Working out legs for women? What to do?

yahoo had an article a month or so ago about leg exercises to do (it was called how to get legs like angelina jolie) ive just found it for:



Forward lunge

Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart, step forward with your right leg. Bend both knees, with your right knee at 90 degrees and over your toes and your left knee almost touching the floor. Keep your weight on your front foot and maintain a straight back. Push off your right foot to bring your feet back together and return to the starting position. Repeat on the left. Complete 8 lunges on each side.

Side lunge

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Step your right leg out to the side, toes still facing forward. Bend your right knee forward over your toes and squat down as far as you can, keeping your right foot flat on the floor and your left leg straight.

Straighten your right leg and return to the starting position without dragging your foot along the floor. Repeat with the left leg and complete 8 reps on each leg, 16 in total.

Calf raises

Stand on a step, with your heels slightly hanging off the back of the step. Slowly lower your heels as if trying to get them to touch the ground. Gradually raise back up and repeat 16-20 times. You should feel the burn in your calf muscles.

Stair walks

It might seem simple, but sometimes the oldies are the goodies. Find a set of stairs – it could be the stairs in your house, or a longer, steeper set in your nearby town or park. Starting at the bottom of the flight of steps, walk or run as quickly as possible up the stairs until you reach the top. Slowly walk back down, using this as your rest and recovery time. Repeat 6-8 times.

Side leg kicks

Lay on your side with your bottom tucked in and stomach held. Extend your lower arm above your head on the floor and lay your upper arm along your body. Raise your top leg slightly and from there, slowly raise and lower the leg 10-12 times, and lower back down. Roll over and repeat with the other leg.

Complete 3-5 rounds of this workout, with a 1-minute rest in between each round.

dont know if they will work but they seem like simple exercises you could do at home on top of ur regime :0)

I had the same problem, the lunges give you toning, but it doesn't remove the fat. The trainers all say switch to paleo diet to get rid of problem area lbs which I tried and it seemed to work. When I picked up running I got rid of tough inches around my upper thighs which was always a problem. Everything I read says that your body will hold stubborn fat where it wants to so it will be the last place you get rid of it and that you can't target fat loss just toning and that diet and losing weight than reveals your work. Not what you wanted to hear but probably true. Good luck

Can't spot reduce and can't "tone" either.. hate to tell you.

Do squats, lunges, leg press, etc.. as heavy as you can. Leave about a 250 calorie deficit a day and make sure to get protein in and you should start seeing changes.

Unless you're talking about kegels, there really aren't any "womens" vs "men's" exercises.

Forget isolation and accessory. Do full barbell squats.

I did spinning 3 times a week for about 6 months and have no fat on my legs at all (still have a bit of inner thigh that just wont budge and Im thinking of the lipo laser), Im sure its spinning along with squats and lunges. Even my sports massage lady is surprised at how muscley my thighs are. Still need to budge some extra fat from elsewhere but the legs are pretty good!!

Do you lift with free weights or use machines?

Either way, sometimes certain exercises can have a "bulking" effect on your muscles, while others have a more "toning" effect. Like, if you're using the leg raise machine, for example, and are kicking with your feet pointed straight out, you will be bulking up your quads. Turn your feet 45 degrees out and do the same extension, and you'll do a better job of toning the inner quad as opposed to bulking up the whole thigh.

Try and take a look at www.womenshealth.com they have all kinds of free workouts that you can download that focus on specific areas of the body, or at home workout, no gear workouts, etc.

^^^NOT TRUE! for the 1000 time, women do not get BULKY!!!! I wish people would stop spreading this nonsense!

Yup!

My suggestion to the OP is to start doing compound lifts: barbell squats & deadlifts then start working on legpresses, adductor, abductors, etc. as secondary lifts. Hack squats are decent for targeting the quads as well. You can also do front squats for targeting the quads.

Unfortunately, you can't target fat loss. So that will just come down to continuing to eat at a deficit.

Oh yeah, and lift heavy. There's really no such thing as "toning" weights. Higher reps at lower weight are good for getting your form down and endurance training, but won't do much for making you look leaner.

Exactly the same exercises as a man would do lol

Sorry if there is a similar topic, I did search the forum but didn't find it.

So. There are two months since I started to work out in the gym. I've got the general program they give to the beginners which I changed for the advanced one after the month. In the mean time, I got pretty fit and interested. I lift heavy. I have a split routine. I have zones that I'd like to be more improved, like my legs and butt (my wider hips go along).

To cut the long story short, my tights seem to be over-improved :-) as they became big and strong, but still with the huge amount of fat around. They are 2 cm (over 4 inches) wider than before 2 months and it was not the idea :-)) At the same time, my upper body, back, arms, shoulders are really changing in a good way and I love it.

My weekly routine is 3-4 x workout + 2-3 x cardio (mostly running, once a week for a long distance up to 10 km), one day off.

I need an advice: what to do to get rid of the fat around? something to avoid? any particular "women's" exercises for leaning legs?

Overall to define your leg muscles you need to lower your body fat % as you cannot spot reduce. If this was the case I'd still have boobs lol.

This is done through diet and cardio, strength training will maker the muscles bigger (but not too big as women don't have the testosterone for "bulky" muscles) and cardio reduces your overall "layer" of fat on your body making the muscles easier to see.

Don't be thinking that women need different training to men as we don't.. We are built the same muscle-wise but they have more potential for bigger muscles and lifting bigger weights (generally speaking).

Hope that helps

^^^NOT TRUE! for the 1000 time, women do not get BULKY!!!! I wish people would stop spreading this nonsense!

What happened to me, than? I am almost at the same weight when I was starting it, and now, after 2 months of work out I can not pull my skinny jeans over my tights that use to be loose on me?

Conditioned muscle retains water, a lot of it. Your body fat percentage probably dropped quite a bit but unless you were eating a calorie surplus, you didn't gain any new muscle tissue. You just condition the muscle you have, which makes it appear bulkier (see water retention). Remember that strength gains do not equate to muscle tissue gains. Just because you get stronger and leaner doesn't mean you get new muscle tissue growth. This is the reason bodybuilders have to go through bulk/cut cycles to get big and lean. Furthermore, the only way to tell if you actually got new muscle tissue is to have a high end body scan (DEXA or similar) done that tells you your precise body composition (bone, organs, water, fat, muscle) before and after.

I think what meggles means is that women don't look huge when lifting heavy, and there is no such thing as "toning" weight.

^^^^^^^^ THIS

I am SOOOOOOOO sick of hearing how women are "bulking up" their legs by lifting weights.

My legs measure 1 inch smaller (18.5" around the thigh instead of 19.5") now that I lift heavy and weigh 110 pounds....when I weighed 102 pounds my legs were flabbier and BIGGER. Now they are lean and "toned" (hate that word). The #1 reason: I lost body fat.

Don't listen to the naysayers that think doing cardio alone will get you shapely legs...it won't...it might make them smaller but they won't be as lean as someone who loses the fat and gains muscle.