Women's special - Make the most of your legs - Pt 3: Toning exercises for the gym

Exercises to target your legs
Having done work to build you base of fitness and burn those calories we can look at exercises to target the muscles of the legs. These exercises will strengthen and tone.

At the gym
No gym owner worth their salt would be surprised to know that people want to tone up their legs. That’s great news as it means almost every gym is fully equipped to help you get your legs looking their best. Make the most of it!

With all these exercises start with a manageable number of efforts at a manageable weight. Split your efforts into two or three sets and take a good break between each. Take the chance to drink some water in the break between sets.

Over time you may build up the weight or number of efforts. Don’t build both at the same time. Neither should you feel the need to keep increasing them every session.

Once you are accomplished mix your sessions. Don’t just do the same thing each time – this will lead to a plateau. Instead make life varied. For example, you may one day do three sets of 20 efforts using a light weight. Another day you may do two sets of eight with a heavier weight (remember we don’t need to worry about bulking up). Or you may choose to do three sets, one with 20 efforts at a light weight, one with 12 efforts at a heavier weight and the final set being eight efforts at a heavier weight again.

Mix the order you do your exercises in. Otherwise you will always be tired when you get to one exercise and get less benefit from it.

Try to do exercises that use larger numbers of muscles (often called ‘compound’ exercises) before those that focus more on one part. Otherwise you won’t be able to do many of the exercises using lots of muscles as one set of these may be tired. So, for example, do your heel raises after your leg presses otherwise tired calf muscles will stop you working your quads so well.

Variety is good news. It stops you getting bored. That means you are more likely to stick with an exercise routine. But it also keeps challenging and stimulating your body in different ways and that leads to better fitness and better legs! Don’t become someone who always does the same exercises in the same order every time.


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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