Many people in the gym overlook the legs, and that’s a shame, because your legs are your locomotor unit and your foundation and you can’t build a strong body without laying the groundwork.

The qudraceps, hamstrings and calves are the three sections of your legs that require equal attention and lots of work to get strength and size gains.

The granddaddy of muscle-building exercises for your legs (and your overall body) is the traditional SQUAT, or at least it used to be (I’ll explain latter). Because you are moving your body, as well as the weight through space, when doing squats, you will activate over 200 individual muscles with every rep.

Squats blast your glutes, upper hamstrings and quads like no other exercise, not the leg extension or the leg press. To avoid injury and make the most out of every move in your exercises, it is vital to perform the workouts in correct and proper form.

When done correctly, you will use your hip extensors to get moving off the bottom of the stroke and then the quads will kick in at the top or lock-out portion of the exercise. Keep your shoulder blades collapsed together and your chest out and use your butt to hunt for something to sit on as you descend, stop when your thighs are at or just past parallel and then push through your heels and butt to drive yourself back up. You can vary your foot position to accent adductors or abductors.

Now that I’ve spent all that hot air telling you how to do squats, I’m going to recommend that you don’t do them, here’s why. Turns out the limiting factor on squats is your low back and in that bilateral squat position it’s not as stable as it could be, and therefore, you are more prone to injury there.

Your lumbar spine and S1 vertebrae are locked together and more stable in a one foot forward stance and therefore you can drive more work to your legs that way. So my recommendation is to sack squats in favor of split squats. This is like doing a lunge, but, you don’t come out of the lunge position until you are done with your reps and then you switch legs and do the other side.

This is also the reason it’s more functional, we are designed to walk, and that stance imitates a step. You can do this with barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, sand bags and TRX suspension straps. I explain more about lunges in a little while. I will post a video on split squats in the near future.

Although it is recommended to stretch at the start of every workout routine, you might also find it helpful to stretch at the start of every set.

Since we’re talking about squats, you must include the HACK SQUAT (using the machine) in your routine to bombard not just your quads but your abductors & adductors. The hack squat can be used to target your adductors and abductors. Emphasis on the gluts and quads can be made depending on how you position your feet on the platform. A wide stance will emphasize your adductors, narrow will get a little more abductors. Feet forward will get more glutes and feet under you or back further will emphasize quads (careful not to hurt your knees on these).

Another quality leg exercise is the STRAIGHT-LEGGED DEADLIFT. This is a good exercise for keeping your lower back strong and flexible while really working your upperhamstrings and glutes. Once again, collapse your shoulder blades together and stick your chest out.

You want to start with a comfortable, but challenging weight, and perform these by using a mixed grip on the barbell (one hand palm up and the other palm down), then lower the weight while keeping your legs and back straight.

Your knees should be slightly bent. Make sure that your buttocks are pushed outward with your shins as close to the bar as possible. To feel fatigue in your upper hamstrings and glutes, you’ll have to perform either a good number of reps.

Another great exercise is the LUNGE. Using the proper posture and form, you can start going through lunges which will focus on your hip extensors, glutes and upper hamstrings. When lunges are done with improper posture and bad form the load is thrown onto your knee extensors, your quads.

It will be best to ask a coach to teach you proper posture, especially if you feel your lunges and deep squats in your quads. It’s very effective when you lunge with a barbell, as it requires you to utilize your balance and stabilizers as you do each rep. You can do lunges with dumbbells, too, but you can’t use as much weight.

Three other great tools to do lunges with are: 1) Resistance bands, you can use the bands for either resistance or assistance. In my humble opinion, these are the ultimate tools for doing lunges, hell, you can use a barbell and use the band at the same time. 2) TRX suspension straps. You can use the bands with this also. 3) Sandbags, due to the shape and ever shifting nature, these require different gripping and/or carrying strategies and more core stabilization. Yes, you can use bands at the same time.

To balance your legs, the calves must also be paid attention to, as it is important to note that honing these muscles will also add inches to your vertical leap.

After looking at so many different calves’ exercises, DONKEY PRESS is perhaps the most aggressive in building strength and size.

Form is critical for the donkey press, make sure you keep your knees straight and plantar and dorsiflex your ankles as far as you can, this bent over position adds a prestretch to the back of your legs and especially your calves.

Don’t forget that injuries are also possible when performing these leg workouts. So proper form and being honest with yourself regarding how much weight you can successfully lift.

Technorati Tags: calves, gastrocnemius, hamstrings, leg exercises, leg workouts, quads, resistance bands, sandbags, split squats, the best leg exercises, the best leg workouts, TRX suspension straps

First of all when you’re looking to increase the size of your chest, you want to make sure that you target your body’s fast-twitch muscle fibers, because they have the most potential to grow.

How do you do that? By diversifying your workout and emphasizing low-reps and heavier-weight in each of your sets. You can also do an explosive, fast movement on the concentric part of the movement. For instance, off the bottom of the pushup you can push hard and fast so that your hands come off the floor and you clap your hands together, then return to the down position slowly for a 2 or 3 count, then repeat.

Some people will disagree with me on this one, but it works for me. The Best Chest Exercise is the WEIGHTED DIP… no contest! Why? It’s very simple, doing dips (and pushups) is the only chest exercise in which you move your body through space, instead of moving the weight through space. .

