5 Exercises For Lean and Defined Legs

1. Lunge to Uni Press

• Stand upright holding one dumbbell at shoulder level with your elbow bent.
• Step forward, dropping your back knee & leaning your torso slightly forward with the dumbbell still at shoulder level.
• In the lunge position press the dumbbell overhead, extending your arm fully.
• Push back off front leg

2. Split Squat or Bulgarian Split

• Stand upright with one foot on a bench behind withholding dumbbells with your arms by your sides.
• Drop your body down towards the floor, bending your hips and knees and leaning your torso slightly forward.
• Push off your front foot to return to the start position

3. Weighted Squat

• Stand upright, feet shoulder width apart, holding dumbbells by your sides.
• Activating glutes, pull hips back and pull your body down towards the floor, keeping your back flat. Upper body and head follow the line of the back (don't arch).
• Push into your heels and squeeze legs and glutes to return to the start position

4. Split Squat or Bulgarian Split

• Stand upright with one foot on a bench behind withholding dumbbells with your arms by your sides.
• Drop your body down towards the floor, bending your hips and knees and leaning your torso slightly forward.
• Push off your front foot to return to the start position

4. DB Lunges

• Stand upright holding dumbbells by your sides with arms straight.
• Take a step forward, dropping your back knee down and leaning your torso slightly forward with your weight on your front leg.
• Push off your front foot heel to return to the start position.

5. Weighted Donkey Kick

• Begin on all fours with knees and hands on the floor and a dumbbell in the back of one knee.
• Kick this leg back and up with a 90-degree angle at the knee, pushing your foot towards the ceiling, keeping the dumbbell in the back of your knee.
• Lower the leg back down to the start position and repeat.

LEG DAY

There are many ways to train the muscles in your lower body. Choose from bodyweight exercises, machines at the gym, or free weights. Using lighter weights means including higher reps or heavier weights for fewer. You can train your lower body once, twice, or thrice per week, or even more often if you make sure you get enough recovery. 

What’s best way to create shapely legs?

We’ve helped so many women build lean metabolically active muscle and lose body fat faster than ever before. If you want defined legs, our number one tip is this. Include heavy compound weightlifting every week. In my experience, the best types of lower body workout programs for women include heavy compound exercises. 

Compound exercises are the opposite of isolation exercises. When you train with compound movements, you're targeting multiple muscles and joints within the same exercise. They tend to be better for you functionally and they burn more calories. Examples of lower body compound exercises include: squats, dead lifts, and lunges.

You can, of course, build lean muscle and strength in many ways, but decades of scientific and anecdotal evidence have conclusively proven the most effective approach is to add weight so you overload your muscles and you include exercises that target multiple muscles and joints in the same movement.

These compound exercises are the best way to increase tension levels in your muscles over time. Your body responds by driving the growth of lean tissue and sculpting your body.