Slim Leg Workout – Lower body training is not like other workouts. It is the most difficult, exhausting, and painful. To succeed in your leg workouts, you need to target your quads, hamstrings, and adductors at regular intervals and with a comprehensive program.
The legs represent half of the body in terms of volume, but they are often neglected by bodybuilders, who prefer to maximize upper body muscle development.
This is a mistake that should never be made, because it makes no sense to have a muscular upper body and legs that are not: on the one hand because it creates an imbalance in your overall physique, but also because when one muscle group is not worked like the others, it can slow down muscle growth throughout the entire body.
Having muscular legs is a must, and to stand out from the crowd, develop your quadriceps and hamstrings!
Slim Leg Workout : The thighs: a muscle group composed of three muscles
The thighs are composed of the quadriceps, hamstrings, and adductors. Some exercises can recruit all of them simultaneously, while others can target them individually. It is important to maintain a good balance between these three muscle groups for optimal development of the entire thigh.
I. Slim Leg Workout : What Are The Best Exercises For Working The Quadriceps?
1. Squats
Squats are the king of leg exercises because they work all the muscles in your thighs. They require a lot of training and concentration to do properly. To give you an idea, you need to squat down (not sit down) with your heels on the floor and a barbell on your shoulders.
-Place the bar on your trapezius muscles and the back of your shoulders.
-Stand with your abs and glutes engaged, your gaze horizontal, and your feet shoulder-width apart.
-Bend your legs until your pelvis drops below your knees, keeping your back straight.
-Lift the weight back up, pushing down firmly with your heels and the outside of your feet.
2. Leg extension
For effective quadriceps recruitment without putting pressure on the knees, make sure your knees are positioned at the height of the machine’s joint.
-Sit on the seat with your back against the backrest.
-Place the pad above your ankle.
-Raise the pad until your feet are aligned with your knees, in a horizontal position.
-Lower yourself back to the starting position.
3. The incline press
The incline press allows you to work hard without putting pressure on your back. However, be careful not to curl your pelvis during the descent: your lower back and glutes should remain flat against the seat.
-Place your feet hip-width apart on the platform, with your toes pointing outward
-Unlock the platform and lower yourself until your knees are level with your shoulders.
-If you are unable to complete the full range of motion, either the load is too heavy or your feet are positioned too low on the platform.
-Raise the load, pushing down firmly with the outside of your feet and your heels.
Option: The horizontal press:
As with the oblique press, make sure to keep your lower back and glutes pressed against the seat and backrest. Be careful not to lift your glutes off the seat to avoid curling your pelvis. Choose the right weight to work through the full range of motion.
4. Front lunges
When doing front lunges, you can either straighten your back leg or bend it. Your back should remain as straight as possible.
-Using your body weight, two dumbbells, a squat bar, or a Smith machine, step forward while bending your knee until the knee of your other leg touches the ground.
-Return to the starting position.
-Then bend the knee of the opposite leg using the same principle.
5. Sissy squat
The sissy squat is an isolation exercise that works the quadriceps, mainly the lower part of the two vastus muscles, close to the knee. It is advisable to use a support to maintain good stability.
-Using your body weight or weighted with a disc, grab a support (such as a squat rack) and lift your heels so that you are standing on the balls of your feet.
-Lower yourself by bringing your knees forward until they touch the floor.
-Come back up, keeping your heels raised.
6. Front squat
The front squat is a variation of the squat that specifically targets the quadriceps and hamstrings, while putting less pressure on the lower back.
-Grasp the bar and place it on the front of your shoulders, against your collarbones.
-Cross your hands in front of you or use a clean grip.
-Keeping your eyes forward, bend your knees until the bottom of your hamstrings touch your calves.
-Stand back up, keeping your back straight and your glutes and abs contracted.
II. What Are The Best Exercises For Building Hamstring Muscle?
Slim Leg Workout : Leg curl
1. Lying leg curl
To properly engage your hamstrings, make sure that the machine’s pad touches your hamstrings at the end of the lift. Keep your head aligned with your back so as not to put pressure on your lower back.
-Lie down facing the bench and place the pad at the height of your Achilles tendon.
-Raise the weight until the pad touches your hamstrings.
-Lower the weight in a controlled manner without fully extending your legs.
2. Seated leg curl
Make sure your knees are at the same height as the machine’s pivot point before starting your set. This isolation exercise helps you target the hamstrings.
-Sit on the seat with your back against the backrest and place the pad under your ankle at the height of your Achilles tendon
-Lower the pad until your feet form an angle greater than 90°
-Slowly return to the starting position, legs straight and supported by the pad
3. Standing leg curl
The standing leg curl is an excellent isolation exercise for the hamstrings. In particular, it helps to strengthen the back of the thighs.
-Stand facing the bench or support and place one of your ankles under the pad.
-Raise the weight until your calf touches the back of your thigh.
-Slowly lower yourself without fully extending your leg.
4. Straight-leg deadlift
The straight-leg deadlift is a basic exercise that works the hamstrings, lower back, and glutes. Be sure to use a swinging motion so that the hamstrings are fully stretched during the exercise, and avoid using weights that are too heavy, as this can compromise the movement.
-With a free barbell, dumbbells in your hands, or on the Smith Machine, stand behind the bar.
