Your legs contain perhaps the easiest muscles in your body to keep in shape. After all, they do support the weight of your body and you use them every time you walk. A stronger pair of legs will help you accomplish more every day. To strengthen your legs and avoid injury, you must work all of the muscles in your legs equally. Here are a few tips to help incorporate legwork seamlessly into your day.
1. Tighten Muscles in the Car
Whenever you stop at traffic lights, tighten your thighs and bottom, over and over again. You will firm your leg muscles, boost blood flow (thus preventing the pins-and-needles sensation that tends to attack your bottom) and give yourself something to focus on.
2. Quick Exercise First Thing in the Morning
Before you get out of bed in the morning, do the clam. Lie on your back, bring your feet together, and open your knees out to the sides. Then, as you exhale, lift your knees bringing them together. Lower and repeat these exercise 10 to 15 times and you’ll strengthen your inner thighs.
3. Exercise While Cooking
Do leg lifts as you cook dinner. Flex your foot and lift your leg out to the side, lower, then repeat 10 to 15 times. Make sure you move only at the hip – don’t let your waist move. Then swap legs. You’ll finish your leg work out before dinnertime.
4. Walk on a Softer Surface
If you walk for fitness, switch to a softer surface because your legs get a better workout when you walk on footpaths or sand rather than pavement. And softer surfaces transfer less impact to your joints, preventing strain to your knees and back.
5. Give Yourself a Boost at Work
Get up, place your palms against your desk and do a series of donkey kicks when you find yourself falling asleep at your keyboard. Bend one knee, flex that foot and kick your leg back, as if you were a donkey kicking someone behind you. Alternate legs for 15 kicks in total. Then return to work refreshed with a stronger bottom.
6. Dance!
Next time you find yourself at a wedding or other function with a dance floor, do the twist. Or, do it in your living room tonight. Bend your knees and squat down as far as you comfortably can as you shimmy from side to side. You’ll burn calories, have a few laughs and strengthen your legs – all at the same time.
7. Do Lunges Whenever Possible
Do the lunge walk in the garden. Your neighbors might laugh if they see you, but you’ll have the last laugh when in just minutes each day, you sculpt a toned pair of legs. During each step forward, bend your knees and sink down until both legs form 90-degree angles. Then press into your front heel to rise. Lift your back leg and knee all the way into your chest before planting it right in front of you for your next lunge. This takes a little practice but if you lunge walk for 20 to 30 steps each day, your legs will be far stronger and shapelier.
* Like any exercise program, please consult your healthcare professional before you begin. Please stop immediately if any of the exercises cause pain or harm to your body.
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