Make a Change
You can strengthen your thighs by toning and shaping them. A stronger thigh will help you to jump faster, perform better, and increase your stability. Strengthening your legs is better than simply achieving smaller thighs.
It’s also important to remember that your overall health and cardiovascular condition are more important than the size of your jeans.
Although you cannot do one exercise that targets a specific area of your body, some exercises target leg strength and endurance more than others. These are some of the exercises that can help you tone and strengthen your thighs.
These ten exercises will help you get stronger thighs and live a healthier lifestyle.
Take a class in indoor cyclingIndoor cycling is a great way to tone your legs if you are familiar with it. Indoor cycling is a great choice for toning your legs, weight loss, and cardiovascular health.
The results of a 2010 studyTrusted source revealed a decline in body fat and body weight in overweight, sedentary women who had completed 24 indoor cycling sessions.
- Set of stairs
Running consumes an average of 295 calories in 30 minutes and 590 calories in an hourTrusted Source for a person weighing 154 pounds. Running with stairs increases the strength of your thighs. Because every step requires lifting your body, it fires your leg muscles.
- It’s all in the sand.
Certified trainer Armen Ghazarians suggests that beach walking is a great way to strengthen your legs if you live near a beach. He explains that walking on the sand can help to tone and strengthen your thighs.
Begin by walking 20 minutes per day in the sand to get used to exercising in the sand. You can gradually add more time to your workouts as your body becomes accustomed to the sand.
- Ballet-style exercises
It is no secret that dancers are known for having strong legs. “Dancing is a combination of a cardio element and specific toning movements that will make your legs look amazing,” says Lyuda Bouzinova, a certified trainer.
This YouTube exercise includes a Pilates sequence to help you lengthen and tone your thighs. Bouzinova explains that the sequence tones the legs and gives you long, toned legs by targeting all the important thigh muscles.
- Take up a sport
According to Ghazarians, quick direction changes in sports can help shape your legs from all angles. You should consider aerobic sports like:
- swimming
- golf
- Soccer
- running
- Volleyball
- Cycling
- dancing
- Resistance training can increase
You can burn calories and increase muscle strength by participating in total-body, muscular-strengthening exercises at least twice a week. Lower-body exercises such as lunges and wall sit, inner/outer leg lifts, and step-ups can be done with only your body weight.
To strengthen your legs and avoid bulking up, keep the reps high (at minimum 15 reps per set). Each exercise should be performed three times with little rest between each move.
You can add upper-body moves to your lower-body exercise for a double-in-one workout for great overall fitness. You can do lunges using dumbbells, or overhead shoulder presses, by taking some dumbbells.
- Do bodyweight squats
You can burn calories, tone your legs, strengthen your legs, and do bodyweight squats. You can do them anywhere and anytime.
Ghazarians suggest starting with 25 bodyweight squats two times per day (50 in total). Squats can be done while watching TV or climbing stairs at work. If you are up to the challenge, this 30-day weighted squat challenge is for you.
- Get your inner thighs working.
Bouzinova claims that the inner thighs can be difficult to target, and the exercises that tone them are awkward. Many people avoid them. If you find it difficult to do the exercises at the gym, then you can do them at home.
The “platypus” is a great move that you can see in the Mission Lean YouTube exercise. This moves your inner and outer thighs, as well as your glutes, for a toned appearance.
- Balance work
Balance work can be done at home or in the gym. Bouzinova explains that balance work can tone all the small muscles in your legs and legs, tighten them up quickly and make for beautiful, lean legs.
She suggests single-leg deadlifts on the Bosu balls or doing your entire workout on a sandy beach to test your balance.
- Cardiovascular HIIT
Cardiovascular exercise is good for your heart and calories. It can also help reduce body fat. Including both high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and steady-state cardio in your overall exercise plan will help you reduce your total body fat and tone your thighs.
One metabolic conditioning session can be added to your workout for a deeper workout and more calories burned. According to the CDC, adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week and 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity cardio activity.
To get a complete body workout, combine moderate and vigorous aerobic exercise.
Note about weight loss.
It would help if you remembered that fitness does not always mean losing weight. You must burn more calories if you want to lose weight and get leaner.
Many of these workouts can help you burn calories while strengthening your muscles. It is important to lose weight slowly and steadily to keep it off.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTrusted Source (CDC), you should lose one to two pounds weekly. People who do this are more likely to keep their weight off.
Bouzinova notes that it is important not to eat a diet that eliminates one food group, such as carbs, or is very low in calories.
The benefits of weight loss are not just aesthetic. A 2018 studyTrusted source found that losing inches in the buttocks, hips, and thighs may reduce your risk of developing heart disease.
Here are some science-backed ways to lose weight healthily.
- Get plenty of water, especially before you eat.
- Breakfast should be made with eggs, not grains
- To cut down on sugar, read labels.
Want to learn more? Find out more.
The bottom line
To tone and strengthen your legs, you will need to exercise the legs. Weight loss can also be achieved by combining diet changes with strength training and aerobic exercise.