This is a important concept to understand, because, moving your body through space (instead of moving a weight through space) is more taxing to your central nervous system, which amplifies your brain-to-muscle connections and this causes you to recruit more muscle in every exercise.

Dips work a lot of triceps and shoulders along with the chest. To hang a weight on you you’ll need a dipping belt or a strap or jump rope and you’ll need to be able to perform bodyweight dips. Start out light and do full range movements, keep them smooth and controlled. You can pick up your knees and lean your body forward to emphasize the chest even more.

Next up is the PUSH-UP, yes, that exercise that you’ve done or seen done all your life, but in reality it’s one of the few chest exercises that really demands a lot of strength and agility, because you must execute this with perfect form to get the most out of it. And it works out your abs and back (that’s where you first begin to sag and lose form).

Also, there are so many variants of the PUSHUP that are even more explosive. One of those is the MEDICINE-BALL ARCHBISHOP PUSH-UP; a long name, but this exercise works.

What you do is put 3 to 5 medicine balls in a semicircle, then get in the push-up position and put both hands on the ball to the far right; your chest should be over the ball and your feet must stay anchored throughout this exercise.

Now, move your left hand to the ball at the left and do a push-up, then bring your right hand to that ball. You want to continue moving left, doing push ups until you get to the last ball on the left. Then work your way back across the balls. That’s one rep.

The reason why you want to use the medicine ball is, when you put your hands on a ball, the inherent instability forces your core to work 20% harder than when you do a regular push-up, so this exercise trains your abs and hips to remain stable longer.

Try doing supersets of weighted push-ups with lying cable flies. Have your training partner place a weight on your back for the push-ups. When you do the flies, try holding the peak contraction for 3 seconds, and then do a 5 second eccentric contraction or lowering phase.

As with every exercise, perfect form is more important than lots of weight, because you don’t want to cheat and use other muscles to stabilize you or help you move the weight.

Resistance bands will also work very well for both weighted push-ups and dips. They don’t require a partner, travel easily and won’t ding the floor. For pushups, just put the band behind your back. you can put it on your lower back to work your core more or up around your shoulder blades. Now put your hands into the band loop and pin it to the floor and go to town. If it’s to loose at the bottom of the stroke, just put a loose overhand knot in the center of the band and you’re set.

For dips, drape the band around the back of your neck so it comes down the front of your shoulders and then place your hands in the band and grab on to the dip bar and have a field day.

The band can also be used to assist both of these exercises should you not have the strength, initially , to do them.

We only put the bench press last on this list because it is the first you normally think of and we wanted to give you some other ideas. And it is not as functional as the others because you are not moving your body through space. Keep variety in your workouts to keep your body growing and to keep from getting board.

Keep in mind that you can do the bench either, flat, incline or decline and you can use barbells or dumbbells.

Technorati Tags: best chest exercises, great chest exercises, push-ups, resistance bands, weighted dips, weighted push-ups

We all know that we should spend less time sitting & more time working out, but with all the fad presures of life and different information published, it’s tasking for a individual to decide on the best workout program. Luckily, there is little argument among professionals that low impact, muscle building programs are exceedingly beneficial to those of all levels of fitness.

There are a variety of ways to gain the rewards of low impact exercise. The most beneficial - & easyiest - are resistance bands. These latex circles are very economical & come in a wide selection of resistances & lengths.

The most obvious benefit of resistance band workouts is the ability to take them with you wherever you go. As the bands can be folded, balled or pushed into extremely small spaces, you can pack a band (or two or three) into your bag and sneak in a workout whenever you have a few minutes spare . As the bands do not require any setup, you can pack in a quick five minute exercise multiple times a day, without being conspicuous or frustrated.

Exercise tubes are also the perfect exercise aids due to their versatility. You can use them to tone nearly any muscle in your body, from your arms to your abs to your calves. They can be utilized in most any standard exercise, or you can use them to create movements that are comfortable for you.

While weights involve lifting and moving, exercise bands stretch with your body. This key difference makes the tubes immeasurably safer than traditional weights. When using the tubes for strength training, you won’t need to worry about dropping or overextending a weight. The tube will not go farther than your body will allow. If you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation with it, you can slowly release the tension using your body’s movements.

The safety features of exercise bands go beyond just the use. Anyone who has kept a few free weights around the home will know that they inevitably end up being stored under couches and causing stubbed toes, trips & falls. Resistance tubes, on the other side of the scale, are generally accident free. They can be easily tidied under a soafa or in a corner without a second thought.

The fitnessh benefits of pilates bands are many & far reaching. The low impact exercises build joint strength without causing damage, as exercises like press-ups are likely to do. These exercises build lean, strong muscles, which are more attractive than the bulky muscles created by body building. The process that builds this muscle will also increase your flexibility and range of motion. After the muscle is built, your body can burn a higher number of calories (and stored fat) than it did previously.

Most health pros concur that the best workout is a program that you’ll keep up. Resistance bands offer a simple, highly portable fitness option that will let you sneak in exercise when the mood strikes.  If you want more information you should check out some resistance band books or resistance band DVDs.

Technorati Tags: exercise, health, low impact, pilates, resistance bands, resistance tubes, yoga