By Danze Yanos

Many people who train and workout love to build their chest and arm muscles but don’t spend much time on their legs. This is a big mistake because legs are the foundation of your strength and health, and they also look great when they have been trained and developed properly.

Powerful legs are a sign of a powerful physique. They are also very practical and useful. Use the best exercises in order to build a set of very powerful, strong and well defined legs.

Building huge legs can be achieved with a workout plan that consists of squats, dead lift, leg curl and more. If you are new to heavy leg training with weights then you need to build up slowly.

Make no mistake, it won’t be easy and it takes concentration and hard effort. However the rewards are well worth the pain and exertion in the gym.

Let’s get started.

Before we look at the exercises themselves, let’s take a moment to get familiar with the various muscles of the leg. This will allow for a complete program and development of all areas of the leg.

The main areas of the legs are as follows:

Quads
Glutes
Hamstrings
Thighs
Adductors
Calves

These are the areas that you need to focus on when designing a proper leg-training workout. Failure to include one of the areas mentioned above will leave your legs undeveloped and lacking strength in that area.

There are hundreds of various exercises that can be used in order to build the leg muscles, however there are some basics that will form the foundation of your program.

If you focus on the foundations of a solid leg workout, you will build the mass and strength needed. You can then move to shaping your legs and giving them that added definition that’s needed.

Squats:

Squats are often called the “KING” of all exercises. Squats can be done with barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, or even just your own body weight.

We are going to focus on performing squats using free weights only as this is the proven method of most strength athletes and bodybuilders. In other words, don’t use a Smith machine for squatting.

Squats really do make a world of difference. Everyone looking to build powerful and muscular legs should do squats. In saying that, you need to perform them correctly and safely.

Squats are tough on the lungs and cardio system so start easy if you are new to this exercise. Once you increase the weight on the bar and/or the rep count goes up per set, you will start to see results very quickly.

Performing the squat:

The technique given below is very important as lower back and knee injuries can happen if don’t use correct technique. Having the correct stance is necessary to help prevent these injuries.

When performed correctly, the squat can be a very safe exercise. Here is the routine to make:

1. Position the bar on your back
2. Grip the bar about the same distance as your feet are apart
3. Position your feet so they point straight ahead
4. Straighten your legs
5. Lift the bar off the pins
6. Lower to approximately 90 degrees of knee flexion
7. Pause, then slowly return to the starting position

NOTE: The bar should be low enough so that you have to crouch slightly to get under it, and that the bar lifts off the pins when you’re standing straight. This is important so that you don’t injure yourself.Aim for 5 sets of 6-12 reps to begin. As you increase the weight, you can bring the reps down to 5-6 in order to build the most muscle and strength.

To your success,

D

I hope this article helped you. For more info on leg exercises and weight lifting in general go to:

http://www.free-weight-exercises.com

Thanks,

D

P.S. If this content was useful to you feel free to use it on your site with my link of course. http://www.free-weight-exercises.com

Technorati Tags: adductors, Arm Muscles, Big Legs, Build Muscles, calves, cardio, Chest Muscles, Complete Program, Concentration, Dumbbells, exercises, Exertion, Foundations, Free Weights, glutes, hamstrings, Leg Muscles, Leg Training, Leg Workout, legs, Muscles Of The Leg, Muscular Legs, physique, quads, Shapely Legs, squats, Strength Athletes, thighs, toned, workout plan

If you are a regular reader of my blog you might already know that I am not a raving fan of long and boring cardio. I used to run marathons, and do other forms of long duration exercise, but it has taken a toll on my body over the years.

I also believe that if your are just beginning your weight loss journey, long duration cardio in the form of running is most likely going to either injure or discourage most ladies. Studies have shown that women runners are 6 to 10 times more likely to get injured running. I would prefer that women start out with a weight training program in order to slim down and look good. Add in the running component later on, if you are convinced you would like to run. But I would prefer you develop a good overall level of fitness before attempting this particular exercise.

