It’s a saying said the world over: “never skip leg day”. However, despite its worldwide notoriety, some gym junkies out there decide to ignore the message and focus on building bulging biceps and boulder shoulders to the exclusion of all else. Because (bicep) curls get girls, right?
But few look as silly as someone with a huge upper half and a thin set of matchsticks to support them. Fortunately, footballing legend and superfit-for-his-age Cristiano Ronaldo is on hand to show you some simple and easy leg exercises to get rid of the chicken legs once and for all.
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In a series of posts on his Instagram account, the often-cited-greatest-footballer-ever takes us through his rigorous workout routine. He starts proceedings with some time on the exercise bike, which can improve the strength of your legs, just as long as you have it on a high resistance setting. Your calves, hamstrings and quads can all benefit from cycling, and your overall cardio fitness will improve too.
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Next up is lunges, which are a staple of any well-rounded leg routine. Ideally, you want to perform your lunges with some extra weight, whether you hold dumbbells in each hand, or hold a kettlebell close to the centre of your chest. As with most exercises, lunges go by the form over function motto, so you’ll want to make sure you’re performing them correctly before adding some heavier weight.
Once you’ve got stationary lunges sorted, you can work you way up to performing walking and reverse variations. They not only continue to add strength to your legs but can activate muscles in your core, too, thereby improving your overall stability.
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Ok, so this leg extension exercise does require some gym equipment, but if you don’t want to wait until you’re back in the studio of muscle when it eventually reopens, you can use some furniture around the home to achieve a similar result. To start, kneel down and with your arms stretched out in front of you, slowly lower yourself back towards your feet and hold the position once you’re at a roughly 45-degree angle.
Another variation is to put yourself in a push-up position with your feet on a box, bench or even your sofa, and then slowly lower your knees toward the ground, making sure to not let them touch it. Hold the position for a few seconds before raising yourself back up and repeat.
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Finally, finish your home leg workout with some sprints. If you can find a steep hill nearby, even better, as the incline will force you to work that bit harder. As you can see in Ronaldo’s example, take a light jog up to the hill, explode up it, and then slowly bring yourself back down before repeating.
Hill sprints not only work to strengthen your leg muscles, but they can improve your stamina and because they’re a HIIT exercise, they can boost your metabolism which subsequently keeps your body working for the rest of the day to help you lose fat.
We’ve already seen how Ronaldo can help us improve our abs, as well as showing us an all-round gym routine and now legs are taken care of too. There’s even less of an excuse preventing from achieving that summer bod now.