Six simple exercises to tone your legs for summer
Our legs are mostly neglected for much of the year, until the weather changes and we panic. But fear not, with some thoughtful targeting, toned legs are possible. “The lower body is our foundation,” says Catie Miller, the founder of Barre Series who teaches a fusion of Pilates, barre and functional training with a focus on overall longevity. “Fifteen years ago, barre and Pilates were an afterthought to high intensity workouts, but those kinds of exercise burn out the body,” explains Miller.
She cues her classes from the feet up. “If the feet are in the correct position we can work our way up to the knees, hips, pelvis, ribcage, shoulders, neck and head, it’s a chain reaction.”
Do these six simple exercises two to three times a week and you’ll see improvements in your muscle tone, as well as balance and coordination in your day-to-day life.
Calf raises
In ballet, this lifting and lowering of the heels is known as a relevé. Basic yet impactful, it works the legs up to the glutes to help build stability and balance, and has other benefits, too.
“It strengthen the calves and supports venous return (blood flow) and overall leg circulation,” says Miller. “That small action – lifting and lowering heels – acts as a pump to pull your blood up and out of your legs.”
Try this
With your hands on a chair for stability, stand in parallel with the toes and heels together and then alternately lift and lower each heel, or lift both heels simultaneously “like you’ve got sticky tape joining the heels together,” Miller advises. You can do this while you’re brushing your teeth or making a cup of tea.
Aim for 8-16 lifts.
You can also do this exercise in first position (toes pointed outwards in opposite directions). “This external rotation of the hips activates the seats and the front of the thighs,” she says.
Go harder: Put your hands on your hips without holding any surface. Aim for four sets of eight.
Go hardest: Raise your arms over your head to really test your balance. Or, do a single leg calf raises while balancing on one leg and transferring to the other. “Playing with proprioception (your body’s ability to sense movement) is integral for longevity.” Play with rhythm; slow it down, lift for a count of two and lower for a count of two.
Pliés
“Every prima ballerina does a plié to warm up and they never get easier,” says Miller.
External rotation is uncommon in other forms of exercise, which means you miss out on engaging the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves, all at once.
From parallel, keep your heels together and turn the feet out making a natural V shape.
“Track your bent knees over the toes. As you straighten the legs imagine feeling the ‘zipping up’ of your inner thighs as you squeeze your glutes”
Try this
Holding onto a chair, do eight to 16 pliés in first position, playing with tempo to build resistance.
Go harder: Take the plié into a relevé so that you are doing calf raises at the same time, testing your balance with your hands on hips. Four sets of eight.
Go hardest: Hold the relevé and plié while the heels are still lifted. Test your balance with your hands above your head.
Reverse lunge
Come back to parallel and face the chair with both hands placed on it, or side on to it with one hand to stabilise you.
“Step one foot back and try to drop the back knee towards the floor, while keeping your front knee over your front ankle. When stepping back, bring your shoulders back with you, keeping in line with your hips.”
Try this
8-16 lunges, alternating each leg.
Go harder: Take your hands to your hips, or as you lunge lift your arms over head returning elbows to hips as you step back. Try four sets of eight.
Go hardest: Step back into a lunge and pulse for three counts and then change feet. “For extra challenge, lunge and jump for the switch.”
Glute bridge
A key exercise in rehabilitative work, the glute bridge activates the calves and glutes and gives the quads a nice big stretch.
Lying on a floor mat, take your feet hip width apart and your heels close-ish to your body. Miller suggests placing a Pilates ball between your inner thighs to keep them engaged, tracking your knees in line with your toes.
Pressing the heels into the floor, lift your hips up evenly at the same time in one movement and then lower in one movement, rolling steadily through the spine.
Try this
Lift and lower eight to 16 times.
Go harder: Four reps of eight, introducing playing with rhythm. “You can hold the hips up and pulse for three and lower for one,” Miller notes. Or play with resistance: “Lift up slowly for two and down slowly for two.”
Go hardest: To really fire up your obliques, take one leg into table-top and work one leg singularly, or introduce pulses at the top of the lift, remembering to switch legs.
Squats
Standing in parallel, sit back into an imaginary chair, hold then stand back up.
Don’t worry about how deep to go, says Miller, “the most important thing is pressing your weight back into your heels whilst maintaining your long neutral spine”.
Try this
You can start by actually sitting back into a chair, then squeezing the bum muscles to stand.
Go harder: Move your squat into a relevé. “Sitting down into a squat and when you come back up, lifting your heels up into that calf raise to test your balance,” Miller explains. Or add a resistance band.
Go hardest: Turn it into a cardiovascular exercise and recruit bigger muscles by moving the squat into a jump. “Sit down into a squat and then press off into a jump. Land back down toe, ball then heel and soften the knees into the landing.”
Side leg raises
Miller’s favourite is “great for hip health, mobility and stability”.
Stand side onto a chair with your left hand holding on and your right hand on your hip. Feet in first position.
Bend your knees, placing your left elbow and forearm on the chair so that you are laterally flexing over the chair, leaning onto it. Point your right leg out to the side and turn your knee to point forward. Then raise the whole leg.
“This targets the whole side of the thigh. Your working leg is the one up and down but it is actually also working the leg you’re standing on deeply too. That’s your stabiliser.”
Try this
Lift the right leg up and down to touch the floor eight to 16 times.
Go harder: Do four sets of eight. On the eighth rise each time pulse the leg. “That’s hard work because you’re now working your core and obliques,” says Miller. “You can also play with flexing the foot to activate through the back of the leg.”
Go hardest: Vary the tempo and shapes. “We can slide it forward and back making a line, without moving the torso,” Miller explains. “We can jump it forward and back, drawing a rainbow. You can make little karate kicks to the side and then press it back out.” Or draw circles: “Four times in one direction then four times in the other direction.”
