Tone In Tandem for Best Results | By Mike Whitely, Professional Trainer
There’s no doubt having tight toned legs can make us feel great when wearing a fitted pair of jeans. Most of us desire to look our best by conforming to what society deems as attractive. Yet, beauty trends change over time and now we have reached the era where everyone wants to have the perfect glutes. What are the glutes? The three gluteal muscles that move the thigh—gluteus minimus, gluteus medius and the largest, gluteus maximus, aka your buttocks!
Of course, you want to have sexy glutes and toned legs, and as there is a relationship between them you can develop both at once.
BE REALISTIC
Building glutes can be fairly easy if you’re willing to put in the work. To start your leg transformation quickly you need to have the right training intensity and volume. Also, set an attainable goal that is realistic. You may not end up looking like Jennifer Lopez but you will be a sexier version of yourself.
Choosing the right exercises and training volume are key to successfully developing your legs. After training clients to reach their personal fitness goals for over 20 years, it’s now my pleasure to reveal 3 of my top secrets on how to use the correct exercises and volume to build your version of “sexy legs”!
COMPOUND YOUR WORKOUT
But first, before beginning a program for shaping your legs you need to understand the basic framework before we get into specific exercises. Firstly, two of the pitfalls people face when training legs are lack of intensity and inadequate volume.
Based on my experience training people with different body types over the years, I’ve found that compound weighted exercises such as squats, dead-lifts, lunges, leg presses and hip thrusts work best for building lean legs. To maximize your results, use compound movements and keep the repetition range between 8 to 15 reps per set; the set volume should be a maximum of 15 reps, and with sets ranging between 3 to 5.
REST AND MONITOR
Overtraining is a major problem for a lot of people working on building their legs. Too many training days per week and too many exercises per training session can lead to excessive stress on the joints and potential injury! This overage in volume will paralyze your leg development and move you away from your goal, which is sexy legs.
One of the signs indicating you are in a state of overtraining is knee pain; most people ignore or don’t recognize this sign of overtraining and typically believe it is part of the process. For a short period of time when you first start training this is sometimes normal. The best way to prevent knee injuries and overtraining is to monitor your volume and rest (recovery time) between your training sessions.
As everyone has a different threshold for exercise volume, you need to observe your recovery time carefully. To identify proper recovery from your training take note of any muscle soreness, lack of range of motion (not able to fully stretch the recently trained muscle group), and measure your resting heart rate first thing in the morning. Take your heart rate every morning (or every other morning) and compare to the previous week. If the average of your heart rate is higher than the previous week’s average, then you are in a state of overtraining. Take a few days off and monitor your early morning heart rate until it comes down to the previous rate, or lower than the previous week’s average heart rate. It is important to remain mindful of the volume and recovery time in order to achieve desired results.
So, now that we have the basic knowledge on how to build a program lets talk about my 3 magical training instructions to help you build your perfect glutes and sexy legs in record time!
- Train the front and the back of your legs on 2 different days. Train your quads on one day; give yourself a 2-day break, and then train your hamstrings with your glutes.
- Add low-impact plyometric jump training into your program. This will build strength faster, helping you lift more weight, and build your leg muscles faster.
- Rep out every exercise until you have no strength; not even to do one more rep or until the fire (lactic acid) in your legs from the repetitions become unbearable.
There are a multitude of details, such as specific lifting techniques and training time to cover in one article. And as always, consult with a health professional and fitness trainer before beginning any new exercise regimen.
If you would like direction in building your personal leg training program, go to https://protrainerlive.com/f9-questionnaire and submit the completed health questionnaire. One of my team or myself would love to help you customize your new glutes and leg program at no charge!
