How to Strengthen Weak Legs
A combination of cardio, yoga and strength-training will take your legs from weak to muscular in no time.
The legs are the powerhouse of your body, so you want them to be strong. You could spend days doing squats, which are certainly effective in their own way, but that might get a little boring. Instead, combine a variety of workouts — cardio, yoga and strength training — to boost the muscle power in your legs.
Beyond a standard workout, don't forget that regular stretching is a key component of strengthening weak legs. Once you've warmed up, do a series of dynamic stretches to keep your muscles flexible and loose.
Cardio Power
Steady-state jogging won't do a whole lot to strengthen your legs — though, it certainly won't hurt them — but incorporating hills into your regular running routine definitely builds muscle by recruiting a larger number of muscle fibers in effort to exert more force to get up the hill. These sessions are hard, so only do them once or twice a week.
Stair-climbing will also strengthen your legs, whether you choose to hop on a stair-stepper or get in a quick workout in the stairwell of your office building. As you push off each leg, resisting gravity, you're building muscle.
Read more: Does Running Give You Muscular Legs?
Strength Through Yoga
You might consider yoga to be simply a stretching activity, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Although a yoga session will often give your muscles a good stretch, a number of asanas require serious muscle power to hold the pose and, when you do standing poses, you're using those leg muscles (along with a significant number of others, as well).
As a bonus, many yoga poses activate smaller, less-used muscles in your lower legs and thighs, rather than relying on the larger leg muscles, so you'll be strengthening muscles that are typically neglected.
To strengthen your legs, try these poses:
- Chair
- Crescent lunge
- Warrior I
- Warrior II
- Goddess Squat
Traditional Strength-Training
Of course, standard weight lifting will always have a place when it comes to building lower-body muscle. If you don't have any weights, strengthen your legs through squats, lunges and calf raises.
Start by doing 10 to 15 repetitions of each exercise. Once you can do 15 easily, add weights in the form of a barbell or dumbbells to work those legs even harder and build muscle even faster.
Some additional moves that will help make your legs and the surrounding areas stronger include:
- Dumbbell step-ups
- Lying leg presses
- Hip adductions
Read more: How to Build Muscle on Thighs and Legs