Whether you are a man or a woman, many people see their legs as crucial for their overall appearance. Some people might fear looking proportionate if they have a well defined upper body and a small lower leg muscle definition (can hear the “never skip leg day” taunts as we type!).

Others are looking to tone the legs as part of a general overall toning program. Whatever your leg toning exercise goals are, in this article we’ll outline 5 tips to get you there!

5 Leg Toning TIps

1. Do short sprints on the treadmill

Not only will this help you build shape and tone in the low legs (calf muscles) and upper legs (quads and glutes), but it will also help you lose weight overall, which will in turn help your legs look more defined.

This is an important concept to understand…

It’s tough to “spot reduce” – to lose weight from a particular area of the body. So the key to toning any muscle group, is actually to lose weight overall!

2. Do squats

Probably the single greatest upper leg and butt toning exercise you can do is the humble squat. It’ll likely give you the greatest benefit and results.

The squat is a “compound exercise” that engages pretty much every single muscle of the legs and can really help to add shape and tone to your butt too! Above is a simple illustration of the squat technique!

3. Train your adductor muscle

The adductors are an often overlooked set of muscles that run the length of your inner thigh.

Training these muscles is a great way to give your upper legs a fuller look. These can usually performed at certain machines at the gym, just ask the staff, but doing a side lunge is also a great option (shown above).

The key – slow and steady. Don’t go with big lunges to to side. Take one step out. Then you can squat up and down from that extended position.

4. Static and Forward Lunges

Tis is another exercise that can really help with the shape and tone of your upper leg muscles and butt.

This exercise will help provide help your bum look more round. The best part – no equipment required!

5. Train your calf muscles

Now calves have been given a bad wrap in the bodybuilding community. There is a myth that says that the size of your calves is purely genetic and there is nothing you can do to change that.

That simply is not true, countless numbers of people have increased the size of their calves drastically over the years.

The lower legs are some of the most seen muscles of the body when you think about it, so working those calf muscles makes sense!

Conclusion:

People usually oversimplify training their legs and focus just on the quads and hamstrings. They then wonder why their legs are not looking the way they want them to.

Hopefully with these tips, you’d be well on your way to giving everyone else leg envy.