Ladies, your complete guide to your legs

What is the best example of a program to tone the thighs and glutes.

At the gym, you often see girls doing a lot of cardio, running on the mats, and losing steam to feel like they're working out well. Ladies, if you are looking for a shapely, plump butt, lean and muscular looking legs: Follow this comprehensive guide to having great legs.

Free yourself from preconceived ideas

In this article we will immediately reassure you and reduce your fears. Indeed, many people think that doing weight training or the same exercises as men will make them gain a lot of muscles and they will become too muscular.

There are a lot of prejudices in bodybuilding: heavy lifting is reserved for bodybuilders, we will become huge with square shoulders and certain movements (bench press, squat, deadlift, leg press) are reserved for men. This is all wrong and we will see why (hormones) in the next paragraph.

No comparison between men and women

What will change in your muscle gain compared to a man are hormones and mainly testosterone:

Your testosterone level is really, really lower than a man's - you have about 6-7 times less than the man with the lowest level. Even by doing the same exercises and with the same loads as a man you will still gain less muscle mass than him because of the hormones.
So there is no point in comparing yourself to them no matter what.

Push heavy and suitable for your legs

If you want real visual results, constant progress and long term, establish a gradual weighting especially for beginners.
We need weight to recruit more muscle fibers. This is because they are used to execute a movement on your muscle: the more difficult the exercise seems on the muscle, the more fiber it will need. This is why by always having a load adapted to your level, your body weight and our own abilities, putting on a load is more effective for our training.
(Except for abs in women. See article: Abs exercise women should avoid).

The loads must be progressive because our body, which is so well designed, is always adapting. Over time, it adapts to the effort and therefore lowers the recruitment of muscle fibers. To counter this effect, regularly and steadily * increase the weight during your exercises.

* Approximately every 3-4 weeks.

Compound VS isolation exercise what to choose?

In reality both methods are important, with their specificities depending on the objectives of each. Compound exercises are more effective in the long term and on many points: better energy expenditure, optimized and more visible muscle gains (volume, strength, endurance and density), lower risk of injury, more joint mobility, more muscle engagement.

While isolation will allow you to focus on a particular muscle area and to be able to perform difficult sessions (heavy loads, many sets, specific programs).

However, compound exercises have been shown to be more effective, and while they save a lot of time, we still see the same isolation exercises on the adductors, glutes and quads. However, we advise you to continue your isolation exercises to maintain diversity, pleasure and satisfaction during your sessions.
You can build your workouts this way (50-80% compound exercises and 20-50% isolation exercises).

Results = adapted intensity

If you don't force it and everything is fine after a set, then you haven't worked hard enough. (Of course, you should not force each of your sessions, this is only valid for your specific work sessions, if you want muscle gain). But you must understand that in order to progress and obtain results we must surpass ourselves and seek to develop our muscle potential during the sessions planned for.

Burn more calories and cut back on cardio

Don't keep trying to run thousands of miles on your treadmill, here's how you can exercise more and faster. We burn more calories on compound exercises than on isolation exercises or running.

Too much cardio can be tiring and the results take longer to achieve with training, so yes obviously cardio is great for endurance, but compound strength training will also strengthen your cardiovascular system over long sets.

Squat, run, don't pick, do both. If you like running, no problem, combine running and weight training for even more results on your legs.

Significant gain from a leg weight training session

Mental: You will gain confidence in yourself, the pride of being diligent and of succeeding in your sessions. Regular training will bring serenity, you will have more motivation, you will have a sense of power due to the hormones, you will feel more powerful and ready to challenge yourself and redouble your efforts. You will get more perseverance, hang in the first month and create habits of athletes, winners. All of your efforts will give you a sense of accomplishment.

Physical: The benefits of strength training on the health of the body are well established, they are impressive.

Lower risk of cardiovascular disease, aesthetic improvement of the body, prevention of muscle and joint injuries, slowing down of the aging process, secretion of hormones: serotonin, endorphin, melatonin, reduction of many symptoms (heavy legs, limp legs, feeling of numbness, sudden falls of the elderly). Improved sleep and increased your general energy.

The same is true for bodybuilding in general.

Here is a sample program

Bodyweight warm-up:

Squats 1 to 2 sets of 10 to 12 reps Lunges 1 to 2 sets of 10 to 12 reps.

Session: Define your load: 3 sets and 8 repetitions (to be modulated according to your level)

Squat smith machine: assisted squat with adapted load (Compound)

Dead lift: deadlift (Compound)

Lunges walked with weight: sequence of several simultaneous lunges (Compound)

Leg Press: press machine for the quadriceps. (Insulation)

Plan a break time relative to your level and your goals:
Strength and intensive session: 1 minute 30 to 3 minutes.
Muscle endurance session: 30 to 45 seconds.
Muscle maintenance session: 45 seconds to 1 minute.

In conclusion

Cardio and weight training sessions are essential for your legs. Optimize your results by favoring compound exercises, by putting on the load and increasing them gradually.

Indispensable bonuses

If you want to strengthen your legs muscles, it will also be advisable to do joint strengthening of the hips, knees and ankles with motions of mobility and stretching.

Flexibility goes hand in hand with weight training, and one does not go without the other.

Publié le 02/10/2020