Now, those of you seeking to obtain that ripped, six pack look, I going to tell you that you don’t need to follow a cardio routine in order to achieve that look. It is actually possible to get those 6 pack abs with zero cardio. The way to obtain the six pack look is accomplished with a calorie deficit.

Simply put, the abdominals will only reveal themselves if you have a low body fat percentage. Which means you need to remain in a calorie deficit mode long enough to shed the last layers of fat. Now if you wanted to accelerate the effect of the calorie deficit, you could then add some cardio as well. To me cardio is an accelerator of fat loss when combined with a deficit diet plan. Caloric restriction by itself will only get you so far in a short amount of time. If you want results fast you will need to scale in cardio to your workout routines. I’m a big fan of Tom Venuto of Burnthefat.com. He dispels a lot of the fitness myths that are being perpetuated on the internet. He recently addressed the subject of fat loss combined with cardio in a recent letter he wrote to one of his subscribers. Here is an excerpt about how he approaches his workouts in order to achieve a ripped look:

“What you need is a caloric deficit. For fat loss, FOCUS ON THE DEFICIT.

How you choose to achieve that deficit is up to you and indeed, the
ideal way can vary from person to person. If you choose to put in only
3 hours of total training time per week, that’s fine; that’s your choice.

But then you’ll need to either accept slower fat loss or get your
caloric deficit by decreasing your caloric intake from food.

For me, there’s not a shred of a doubt in my mind that I’m an
“eat more, burn more” type of person. I have to balance my work with
my recovery like everyone else, but I do MUCH better on more food
and more exercise.

That’s why daily training is not overtraining for me. I always
fuel my body appropriately for my level of training. Sometimes
what you think is overtraining is really under-nutrition.

Other people are better with a larger calorie cut from food and less
exercise; either for recovery reasons, time efficiency reasons or
personal preference.

The approach you must avoid at all costs is high training volume and
very low calories. That’s physique suicide.

It means a higher amount of training and cardio at a higher food
intake, therefore the food is eaten to support the exercise. That’s
the way all good athletes do it.

Last but not least, if your goal is to reach extremely low body fat
or get 6-pack abs, then keep in mind, those are not easy goals to
achieve, especially with a low level of activity.

To achieve a ripped look with low activity will very likely require
a low carb, high protein diet.

My Burn The Fat program (www.burnthefat.com) has a 3-phase
program, including a “competition level (Phase III) low carb, high
protein plan, for that very reason.

One way or the other, with diet or with exercise you’re going to
have to pay a price to get that 6-pack. Most people underestimate
the amount of effort it takes to get competition lean or “6 pack
abs” lean.

It’s simple, but it’s not easy. When your expectations come in line
with reality, it doesn’t get any easier physically, but mentally
it’s easier because you understand what must be done and all the
confusion is lifted… ”

To learn more about this recommended system used to get lean enough to see 6-pack abs, visit this site www.burnthefat.com

Technorati Tags: burnthefat, calorie deficit, cardio, six pack abs, Tom Venuto, women workouts

Here are a few of my core exercises that I do on a weekly basis as well as some of my athletes and even some housewives!  Have fun, enjoy the exercises and please do only what your body is capable of

Duration : 0:6:47

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Technorati Tags: abs, ball, cardio, core, exercise, health, personal, quick, swiss, trainer, vegan, vegetarian, workout

Don’t have time to go to the gym, try this workout for women on for size.

Diet.com fitness videos show you how to workout burning the most calories in the least amount of time. Tone your stomach, butt and arms with this circuit training workout. Best of all, you don’t have to go to the gym because no equipment is needed and the workout can be done at home or outside.

Duration : 0:2:25

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Technorati Tags: abs, cardio, core, diet, equipment, fitness, gym, interval, Muscle, no, pilates, plank, tone, train, video, weights, workout

5:15 AM Wake up and grab some coffee and toast

6:00 AM Laps at the pool until 8:00AM

8:15 AM Weight room and stretches until 9:15 AM

Technorati Tags: cardio, Kim Vandenberg, olympics, swimming, women workouts