-Keep your back straight, legs slightly bent, and glutes back, and grasp the bar at shoulder width.
-Lift the weight while keeping your legs straight (slightly bent) until the bar reaches hip height.
-Lower the weight, keeping your legs straight and your back straight.
III. How To Get Bigger Thighs Thanks To The Adductors?
1. Slim Leg Workout : Machine adductions
Machine adductions isolate the adductor muscles. Pause briefly at maximum contraction and carefully control the eccentric phase.
-Sit on the seat with your back against the backrest and your ankles or knees behind the pads, legs spread more than 90° depending on your flexibility.
-Bring the pads inward until they touch.
-Pause for a moment.
-Slowly return to the starting position.
2. Slim Leg Workout : The sumo squat
To perform a proper sumo squat, keep your back straight and push your hips back between your adductors while looking straight ahead.
-Place the bar on your trapezius muscles and unrack it.
-Spread your feet slightly wider than hip-width apart.
-Pushing down firmly through the outsides of your feet and heels, bend your knees until they form an angle of less than 90°.
-Lift the bar back up while looking straight ahead.
Special for men: how to build thigh muscles quickly?
The exercise lists above work your quads, hamstrings, and adductors from different angles. However, building thigh muscle requires simultaneous mobilization of all these muscles, which work together during multi-joint movements.
This is the case with squats, which engage the quadriceps, hamstrings, and adductors. Squats are therefore an exercise of choice for overall thigh development.
The oblique press also works the quadriceps and hamstrings: the quadriceps in the concentric phase and the hamstrings in the eccentric phase.
Finally, front lunges are also very useful and can be considered a multi-joint movement. Front lunges, walking lunges, and side lunges engage the quadriceps, hamstrings, and adductors, in addition to heavily working the glutes.
It is important to incorporate these exercises into any leg program because they recruit all muscle fibers and promote the secretion of anabolic hormones by the body. All other analytical movements are useful for increasing congestion and refining the work of these muscle groups.
In the off-season, you can build strong, voluminous thighs simply with squats and front lunges! Of course, you are not a powerlifter, and we recommend incorporating at least one isolation movement into each leg session.
How can you catch up on your legs and strengthen this weak point?
Most bodybuilders have at least one muscle group that responds less favorably to training. Depending on the length of the segments, muscle insertions, and the distribution of slow or fast fibers, a muscle may be ahead or behind the others.
This is the case for the legs, which may be less developed than the upper body. But you can’t lag behind in all of your thigh muscles. Most of the time, training mistakes or a lack of enthusiasm for this workout are the cause of underdeveloped thighs.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is known for his huge calves. Did you know that when he started out, he had so little muscle in his calves that he avoided showing them? To catch up, he decided to start each of his sessions with calf exercises and to wear shorts so he wouldn’t have to hide them. They ended up becoming one of his strengths.
All this to say that if you want to catch up on your thighs, you’ll need to give them a little more attention.
-Work your legs on Mondays and Thursdays, twice a week.
-Do one session focused on your quads, then one session focused on your hamstrings (working both your hamstrings AND quads in each session).
-Always start your session with leg curls and leg extensions to pre-activate the muscles and give your joints time to warm up.
-Work through the full range of motion.
-Don’t focus on the weight, but on the quality of your movements.
-Stretch after your session to loosen up the fascia and allow the muscle fibers to take up more space in their envelope.
How to do a good leg workout? Our tips
Warming up is important for working all muscle groups, but it’s even more important for leg training. This is because many joints are involved, and a simple injury can prevent you from training for months, dashing your hopes of progress.
Do at least 10 minutes of stationary cycling. Then warm up your hips, knees, and ankles. Feel free to stretch your adductors, hamstrings, and quadriceps before your workout. Some specialists oppose stretching before weight training because it can lead to a loss of strength.
Keep in mind that this loss of strength is measured in grams and that it is better to lift a little less weight and avoid injury, since your goal is to gain muscle mass and not just strength.
When squatting, foot placement is essential to performing the movement correctly. Some people recommend placing your feet shoulder-width apart and positioning them at “10:10.” This is a valid rule, but everyone has their own biomechanical characteristics, so it may not be right for you.
One rule that works every time: place the bar on your trapezius muscles and shoulders, then lift it off the rack. Next, without looking at your feet, let them fall naturally into place until you feel comfortable in the starting position.
Begin the descent and stop when your hamstrings touch your calves (this corresponds to a 45° bend). During the ascent (push), remember to push down firmly with your heel and the outside of your foot.
For squats and deadlifts with straight legs, we recommend wearing a weightlifting belt. The belt can protect you from injury by keeping your stomach tucked in and limiting strain on your lower back.
During squats, presses, and deadlifts with straight legs, be sure to contract your abs and glutes throughout the entire movement.
Before, during, and after your workout.
Between each set, gently stretch the muscle you’ve been working, without causing pain. This helps to stretch the fascia (the membrane that surrounds the muscles) and bring more blood to the muscle fibers.
After your sessions, or at the end of the day, perform gentle, longer stretches, holding each stretch for at least one minute on each muscle (hamstrings, quadriceps, and adductors). Also stretch your psoas and glutes to release muscle stiffness in the lumbar region.
