Friday, September 4, 2009

Want Hot Looking Legs? Then Avoid These 3 Workout Mistakes

If you are like me, you cannot help but notice a great looking pair of legs on a member of the opposite sex when they walk by. So if you want to be noticed yourself, working on your legs should be a high priority when you hit the gym. For a lot of people, though, they simply do not see the kind of firm lean body they think they ought to be seeing for the amount of exercise they do. If that sounds like you, then it could be that while you are doing a lot of things right you also could be failing to do some very important things that could well impair your overall results.

I am going to tell you about three of the biggest mistakes you can make with your exercise program and how you can get back on the path to achieving a super toned body and the pair of hot legs you have always desired.

Mistake 1: Not including strength training in your workout - All too often, people gravitate toward cardio type exercises like walking, jogging, cycling and son on, and they shun strength training in the hope of toning and firming their legs. This is particularly true of women, who often avoid strength training because they think they are going to get too bulky, or because they don't want to add toned muscle tissue until they reach their ideal body weight. This is a huge mistake.

Without question, strength training exercise is the most important activity you should be doing to improve your health, wellness and appearance - hands down, without question, end of story. It helps you burn fat, improves your posture, shapes your body, increases strength and tones your muscles - all things that aerobic type exercise can never ever do for you.

Strength training is also the very best activity for losing excess body fat and maintaining your ideal body weight. Muscle is metabolically active tissue that increases your resting metabolism so that you are constantly burning more calories throughout the day and night. If you can put on five pounds of lean muscle tissue - which anyone can do within a few months - you can burn in excess of an additional 1,000 calories a week. Cardio type activity only focuses on burning calories during the exercise session. Strength training exercise increases the rate you burn fuel every minute - permanently - which is a very big difference.

Mistake 2: Not training with adequate intensity of effort - You now have a strength training program in place, but are you training hard enough to make a difference?

It is human nature to seek pleasure and avoid pain, so no, we hardly enjoy feeling our muscles burn while we struggle to finish off those last few repetitions of an exercise. But the fact is, if you aren't struggling, you are never ever going to see the results you are hoping for. The idea is to make your body and your legs stronger and to do that you have to make them work harder than they ever have done before.

Those little pink dumbbells are just not going to do the job of getting your legs looking hot. To bring about a positive change in your physique you really need to tax your muscles. No two ways about it. This means that the last few reps of your set need to be difficult, if not impossible, to complete. Only by sufficiently challenging your muscles beyond their present capacity will you set the stage for muscle toning and firming. Translation: Lack of intensity when you train (lack of effort) leads to a lack of the muscle tone you desire especially in the big muscles of the legs.

Mistake 3: Not having a game plan - When it comes to getting great results from your exercise program it is all about strategy. It is a huge waste of time showing up at the gym and not knowing what you are going to be doing that day.  Walking around aimlessly doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that accomplishes very little.

If you need some help, hire a fitness professional to set up your program and teach you correct exercise technique. They can also teach you correct exercise intensity so you do not waste time on ineffective exercises, or on not putting enough effort into how you perform them.

The important thing is to know exactly what you are going to do and why before you start each workout. It is a good idea to keep a workout log and monitor your own progress over a period of time. If you implement these strategies you ought to be able to sculpt a pair of the hottest legs in your neck of the woods. The rest of your resulting firm, lean, and toned body is likely to look pretty good too.

To get started on your own plan to kick off the pavement with a pair of smoking hot legs, check out ex-bodybuilding champion Carolyn Hansen's product Hot Legs Workout

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