This is taken directly from my forums. Of course, subscribers to PNP have access to the cardio routines I use and the strength schedules, but this is good information on how I am fiixng my legs from loose skin city to nice and developed.
Getting your legs shapely takes a combination of good diet and hard work. It also takes time. Don't expect overnight results, but you can make noticeable improvements if you work hard with them.
Always listen to your body, though. Hitting legs frequently can be hard on you. Take rest days and when your legs are feeling hammered or too sore, take it easy on them until you can hit them again. Now for the posting...
My "basic" leg improvement plan has been centered around one main thought: every cardio workout somehow works my legs. A typical week would look like this for a generic program to shape up the gams! BTW...diet disclaimer here...you got to have your food right or it won't matter. :) The diet makes or breaks big time visual improvements regardless of building or cutting.
1. Walking Outside - any workout that I do outside I usually break up with intervals of 2 min. fast walking and 1 min. of either running toe taps, pop squats, walking lunges, standing arms outstretched in front of me squats (this sort of makes you hit your quads more), or curb hop ups (where I hop up and down on a curb...you can hop up and step down or hop up and back down). I also will find some good hills in the neighborhood and just walk up and down it a few times as fast as I can. I also will jog it up and walk it down to build my hams and glutes.
2. Walking on TM - Always walk with at least a 4-5% incline and as fast as you can. I like to do a lot of things like side shuffles, backwards walking for at least 3 minutes (or more to make sure my legs are getting fatigued), jogging backwards, and glute lifts really slow (see my Youtube videos).
3. Walking Tips - One of the best things you can do while you walk is PURPOSELY dig in with your heels each step and SLIGHTLY turn your feet out. Just slightly...it makes you squeeze your butt cheeks just a tad more. I tend to take nice, long strides too to really get in my hamstrings. If each step you focus more on digging in the heels versus pushing off the toes you'll get a lot more engagement in the rear side. Our quads tend to get plenty of work so I try to use my walking as bonus butt work. The backside tends to be the hardest side to define and really fire off.
4. Running - Since I gave up the endurance running and I mean running for more than 3 minutes a stretch my legs have improved a bunch. Slow running just doesn't do a lot for leg development unless you are born with great legs. People who naturally have great legs will take running and make sexier legs out of it. Those of us with mommy legs (born to birth hips) have to work our legs differently. I do sprints about once or twice a week at the end of a 30 minute interval walk. My poor legs can't handle much more than that without getting hurt and painful. I run only about 75 meter sprints. Not quite the length of a track. That's all it takes for me. I don't do much fancy stuff either.
My sprints are usually sprint down the street, walk back, sprint, repeat until I notice a huge drop off in my speed. Another workout I like is the 30, 50, 100 repeaters. You run 30% effort, 50% effort, 100% effort with a walk break in between each and then repeat this sequence until your 100% starts slacking off pretty good.
Another variation is to do 20 minutes of good powerwalking without intervals. Then do 15 min. of sprints. Sprint, 3 pop squats, jog back to start, rest 30 seconds. Repeat. You can sub out the pops for push ups, burpees, mountain climbers, anything you like. It's a good calorie burner. Finish with 15 min. of walking.
5. Hills - Find a big ole hill and job or fast walk up, walk down and repeat as many times as you can. Start with 10 min. of regular walking, do 3 rounds of sprints, then move to the hill, finish with 10 min.jog or walk. I like this workout.
6. Lunges - I do lunges almost daily. Lunges of all kinds. I will warm up with walking lunges before weights, do alternating lunges in between sets, etc. I think the longer you can do them the better too. On plyo day I will start with 2-10 min. of non-weighted walking lunges. I will mix it up with a few passes of regular then switch to side-to-side, pump lunges, etc.
7. Squats - I do squats primarily on leg day and I like to do them with heavy weight. I incorporate some during cardio, but I stick more to my lunges for that and save squats for heavy weight.
8. Stairmaster - You can't do it enough. :) I do it fast, slow, and however else.
Other equipment I only do when my legs are beat and that's for cardio. I don't really consider the elliptical or bike great leg work unless you have the resistance really cranked up and you are grinding as fast as you can which shouldn't look really fast. It should look like you are putting in tons of effort. But these are more for cardio than leg building. You typically see in our gym the fitness people on two machines: stairmaster/stepmill or treadmill. If they are on the bike it's because their knees hurt. :)
So, if I were doing the PNP schedules you have your pick of workouts that have leg work. The things I would do outside of the structured strength would be:
- cardio 5-6 times a week for 30-45 minutes
- cardio that incorporates lots of intervals centered around your legs
- routines like sexy legs, around the world, stairmaster
- 1 or 2 sessions a week with some sprints added to the cardio workout
- begin each of your strength days with a 2-10 min lunge warm up
- on your smaller strength days (arm day, shoulder day, chest day) bust out some pop squats in between your sets, bench step ups, or quick squats.
Again...subscribers have access to how to do these exercises, structured cardio leg routines, and strength schedules along with weekly menus to allow your body to change and improve.