I'm writing this article to help both you men and you women alike get the nicest, most sculpted, tone legs you can imagine. If you follow the steps I include in this article, you will have sculpted, tone looking legs, male or female, in no time at all!
Instructions
- The first step to get perfect legs is to do some form of sprinting 3 times a week. This will make a world of difference. The reason I recommend sprinting instead of plain old, easy cardio, is that it will burn even MORE fat off your legs while TONING MUSCLE at the same time. Normal steady-state cardio hardly tones muscle at all compared to sprinting.
The sprinting work out I suggest you use for this step is called High Intensity Interval Training (or HIIT for short). Let me tell you, people -- this work out is AMAZING! It hurts so much, but you will feel like you just injected mass loads of ecstasy when you are done. The reason why is that it releases SO many beneficial hormones and chemicals, including a bit of naturally produced dopamine! I am seriously chemically addicted to this work out and after your first time trying it, I GUARANTEE you will be too.
So how do you do High Intensity Interval Training? It's simple, but it's hard.
Start with a 5 minute walking warm up at a comfortable walking pace, yet a brisk one that will get your blood flowing. For me, I like walking at 5 miles per hour during my walking warm up. The speed you will want to use will vary from person to person depending on height and weight.
After the 5 minute walking warm up, break into your first round. A round is composed of three minutes. The first minute you sprint as FAST as you can without slowing down for a full minute. You want this sprint to be a full blown all out sprint where you think if you were to even relent just a little, you'd be thrown off the treadmill. The treadmill has got to be fast enough you feel like your life is threatened if you slow down a bit. I know this sounds extreme, and I want you to play it safe, but this is one of the most extreme work outs out there. To give you an idea, I normally do my 1 minute sprints at just over 11 miles per hour. It's got to be tough!
After the first 1 minute of the first round, go down to a light jog. You want to use this 2 minutes of time to recover as much as you can before you go into the next round and start sprinting again for another full minute. You don't want to walk here, but you don't want to run. Just a nice casual jog works.
Do HIIT 2 or 3 times a week and this alone will start giving you those tone, sculpted legs you've always wanted. - Do leg work outs with weight! That's right, you too ladies. Don't think your legs will get all big and bulky like a man's would though. The female body is designed to look even more feminine with weight lifting, despite what some might think. The reason is that women don't have as much testosterone as men. Testosterone is what allows guys like myself to back on size when we lift weights. If you're a girl, you'll find your legs gain a much more feminine, sexy shape with leg work outs. Not to mention your butt while get more firm and shapely. All around, you WILL benefit from doing leg work outs whether you are a man or a woman. Plus, did I mention that working the legs increases your resting metabolic rate?
Do the following routine twice a week and you'll see great improvements in the over all look of your legs.
* 3 Sets of Barbell Dead Lifts (8-12 reps)
* 3 Sets of Weighted Calf Raises (20 reps)
* 3 Sets of Barbell Squats (8-12 reps)
* 3 Sets of Alternating Dumbell Step Back Lunges (8-12 reps)
* 3 Sets of Alternating Forward Dumbell Lunges (8-12 reps)
* 2 Sets of 60 seconds of wall squats
When doing the above work out, do all of them once before going through and doing the second and third steps. This will keep your muscles from adapting to the pattern. After a few weeks, mix up the order that you do them in for muscle confusion. - Do yoga once a week! I can not emphasize how important this single step is to developing strong, sexy legs. For anyone who has ever done yoga, you know how much it stretches and works on your legs. The stretching will also keep your muscle development in the legs from coming to a plateau. Yoga is a very critical part of developing sexy legs and if you really want a pair of two stunningly amazing legs that will make the jaws of members of the opposite sex drop, you have to do it!
by: Jared Bangerter
