5 Exercises to Tone your Thighs

Summer is almost here, which means it is time to get your beach body ready. Have you already started with your workout regime, but finding it hard to get toned thigh muscles ? Your solution is here. The American Heart Association recommends 30 minutes of exercise on most days of the week. While many exercises will give you toned legs, adding cardio vascular exercises to your routine will help maximize the fat loss as well.

Try these simple exercises for getting toned thigh muscles. Depending on the intensity levels of your workout you can choose to use a pair of dumbbells while you do these exercises. You may also take it up a notch by increasing the weights of the dumbbells you are already using.

So what are you waiting for! Bring out that workout gear and let’s get started.

Squats

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Lower yourself toward the ground as if you were about to sit on a chair.
• Keep your thighs parallel to the ground, stand back up, returning to the start position.
• Make sure your buttocks extend backwards so that your knees don’t move past your toes. One of the common squat mistakes that people make is that their knees often cross their toes. You should be able to see the top of your shoes through the entire circuit. This ensures correct posture while working out, thus, preventing injuries.

Benefits of squats

This exercise is one of the best one, since you lift your own body weight while you squat. Added weight increases the workout intensity and aids in building lean muscle mass, thus, toning and accelerating your metabolism and in turn aiding in reducing overall body fat as well.

Hip Bridges

• Lie flat on your back, and place your hands on the floor for balance as you bend your left leg and lift your right leg off the ground.
• Pressing your left heel to the floor, lift your pelvis up, keeping your body in a stiff bridge position. Slowly lower your body to the floor. Complete the same number of reps on the right side.

Benefits of hip bridges

Hip bridges target the glutes and hamstrings, thus strengthening  and aiding in toning of these muscles. Do this exercise at home and tone up without going to the gym.

Forward Lunges

• Stand with your feet flat on the floor. Step your right foot forward, as far as you can, while dropping your left knee toward the ground.
• Be sure to lower yourself toward the ground, and not towards your toes. You should see the front of your toes throughout the entire circuit, so be sure you don’t extend forward. Complete the same number of reps on the left side.

Benefits of forward lunges

Forward lunges work your glutes, thigh adductors, quadriceps and hamstrings, strengthening these muscles, and in turn improving your metabolism. This is highly beneficial if your goal is to lose overall body fat.  Doing the forward lunge also has an added advantage – it helps in improving your core strength, since it engages your core muscles as well.

Side Lunges

• Stand with your feet slightly more than hip-width apart. Step your left foot out to the side as far as you can while lowering yourself toward the ground.
• Your left leg should remain straight and you should feel a stretch in the inner thigh.
• Push powerfully off your right leg to return to the start position. Complete the same number of reps on the right side.

Benefits of side lunges

Side lunges work your thigh adductors, glutes, quadriceps, and hamstring muscles. This helps strengthen your thighs along with the core activation which in turn helps to improve your overall body balance and coordination as well. Take your workout to the next level by adding a few yoga postures to bring some variation into your routine.

Jump Squats

• Stand with your feet flat on the ground, hip-width apart. Lower yourself toward the ground, then jump into the air as high as you can, landing softly.
• Make sure your buttocks extend backwards so that your knees don’t move forward, past your toes. You should be able to see the top of your shoes through the entire circuit. This ensures a correct posture while working out, thus preventing any injuries.

Benefits of jump squats

Jump squats like all the other exercises mentioned above help build the quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings and calves.  And since it is a whole body impact movement this also helps in strengthening all the other muscles of the body. This exercise works in a unique way in which you burn 50 – 70 extra calories on a daily basis with every kg of muscle that you gain. Losing that overall body fat is pretty much easy with this exercise!

There you have it! Five easy-to-do exercises that will help you get rid of that stubborn thigh fat and get you ready for summer.

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