILDING MUSCLE! The shapely definition you are after is muscle you can see. In other words, muscle not hidden beneath a layer of excess fat.
• No diet in the world will make your legs look fab. Clean up your diet YES, ditch sugar, saturated fats and processed foods YES but you need to work your legs if you want your legs to work for you!

So, these are my Top 10 Leg Exercises for Women.

1. Squat – A must do essential exercise which is great for the legs, butt and core. When learning to perform squats for the first time put a chair or exercise step behind you. Bending at the knees, push the bottom back and lightly touch the buttocks to the chair or step before returning to a standing position. Make sure you neither round nor arch the back. As you become stronger increase the depth of your squat and progress to performing squats with weights; such as dumbbells, kettlebells or barbells.
2. Split squats – An excellent exercise for beginners before progressing to lunges. Take a step forward and bend both knees so that back and front knee are bent to roughly 90°, keeping the torso upright. From this position drive back upwards and perform repetitions on one side before changing legs. Again, as you become stronger increase the difficulty by adding in weights.
3. Lunges – A highly functional exercise with direct relevance to everyday activities such as walking and running. Follow the instructions for split squat but as you drive back upwards extend and power with the back leg to bring both feet back together again. Then either repeat on the same side or alternate between legs. These can also be performed as reverse lunges, stepping backwards instead of forwards, or walking lunges.
4. Deadlift – A powerful whole body exercise which teaches safe lifting of heavy objects from the floor whilst working the back, butt and legs. Practice this with a long handled broom, positioned just in front of the toes, before performing with weights. Take a stance with feet slightly wider than hip distance. Keeping the back in neutral, bend at the knees to a depth where the broom handle can be lifted from the floor. Straighten the legs until the handle lightly rests on the top of the thighs.
5. Step-ups – Using stairs or a suitable step, step up powerfully until the working leg is fully extended. Do not place the trailing foot onto the step, remain balanced on the working leg, bend at the knee and return to the start position. Repeat reps on one side before changing legs. Add in weights and increase the step height as you become stronger.
6. Stability ball hamstring curls – Lying on your back place lift both legs and rest lower calf and ankle on a stability ball. Lift the hips off the floor until your body is in a straight line from you ankles to your shoulders. Now bend at the knees and draw the ball towards the buttocks using the backs of your heels, keeping the hips raised throughout. As you get stronger perform the exercise with one leg only.
7. Calf raises – Stand on a step balancing on the balls of your feet, hold a handrail for support if necessary. Allow the heels to drop lower than the step then rise up on to the toes. As you become stronger in this exercise progress to one leg at a time or use a standing calf raise machine.
8. Lateral lunges – Take a large sideways step. Allow your body weight to shift to the extended leg and lower, bending at the knee with control. Push back to the start position and repeat on other side. Perform with weights as you become stronger.
9. Bulgarian Split squats – This exercise looks similar to a split squat but in this exercise the back leg is lifted with the foot resting on a step or bench. Bending both knees descend until the front knee is at 90° before extending legs and returning to start position. This is quite an advanced exercise so only introduce this once other leg exercises have been mastered.
10. Single leg squats – I’ve seen many a grown man, who can load up heavy on a standard squat, be reduced to a quivering wreck with this one! Standing on one leg, bend at the knee and sit down as far as you can comfortably go before extending the leg and continuing with repetitions.

So there you have it. Not an exhaustive list but 10 of my favourite leg exercises, no machines required and all requiring minimal equipment at beginner level.

Enjoy, but a word of warning. It’s probably best not to plan anything requiring the use of your legs for a couple of days if you complete all these exercises in one session!