If you’ve ever gotten frustrated with your thighs, then you’re certainly not alone. For many people — particularly women — hips and thighs are trouble spots. Efforts to achieve slim, trim thighs can seem futile, especially since exercise and diet won’t necessarily reduce fat in the places you’d like. Though you target your stomach, the excess fat may come off your bottom, or vice versa. Still, dedication to exercise combined with good nutrition will trim fat throughout your body and help you tone all over, including your thighs.
Some of us have thicker thighs that annoyingly rub together and seem to attract fat. Some of us have skinny legs that never seem to get shapely and defined. Whether your struggle is to thin down, tone up, or both, we’ve been there! When it comes to getting great thighs, you’ve got to combine the best exercises to build muscle and the best diet for weight loss and weight management. Read on to learn about how to build your best weight loss program for fit legs and overall wellness.
What are your thighs made of?
When we talk about our thighs, we’re really talking about 4 muscle groups:
- Quadriceps (the front of your thigh from knee to hip)
- Hamstrings (the back of your thigh from knee to butt)
- Adductors (the inside of your thighs)
- Abductors (the outside of your thighs
Each of these four groups contains multiple muscles. All together, these muscles make up your thighs and allow you to stand, walk, and move in all directions. These are some of the largest muscles in the body. Following an online weight loss program that includes strengthening these muscles can help you achieve the toned, fit thighs you want. Strengthening these muscles can also help you burn more fat after you finish your workout – a phenomenon called “afterburn”[1]. That effect alone makes strength training your thighs an important element of the best weight loss program you can follow! When combined with your best diet for weight loss, working out your thighs should be considered one of the most important fitness goals. Now, let’s get to the three must-do exercises to build your best thighs.
1. Squats
If you join a gym, attend almost any fitness class or ask a PT for advice on how to slim down your legs– chances are you’re going to end up doing lots of squats.
Squats are one of the best workouts women can do to tone the inner thighs and booty. … Doing squats promotes balance and overall conditioning. Plus, squat exercises help to flatten your abs and develop muscles throughout your body so you can burn more fat and calories efficiently The squat is one of the best compound exercises, meaning multiple muscles are activated at once – your glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves. This is why squats are included in the majority of fitness programs and routines.
Squats will hit multiple muscles at once and (in most cases) give you a fantastic-looking butt– which is the desired fitness goal for most girls. However, doing a lot of squats (especially with heavyweights) will definitely increase the size of your legs (quads and hamstrings).
Whether your legs end up bigger or smaller largely depends on your body type, your starting point, and your diet. But, if your goal is to specifically slim down your legs – this might NOT be the way to go, as doing lots of squats will most likely make your thighs bigger, Toned? Yes, Sexy? More than likely, but not slimmer.
However a variation, The Split Squat will tone and slim your thighs. The split squats is a unilateral leg move that hits your legs hard one at a time. It also helps in developing your core muscles due to the unstable nature of the move.
Some people mistakenly refer to split squats as lunges. The two are similar, however, the major difference is that when doing lunges you need to take a step forward and back with each rep, and with split squats, you plant a foot forward and squat up and down without taking any step back or forward during the set. Split Squats is a great way to add muscularity to the legs while adding strength. It burns fat and lots of reps are known to help trim those thighs fast while improving stability and balance.
a) Split Squat
Split squats are incredible exercises for your thighs. They work for every muscle group and isolate one leg at a time so you can’t “cheat” and compensate for weakness on one side of your body which can build imbalances. This is really important for maximizing your gains in muscle and power. When you do a split squat, you separate your feet so only one leg is squatting at a time. You can do this by just placing one foot in front of the other.
And yet another great variation you can do is placing your back foot on a block or bench
Doing this move with bodyweight alone will work your thighs fully. After one or two sets you will feel it! You’ll challenge your balance (in a good way) and be forced to really focus on one leg, one squat at a time.
How to do it:
- Sets: 2-3 per workout
- Repetitions per Set: 8-10 per leg
- Frequency: 2-3 days per week
When you aren’t challenged by bodyweight anymore, you can add resistance by holding dumbbells in your hands.
2. Curtsy Lunges
Curtsy lunges are great because they work your legs in a sideways motion. This engages the front of your thighs (your quads), the back of your thighs (your hamstrings) the inner thigh (adductors), and the outer thigh(abductors). It also works your glutes because a great pair of thighs need great buns, it’s a package deal JThe name of this exercise comes from its similarity to a polite curtsy motion where you cross one leg behind the other and bow slightly. You’ll have to balance and control your motion as you go from one side to the other like this:
We often get stuck in front-back motions when exercising and neglect lateral movements. Lateral moves are important for building well-rounded muscles and also for the health of your hip and knee joints. Here is a great short video that demonstrates the importance of lateral movements when exercising
Performing the Cutesy Lunge:
- Sets: 2-3 per workout
- Repetitions per Set: 8-10 per leg
- Frequency: 2-3 days per week
Start doing this exercise with just body weight for a couple of weeks. Once you’ve
Performing the Cutesy Lunge:
- Sets: 2-3 per workout
- Repetitions per Set: 8-10 per leg
- Frequency: 2-3 days per week
Start doing this exercise with just body weight for a couple of weeks. Once you’ve
3. Leg Press
Use the leg press to finish your thigh-toning workout. You’ve already worked your stabilizing muscles and isolated each leg with split squats and curtsy lunges. The leg press is a power move that will target those thighs with precision [3]. Unless you happen to have a leg press machine hanging around in your garage, this is a move that will require a gym. There are different types of leg press machines that put you at different angles (see some examples below), but the basic move is the same. Whatever type of leg press you have access to should get the job done! Be careful with your form to make sure that you’re getting the most strength benefits possible while protecting your knees and your back.
How to do it:
- Sets: 2-3 sets per workout
- Repetitions per set: 8-12
- Frequency: 2-3 days per week
Since this is a weight machine move, you’ll simply add more plates to increase resistance as you get stronger.
Choosing the right weight
It’s important that you challenge yourself without risking injury or improper form. Choosing the right weight is a little tricky at first, but you’ll get the hang of it. It may take you a couple of workouts to figure out your starting weight. Ideally, you should be using enough weight that you have trouble finishing the last repetition in each set with proper form. That means that you may feel burning or shaking and have difficulty getting through the last bit of the move. This is called muscle failure, and it’s a good thing! When you get to muscle failure you know that you’ve exhausted your muscles to an extent from which they can grow stronger. If you don’t work this hard, then you won’t get results as much or as quickly. You will notice that, as you get stronger, you don’t get to muscle failure at the end of your set. When that happens, it’s time to add more weight.
Other tips for a successful online weight loss program
Do these 3 leg moves 2-3 times a week with at least a day of rest between workouts. That’s important to give your thigh muscles sufficient time to rest and recover. Make sure you stretch after each workout and on your rest days! Remember that nutrition is 90% of fitness. Sign up for our e-book to help guide you to success and make sure that you’re sticking to the best diet and exercise for weight loss and fitness building. Join the Diet Rite System You’ll thank yourself for it!