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Your leg muscles are among the largest in your body and working them out can provide a significant metabolic effect on your body. Exercises that tax the leg muscles can stimulate the release of growth hormones that increase mass and size. Leg workouts can help to improve your ability to engage in cardiovascular exercise and lifting, because stronger legs translate into better endurance and core strength. Here are seven reasons to train your lower body.
1. Leg Workout Strengthens Your Bone:
Exercise that includes leg workouts helps to increase and maintain bone density. This can help decrease your risk of developing osteoporosis. In addition, strengthening the legs can lead to weight loss that causes less stress on your bones and joints. Increasing strength in your legs can be accomplished by performing exercises such as leg curls, squats and leg presses. Adding weight can increase resistance and subsequently, the demands on your leg muscles that forces them to grow to adapt.
2. Leg Workout Helps You Be A Better Athlete
The power generated from your lower half is essential for nearly every sport. Fro instance, soccer players sprinting to the ball, basketball players jumping above the rim, or baseball players generating enough power to knock one out of the park. A well-developed lower body will allow you to exert a maximal amount of force in a minimal amount of time, which in turn makes you faster and more explosive. Leg workout is very important for any athlete whose success depends on speed.
3. It Reduces Your Risk of Injury
Beyond the bone-strengthening benefits of leg workout, it can also reduce your risk of other leg injuries. Focusing your exercise efforts on a single muscle can lead to stress on other muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones. This can lead to injury while engaging in leg workouts, as well as workouts that require core strength, balance and attention to form. For example, runners may encounter knee problems if they don't use leg workouts that engage the tibialis anterior muscle, located at the front portion of your lower leg.
4. Leg Workout Helps You Burn More Calories
Whether or not weight loss is the goal, if you want to get the most bang for your buck at the gym, it all starts with the legs. “Working bigger muscles in multi-joint exercises like squats, deadlifts or lunges will require more ‘work’ from the heart and brain and higher levels of metabolism compared to exercising smaller muscle groups. Challenging these larger muscles requires more energy, which means your body will be burning more calories.
5. It Improves Your Balance
Balance is essential for maintaining control of the body. Exercises like side lunges and deadlifts will increase your stability, develop your sensitivity and help keep you ready for anything.
6. It Improves Your Core Fitness
The term "core fitness" refers to the strength of the muscle groups in and near your midsection, hence the term "core." Strengthening the legs through regular workouts also helps to improve your ability to push, lift and be flexible. According to Princeton University, it's easy to place less emphasis on the core muscles because they require conscious effort to contract. The university goes on to explain that leg workouts that include hamstring stretches, hip flexions and butt lifts can help strengthen your core fitness.
7. You’ll be efficient for everyday tasks
Even if you are not an athlete, giving your legs attention will pay off every day. Doing house chores, running to the store for fruits or food items or even doing the 'heavy' tasks will be easier when your lower body is used to squatting down and hinging at the hips. Even if your arms are strong, you’ll be more efficient when lifting heavy objects if you squat down and engage those glutes and hammies instead of straining your back.
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DailyBurn.com, BodyBuilding.com contributed to this article.
1. Leg Workout Strengthens Your Bone:
Exercise that includes leg workouts helps to increase and maintain bone density. This can help decrease your risk of developing osteoporosis. In addition, strengthening the legs can lead to weight loss that causes less stress on your bones and joints. Increasing strength in your legs can be accomplished by performing exercises such as leg curls, squats and leg presses. Adding weight can increase resistance and subsequently, the demands on your leg muscles that forces them to grow to adapt.
2. Leg Workout Helps You Be A Better Athlete
The power generated from your lower half is essential for nearly every sport. Fro instance, soccer players sprinting to the ball, basketball players jumping above the rim, or baseball players generating enough power to knock one out of the park. A well-developed lower body will allow you to exert a maximal amount of force in a minimal amount of time, which in turn makes you faster and more explosive. Leg workout is very important for any athlete whose success depends on speed.
3. It Reduces Your Risk of Injury
Beyond the bone-strengthening benefits of leg workout, it can also reduce your risk of other leg injuries. Focusing your exercise efforts on a single muscle can lead to stress on other muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones. This can lead to injury while engaging in leg workouts, as well as workouts that require core strength, balance and attention to form. For example, runners may encounter knee problems if they don't use leg workouts that engage the tibialis anterior muscle, located at the front portion of your lower leg.
4. Leg Workout Helps You Burn More Calories
Whether or not weight loss is the goal, if you want to get the most bang for your buck at the gym, it all starts with the legs. “Working bigger muscles in multi-joint exercises like squats, deadlifts or lunges will require more ‘work’ from the heart and brain and higher levels of metabolism compared to exercising smaller muscle groups. Challenging these larger muscles requires more energy, which means your body will be burning more calories.
5. It Improves Your Balance
Balance is essential for maintaining control of the body. Exercises like side lunges and deadlifts will increase your stability, develop your sensitivity and help keep you ready for anything.
6. It Improves Your Core Fitness
The term "core fitness" refers to the strength of the muscle groups in and near your midsection, hence the term "core." Strengthening the legs through regular workouts also helps to improve your ability to push, lift and be flexible. According to Princeton University, it's easy to place less emphasis on the core muscles because they require conscious effort to contract. The university goes on to explain that leg workouts that include hamstring stretches, hip flexions and butt lifts can help strengthen your core fitness.
7. You’ll be efficient for everyday tasks
Even if you are not an athlete, giving your legs attention will pay off every day. Doing house chores, running to the store for fruits or food items or even doing the 'heavy' tasks will be easier when your lower body is used to squatting down and hinging at the hips. Even if your arms are strong, you’ll be more efficient when lifting heavy objects if you squat down and engage those glutes and hammies instead of straining your back.
–
DailyBurn.com, BodyBuilding.com contributed to this article.
