Most people only pay attention to strengthening their central muscles and ignore exercises for leg weakness. It doesn’t matter if you are an athlete or looking for a way to improve your quality of life, you can enjoy various benefits by doing physical exercises to strengthen your leg muscles. As we said in vertigo exercises for elderly, the benefits of exercise for health are many. Now, in the continuation of this article from humanhealthmag, we will introduce you to physical exercises to strengthen leg muscles and their benefits.
What Are the Leg Muscles?
Before talking about exercises for leg weakness, let’s get acquainted with the leg muscles first. In general, the muscles of the upper part of the leg (thigh muscles) can be divided into three groups, which are:
- Anterior muscles: shoulder muscle, quadriceps and sartorius are considered the most important anterior muscles of the thigh and are located in front of it.
- Internal muscles: Adductor brevis, adductor longus, adductor magnus, gracilis, and abductor externus are among the internal muscles of the thigh.
- Posterior muscles: semitendinosus, semimembranosus and biceps femoris are also known as hamstring muscles and are located on the back of the thigh.
Leg muscles can be divided into three groups, which are:
- Anterior muscles: extensor digitorum longus, extensor hallucis extensor, lateral fibula, and tibialis anterior are known as anterior muscles and are located in the front of the leg.
- Lateral muscles: The peroneus brevis and the peroneus longus are known as the lateral muscles and are located along the outer part of the leg.
- Posterior muscles: Biceps muscle, soleus, kneecap, extensor digitorum longus, flexor pollicis extensor and tibialis posterior are known as posterior muscles and are located at the back of the leg.
The Importance Of Doing Exercises for Leg Weakness
If you do exercises for leg weakness and exercise to strengthen quadriceps and other leg muscles, you will get the following benefits:
- Improve mobility and balance
- Improve sports performance
- Increase metabolism and fat burning
- Protect joints and prevent injury
- Improve balance and posture
Introducing Exercises for Leg Weakness
In this section, we introduce some of the best exercises for leg weakness. It is better to consult your doctor before trying these physical exercises.
- Aerobic exercise: If you combine aerobic exercise such as running, walking, swimming, elliptical exercise and cycling with the following exercises, you can diversify your exercise program and improve your performance.
- Banded jump squats: To perform this exercise to strengthen the calf muscles, first stand near a 30 cm step. Then spread your feet shoulder width apart and make sure your back is straight. Next, bend your knees and jump on the step. Then perform the squat exercise on this step and straighten your back. Return to the starting position and repeat this movement twice.
- Oblique Crunches: To perform this exercise, stand up and make sure your feet are slightly more than shoulder-width apart. Also make a circle with your hands and make sure your back is straight. Bend your knees as you would a squat, and then bring your left knee toward your chest as you return to the previous position. Do this movement with your other knee as well.
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Side Lunge: If you are looking to strengthen leg muscles without equipment, we recommend this movement. To perform a side lunge, first stand up, make sure your feet are close together, and make a circle with your arms. Then take a big step to the right side of your body and bend your right knee. Stay in this position for a second and then do this movement with your left leg as well. In this movement, be sure to keep your neck straight.
- Glute Bridge Exercise: To perform the Glute Bridge Exercise, which is another of the best physical exercises for strengthening leg muscles, lie on your back and bend your knees. Make sure your feet are hip-width apart. Lift your pelvis up and then bring your right knee toward your chest. When you can make a 90 degree angle, return to the starting position. Do this movement with your left leg several times.
- Tuck Jump: To perform a tuck jump, stand up and make sure your feet are hip-width apart. Place your hands beside your body and bend. Next, bend your knees and lower your hips like a squat. Then jump up and avoid bending forward. It is better to do the tuck jump several times.
- Standing Calf Raises: To perform this movement, stand on the tip of your right foot, place the other foot behind this foot, and place your hands on your back. Do not lift your right foot off the ground and move up and down on your toe. Use a dumbbell and do this movement with your left leg as well.
- Seated Calf Raise: To perform another of the best physical exercises to strengthen your leg muscles, first sit on a bench, bed or stairs and place a wooden board or step under your toes. Then put pressure on this object with your claws and lift your heels up.
- Seated single leg hip thrust: To perform this exercise, kneel on the floor and then extend your right leg out to the right. Make sure your right leg and back are completely straight. Then move your pelvis towards the back of your body so that it touches the heels of the feet. Now return your pelvis to the previous position and do this movement with your left leg as well.
- Reverse Lunge: To perform this move, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, make a circle with your hands, and then take a step back with your right foot. Now move slightly towards the ground and turn left. Do this movement with your left leg as well, making sure that your knees do not touch the floor.
- Lying leg curl: To perform this movement, lie on your stomach, put your hands under your chest and make sure that your legs are completely straight. Then put one of the legs on the other leg, bend them and take them towards the hips. Now slowly return to the starting position and do this movement with the other leg as well.
Concluding Remarks
In this article, we tried to introduce the best and simplest exercises for leg weakness. In general, by strengthening your leg muscles, you can improve your mobility, balance, and athletic performance and reduce the risk of injury; Therefore, if you are looking to improve your daily performance and overall health, it is better to add physical exercises to strengthen your leg muscles to your routine.
Before trying the exercises mentioned in this article, we recommend that you first talk to a physical therapist to make sure that these exercises can help strengthen your leg muscles and do not harm them.
FAQs
Why Should You Strengthen Leg Muscles?
Legs help you move, absorb force and impact on your body, and carry your lower body and body well. By increasing the strength and power of the leg muscles, you can increase your speed, gain more endurance, have the ability to perform various sports, and also increase your jump height.
Why Do Some People Have Small Legs?
As we said, each person’s characteristics are unique. Many people may build a large and strong body with just a few hours of exercise a week, and others may have to spend a lot of time exercising and dieting. If you have weak and small calves, the main reason is probably genetics. In this case, you should not compare yourself with others. Apart from this, other factors such as weight and age also affect the volume and strength of the leg.