Women's special - Make the most of your legs - Pt 4: Toning exercises at home

Lunges
Start by standing with your feet hip width apart and your toes pointing forwards. Then step forwards with one leg and lower your body by bending both knees to 90 degrees. Keep your upper body vertical and don’t allow your front knee to go past your front toe. Hold this position for a moment. Then return to the starting position and repeat with the other leg.

Don’t step out too far – you should be able to return to the standing position smoothly. Short steps place more emphasis on your quads. Stepping further out places more work on your hamstrings and buttocks. This is a very effective exercise – you may find you are more sore the next day than you expect so gradually build up the number you do.

Once you are confident you can add many variations to this exercise.

Variations on lunges
First of all you can hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms by your side. Carry out the lunge as normal.

Secondly you can do a backwards lunge. Starting in the same position you step backwards. Bend your knees until they are at approximately 90 degrees, with your back foreleg and front thigh both parallel to the ground. Pause then return to the starting position and repeat with the other leg.

Thirdly you can do a sideways lunge. Start in the same position, for comfort and balance you may want to put your hands on your hips or your arms out in front of you. Keeping your back as vertical as possible, step out to one side and go into a squatting position. Aim for your knees to be at 90 degrees. Pause and return to the start position before repeating to the other side.

Keep your heels to the ground and bearing the majority of your weight. Don’t let your knees go out to the side beyond your toes.

As well as your quads and hamstrings side lunges also work your abductor and adductor muscles.

Combination lunges
You may have spotted that you can do lunges by stepping to the front or back with either foot, and by stepping to the side. If you add lunges where you step forwards or backwards at 45 degrees in a similar way – starting from standing, bending your knees to 90 degrees before returning to the start position you will realise you can go all the way around the clock.

Start by stepping to the front with one foot, repeat with the other foot. Then go forwards at 45 degrees to one side. Return to standing. Then out to the side. Return to standing. Then at 45 degrees to the back and side. Return to standing. Then lunge to the back and return to standing. Then to the back with the other foot and return to standing. And so on all the way round back to the front. Then go around the circle the other way.

Adding arms
Another variation on the lunge is to add different dumbbell lifts at different points. You can do a shoulder press when you return to standing each time. Hold the dumbbells at your shoulders, palms towards you, then extend your arms above your head with palms facing inwards, pause before returning to the start position.

Or add an arm curl to the sideways lunge. Hold the dumbbells to your sides, palms forwards, then when in the squat position keep your upper arm next to your body and bend your elbow to bring the dumbbell up to your shoulder. Return to the dumbbells by your side position before standing again.


Make the most of your legs - Part One - Intro
Make the most of your legs - Part Two - Aerobic exercise
Make the most of your legs - Part Three - Toning exercises for the gym
Make the most of your legs - Part Four -  Toning exercises for home
Make the most of your legs - Part Five - Dress wisely

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