“Best Practices” For Toning The Thighs & Losing Fat In The Lower Body

Legs are one of the toughest areas to lose weight in.

The reason is simple…….

As women, we were blessed with having an increased amount of estrogen.  Its part of what makes us women and allows us to carry a child for 9months.

But with that comes big hips, thunder thighs and a big booty and the icing on the cake is CELLULITE!

While I would like to vent sometimes and say “thanks a lot God”, I don’t because it is because of estrogen that we are blessed with the gift of carrying our children.  So I will take the thunder thighs because at least there is something we can do about them.

 

We can work them!

And if we do so correctly, we can see tremendous changes.

Most women don’t train their legs in the most effective way.

But before I even start talking about exercise, I can’t go on without telling you a FACT.

And that is that if you don’t have the proper nutrition, no matter what exercises or what workouts you do or how many hours of cardio you do, you will not see results in your legs.

I first want to give you some information that can make such a huge impact on your results….  on your weight loss, on your legs……  

And this is something that FRUSTRATES ME!

 

Because so many people exercise so much and try to eat so little and so healthy in an attempt to lose weight but they are eating the wrong foods.  

 

And this is the number ONE thing that needs to be addressed.

There are some foods that need to be eliminated from your diet and no matter what you do if you keep them in your diet, you will not be able to lose weight, your legs will not get any leaner.

The reason is simple………….

These are foods that are incredibly INFLAMMATORY.

Inflammation in your body will make it incredibly difficult for you to burn fat (so you won’t be able to lose weight).

Which is why I address this when you download My FREE 30 Day Meal Plan Calendar.

If you already downloaded it, you will get an email with a checklist of the 5 foods to take out of your diet if you want to lose body fat.

If you haven’t downloaded it yet, you can here ->

DOWNLOAD FREE 30 DAY CLEAN EATING MEAL PLAN CALENDAR

 

 

The other day I spoke at an event where I was asked the same question over and over……..  “What exercise can I do to get rid of this”, as they pointed to the outer thigh or elephant ears as I call them!  

The women where disappointed when I first said there wasn’t ONE exercise that would get rid of that. 

 

If you want lean, tight and toned legs, you should incorporate multi-joint movements where more than one muscles are used in ONE exercise.  Exercises that burn a ton of calories.

 

Listen, if you are un sure of what kinds of exercises those are and if you don’t know how to put an effective workout together or if maybe you have tried and tried before to do so many different workouts but still have not seen the results you would like, then maybe its time to start investing in workout plans that will actually teach you and show you how to lean out your thighs.

 

It’s a science, don’t feel bad that you haven’t reached your goals yet if you haven’t yet worked with a trainer or studied exercise science.  It’s really not that easy to put an effective workout program together than then changes every 4 weeks in order to continue to be able to see results.

 

Which is why I put SO MANY workouts in my program Fit Mom For Life… because I know that one of the biggest struggles we have as women is knowing what exercises to do… in what order… how many sets… and it can be intimidating.

 

So not only is there an enormous amounts of gym and home workouts inside of Fit Mom For Life but there are also pictures and video demos of each exercise so that we can feel confident and comfortable lifting weights or going to the gym and have peace of mind that we are being safe and effective.

 

No more going to the gym without a plan.

Or surfing the web trying to figure out and piece together a workout you can do at home.

 

Ok, now I want to go over some of my “Best Practices” when working the legs.

I have a few workouts for you to try, you will find them below.

 

Best Practices For Working and Toning The Legs

 

1.  Incorporate different movements in different planes.

I know this sounds confusing but this basically means don’t do a dumbbell squat and then a leg press and then a single leg squat.  All those exercises are basically working the same muscles in the same way.

Do one squat and then do a lateral lunge and then maybe a step up.

Work the legs in all kinds of different angles by doing different movements.

Don’t do a reverse lunge and then a stationary lunge and then walking lunges.

You get my point?

2.  Let it BURN.

When it comes to legs, you want LACTIC ACID build up.  So basically, you want it to burn.  Lactic acid stimulates growth hormone which helps increase testosterone which is like the opposite of estrogen so that you can get leaner by building more muscle which is compact and tight and will give you that tight, toned and slim look.

So, it would be a good idea to do a few exercises in a row for the same muscle.  

So, like 3 exercises targeting the hamstrings.

You could do deadlifts and leg curls and hip extensions back to back……. OUCH!

3.  Work the entire leg.

Don’t just do the 3 exercises I just mentioned for hamstrings. 

You still have your quads and inner thighs and glutes and outer glutes………. 

And depending on the exercise you do, you target more of a certain part of the leg.

4.  Change it up.

Challenge creates change.

Make sure you are always challenging your body by doing different exercises.  You can keep the same reps and sets and rest for a given 3-4 week period but feel free to change up the exercises.  

Not only will this help you see better results but its also a lot more fun.

Doing the same exercises all the time is just so boring.

5.  Focus….. Squeeze….

Don’t just run through the movements.

Tempo is incredibly important in your workouts. I change up the tempos in all the workouts in my MMF Workouts.

Tempo is the amount of time it takes to do one rep.  So for example in a squat with 301 tempo it would be 3 seconds going down, no pause and 1 second going up.

Make sure you have enough time under tension when you do the exercises.  Don’t rush through them or you will end up with no time under tension which means no stimulation for muscle growth which means flabby legs.

Focus on the muscles you are working as you do each rep and really squeeze.

6.  Don’t take long rest periods.

Commit to a certain amount of rest between sets and stick to it.  Count it.

Remember you want lactic acid so don’t rest too long, 60-90 seconds between sets is usually good.

7.  Don’t be afraid to pack on the weight.

Don’t just do 20 repetitions all the time.

You want intensity and with intensity sometimes comes either more weight or less rest or more exercises.  But don’t be afraid of doing 12 reps and using more weight.

8.  Work at the right INTENSITY.

You should reach momentary muscle failure at the desired repetition you are doing.

I always prescribe different rep amounts from every months program so that you are stimulating different muscle fibers and working at different intensities.

But the trick is that if I say 20 reps, you can’t reach 21.  That means that the weight should be so heavy that you can barely get to 20 and can’t do 21, if you can its too light and you are not working at the right intensity.

It goes the same if it was 10 reps, if you can do 11 or 12, you are not working at the right intensity.

There you have it.

 

Start training smart and you will get amazing results.

Here is a sample workout for you to try.

 

 

Leg Slimming Workout For Women

Perform 2-3 sets of the circuits below with 60 seconds rest in between sets.

A1.  20 Step-ups per side
A2.  20 Reverse lunges per side
A3.  20 Dumbbell Squats

Rest 60 seconds

B1.  20 Stability ball hip extensions
B2.  20 Stability ball leg curls
B3.  20 Deadlifts

Rest 60 seconds

I also have tons of workout videos on my YouTube Channel so make sure to go there now and hit SUBSCRIBE so that you have easy access to them and don’t miss any of the new ones.