When performed correctly, seated leg extensions can really make the definition on the front of your thighs pop. Correct setup, controlled movement, and the right amount of weight are key to getting the greatest benefit while placing the least amount of stress on your knees.

To perform a lunge, you step forward from a standing position with one leg, bending both knees so that the trailing knee lines up under your hip, and then push back to return to the starting position.

Along with strengthening your lower body for sports and general fitness, squats help you move through everyday activities. Picking up something from the floor, lifting heavy boxes and even sitting in a chair all require movements that are executed when performing squats.

Developing bigger muscles from the butt down is a confidence builder for some and necessity for others. Regardless of your motive, machines give you the ability to achieve this goal, provided you know which ones to use. The main muscles you need to zero in on are the glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings and calves.

If you’re looking to strengthen your lower body, try reverse lunges. They’re an effective alternative to forward lunges with several benefits. Reverse lunges are easier to do for beginners or people with joint issues because they require less balancing than the forward variety.

Thinning your thighs can be done by adding squats into your fitness routine and increasing your aerobic training. Squats are a compound exercise, allowing you to work many major muscle in one movement.

Just like your biceps, your glutes are muscles that can also gain in size when you train them properly. However, plumping up your derrière takes time and the right type of training. Squats effectively target the glutes, and executing them the correct way can help you gain size in your backside.

One of the most pervasive myths in the weight-loss world is the concept of spot reducing, or exercising a specific part of your body to lose weight from there alone. Actually, you lose weight by using more calories than you consume, not by doing endless leg lifts or squats to slim down your thighs.

Hack squats, performed on a hack squat machine, derive their name from the machine's shoulder pads. "Hack" is a reference to the yoke placed around a draft animal's shoulders, notes strength training journalist Frederic Delavier in "Strength Training Anatomy."

Deadlifts and squats are primarily lower body exercises and will not increase the size of your arms. Depending on the type of deadlift or squat that you do, your arms will sometimes work to hold on to weight or to stabilize your body. But this amount of work is not sufficient enough to build muscle.

Whether you are training your legs for tone, mass or strength, squats are the single most productive exercise you can include in your workouts.

If you have a pear shape, you've probably spent much of your life fighting fat along your thighs, hips and rear. You can't change your natural body shape, and it's unlikely that you'll ever have rail-thin thighs. You can, however, work with your shape to sculpt a muscular, attractive lower body and shed unwanted fat.