Why you should incorporate leg strength into your workout routine.
Have you ever seen a bodybuilder who skipped leg day? While leg strength can, for whatever reason, be easy to forget and as so has been a running joke of fitness memes, there’s more than only aesthetic reasons to focus on leg strength during your workout routine. Even during fitness practices you don’t think are focused on your leg strength, your legs come in handy. They are your base, providing support and stability. They allow for movement
What are you focusing on during leg day?
Let’s back up a little and consider – when we say leg strength, what exactly are we talking about? There’s a lot of muscles in your legs. Some of the main leg muscles to consider when working out are our quads, the large muscles on the front of your thighs, the hamstrings, the large muscles on the back of your thighs, the adductors, the muscles on the inner thighs, the shins, the muscles on the front of your lower leg, and the calves, the muscles on the back of your lower leg.
Already, just discussing the main muscles, as you can imagine there are already plenty of exercises you can do to target each of these muscles. But remember, a well rounded workout will not only focus on these leg muscles, but also the smaller ones in between. Small muscles affect stability, balance, and muscle control so don’t forget to explore how you can work out these muscles as well and be sure to ask your OYF teachers and staff members if you’re not sure!
What do we use our leg strength for?
Just like we have a large variety of leg muscles, our leg muscles have a large variety of uses. The main use of the quads is to extend at the knee and flex at the hip, while the hamstring helps us extend at the hip and flex at the knee. Calves help you move your ankles and feet and adductors provide stability. These are only a couple of the many ways each of these muscles help us and it’s also important to note that for many of these exercises, the muscles work together alongside each other and the smaller muscles. Some of the main functions of the smaller muscle groups, as described by Shape, includes bending a joint, straightening a joint, twisting movement, and moving toward the midline of the body.
Where you can focus on leg strength at OYF?
If you are looking to work on your leg strength at OYF, there are plenty of options. Hot Barre Fusion, with its unique blend of Athletics style yoga, ballet barre, and endurance training gives a great opportunity to focus in on the leg muscles. Likewise, hot tone & sculpt uses weighted toning bars to work your arms, core, and legs in new and innovative ways. Once you’ve gotten used to identifying and strengthening your leg muscles as they are isolated, then transition into full body workouts like Hot Box Fusion and our new strength class O2 Pump to figure out how you can best utilize your leg strength alongside the rest of your body!
If you’re focusing on your leg strength, stop by and chat with our instructors to find out how you can best identify and utilize your muscles in the classes you’re taking, or what new classes you may want to add to your schedule to build their strength!