Bodyweight exercises can be considered a great choice for both beginners and gym-goers. For beginners, they can help them ease into the workout regime and learn to work with their own bodies.
For advanced exercises, these exercises can help them take an active recovery day from weightlifting exercises. Bodyweight exercises are also convenient, as you can do them even while you are travelling.
Effective Bodyweight Leg Exercises for Women
You need to include a wide variety of bodyweight leg exercises in your workout to effectively engage and strengthen the leg muscles. With more experience, you can add greater challenges to these leg exercises by including jumping into exercises or doing single leg movements to build stability.
Here's a look at seven effective bodyweight leg exercises for women:
1) Bulgarian Split Squat
The Bulgarian split squat is an effective bodyweight leg exercise that helps in strengthening the leg muscles, including glutes, calves, hamstrings and quads. Including this bodyweight leg exercise in regular workouts can help in toning the lower body and preparing for other advanced variations.
This is a unilateral exercise that can help in building a better balance and correcting any muscle imbalances. It also engages various core muscles to maintain the stability of the body.
2) Jump Lunges
Jump lunges can be considered a fabulous bodyweight leg exercise that makes the standard lunge challenging by including a jump in the movement.
This exercise not only challenges the muscles of the lower body but also works on increasing your heart rate. That allows you to burn a decent number of calories and shed extra fat.
3) Glute Bridge March
This bodyweight leg exercise targets the muscles of the hip region. The Glute Bridge March can help in strengthening the muscles of the glutes and hips along with building stability of the pelvis and hips. That is beneficial for the functional movements of everyday lifem such as walking, sitting, climbing and more.
This exercise can also be beneficial for athletes, as it helps in working on hip mobility and preventing pain in both the short and long term.
4) Lateral Lunges
Lateral lunges are one of the variations of lunges that can help in building stability and balance. This leg exercise can also help strengthen the muscles of both your outer and inner thighs. It also targets the legs, hips and quads at a slightly unique angle along with providing great twisting movements from side to side.
These lunges can help in toning the muscles of your thighs and might even enable the reduced appearance of cellulite. You should include this bodyweight leg exercise in your workout routine to get toned thighs and strengthening the muscles in your lower body.
5) Squats
Squats are one of the most basic bodyweight leg exercises that work on the entire lower body. You can even add variations, such as including jumps or weights for an added challenge. This bodyweight leg exercise can help you strengthen both the core and the legs and also shed some serious calories.
Squats can also help in boosting athletic performance and reducing the risk associated with injuries. Overall, squats can help you execute various body movements with proper posture and form.
6) Wall Sit
The inclusion of wall sit exercise in your workout regime can certainly do wonders. It;s a dynamic exercise that can help in both weight loss and muscle gain. This exercise can help in burning a high number of calories along with building body balance.
The wall sit exercise works completely in your lower body and the core region. Additionally, a wall sit can also help you build endurance and isometric strength.
7) Single Leg Deadlift
In a single leg deadlift, you have to bring your body angled parallel to the floor by leaning forward with the upper torso and driving one leg backward.
Regular practice of single leg deadlift can help in building body balance along with working on athleticism and functional movement. Additionally, this exercise can help in toning and strengthening the glutes and hip muscles.
Bottom Line
The aforementioned leg exercises can help in engaging the major muscle groups of the legs along with the core.
Besides toning and strengthening the muscles, these exercises can provide multiple other benefits including improved balance, enhanced stability, better functional movement and more.
Additionally, these bodyweight exercises are beneficial for both advanced and beginner gym goers. Therefore, you should definitely include these exercises in your workout routine.