Using just the five minutes before you go to bed can be a game-changer when it comes to your legs. Here are a few exercises you can do that transform your legs little by little each day.
Exercise #1
Lying on your back, arms down on both sides of the body. Raise your legs so that they make a 90-degree angle with your body. Don’t bend your knees. Pull your toes up. Bend your knees one by one, and return your legs to the initial position. Keep your knees together, and keep the front part of your thighs tensed.
Repeat: 10 times for each leg.
Self-check if you’re doing it right: Feeling hot in your muscles.
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Important: In the initial position, your knees should be as straight as possible.
Exercise #2
Lying on your back, legs raised, toes pulled toward your body. Hold your knees together, and bend your knees one by one. Important: your toes should always be pulled toward your body, and your heels should reach your buttocks.
Repeat: 10 times for each leg.
Lying on your back, legs raised and a little bit bent at the knees. Make swings with both legs, raising your buttocks and keeping the upper part of your legs tensed.
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Repeat: 20 times.
Self-check if you’re doing it right: Feeling the tension in the muscles of the back part of your thighs and feeling a slight burning.
Exercise #3
Lying on your back, keeping your legs raised and crossed with your right leg over your left leg. Both legs are tensed and pressed against each other. Bend your knees toward the sides to make a “plié” movement, and then return to the initial position.
Important: Your legs should always be tensed and pressed against each other.
Repeat: 10 times with your right leg in the upper position and 10 times with your left leg in the upper position.
Here are a few additional exercises that you can do once you're out of bed the next morning:
Squats
1. In a squat rack, take a barbell off of the rack by placing it squarely on your traps and shoulders (not the neck) and grip the bar comfortably with your hands a little wider than your shoulders.
2. Carefully take a step or 2 back from the rack and get in a comfortable upright stance with your feet shoulder width apart or slightly wider. Your toes should be pointed slightly outward. They should NEVER be pointed inward.
3. Focus your vision on something straight ahead and slightly above you. Do not tilt your head backwards, downwards or to the sides as this will disrupt your balance.
4. Keeping your heels planted firmly on the floor and your back straight at all times, move your butt back and downward as though you were sitting in a chair behind you.
5. When your thighs reach parallel to the floor, return to the starting position by
extending your knees and hips and pushing through your heels.
- Your knees should never extend out further than your toes.
- When pushing back up, always push through the heels, not the toes.
- The movement is up and down. There should be no sideways movement of any kind during the squat.
- Keep your back straight and chest up at all times.
- Squats can also be performed using dumbbells.
Stiff Leg Deadlift
1. Stand with your feet
shoulder width apart.
2. Pick up a barbell (off the floor or out of a
rack) and hold it with your hands about shoulder width apart. Most people
(myself included) perform this exercise with a mixed grip, which means one hand
has an overhand grip, and the other hand has an underhand grip.
3.
With your arms and back straight at all times and your knees just slightly bent,
lower the bar towards your feet by bending over at the hips.
4. Once
your upper body is either parallel to the floor or you feel a comfortable
stretch in the hamstrings, lift the barbell back up and return to the standing
position by extending your hips.
- While the stiff leg deadlift is
primarily a hamstring exercise, it also recruits the use of the lower back
secondarily.
- Be sure to keep your back straight at all times. Do NOT round
your back. Also keep your shoulders pulled back and your chest out.
- How
far down you go greatly depends on flexibility. Most people (myself included)
don't go any lower than parallel to the floor.
