Healthy Leg

1. Are you naturally klutzy or do you just fall down a lot? Try to be more careful; falling can not only hurt your legs but also cause bruises, cuts and scars. .....

Shave your legs as often as needed

2. Figure out the best and easiest method of hair removal for you. Some people prefer waxing; some like shaving. With the great products now available for shaving, its easy to find a good shaving gel and a good quality razor. Be careful about your razor choice; sometimes expensive is better. Some people think it is better to shave at night, because it gives your legs a chance to wake up. .....

Use leg makeup

3. Use leg makeup if you must, but be cautious as it will transfer to other products. Spray on makeup for your legs is also available. It helps cover up bruises and other imperfections for special events, but is not suggested for daily use. .....

Exercise

4. Working out helps to develop shapely and toned legs. Some basic exercises you can do for great stems include:Jumping (with a jump rope or trampoline)Running/jogging,Walking,Riding a bike,Swimming,Stair climbing,Aerobics,Squats and/or lunges,Weight training. Consult a trainer for the correct weights and reps. Usually less weight and more reps will gently build muscle and tone without adding bulk. .....

Use a scrub

5. Always exfoliate and wash your legs before shaving them. It helps give them a natural glow from taking off dead skin cells. .....

Wear skirts and flattering shorts

6. Wear skirts and flattering shorts that hit your leg in the appropriate place and are the proper length. You dont want anything too short, but you want them short enough to show off your legs. Avoid ankle and tea length dresses and skirts, as well as capri pants that narrow at the knees. These items may show off your legs, but they can also make your hips look larger. If you are tall, make sure you buy pants and jeans of an appropriate length to .....

Move

7. Move, climb stairs, move your legs around at the office and at home. Avoid prolonged sitting or standing which may cause leg pain and swelling.Movement such as brisk walking and other aerobic exercise are ideal for both building strength and increasing circulation. Swimming, riding a bike, running and other activities are also great. Set a goal of 30 minutes of sustained activity a day. .....

Refresh your legs

8. After a long tiring day, or during warm weather, refresh your legs with a cool shower. Avoid lengthy exposure to heat, e.g. sunbathing, hot baths and saunas as this can lead to dilated veins and swollen legs. .....

Put your feet up

9. When youre sat on the sofa at home or lying in bed, elevate your legs to improve venous blood return. When in the office, use a foot rest under your desk. .....

Maintain a healthy body weight

10. A healthy diet will help you maintain a normal weight and thus reduce leg complaints. (At a normal body weight, your BMI should be between 19 and 24; BMI = Body Mass Index: Your BMI is calculated by dividing your weight (in kg) by the square of your height (m?)). .....

Stretch

11. Concentrate on taking regular breaks to stretch and move your legs and feet. Sitting or standing for long periods is not helpful but making mindful movements will allow help increase the circulation in your legs. .....

Elevate

12. Elevating the legs is beneficial for everyone. The key is to elevate them above the level of your hips if you are sitting. If you are prone, elevate them above your heart. Doing this promotes blood flow from your legs into the rest of your body. Pregnant women or those already facing circulatory problems should make it a regular practice to elevate their legs on a regular basis. .....

Diet

13. A good dietary regime includes a balanced diet and supplements that support your circulatory and skeletal systems. A healthy weight will reduce additional pressure that can negatively impact your veins and your hips, legs, ankles and feet. .....

Moisturize

14. A good leg care regime also includes moisturizing your skin and pampering your feet and ankles. Massaging while you moisturize also helps stimulate circulation. .....

Attention Action

15. By making these efforts a regular practice you will help your leg veins However, if you are experiencing leg pain, leg swelling, numbness, tingling, cramping, or see skin discoloration, ulceration or varicose veins, we encourage you to take the time to schedule a consultation with your physician or to make an appointment for an assessment with one of the Advanced Vein Centers vein doctors. .....

Kettlebell Swing

16. Without rounding your lower back, push your hips back and swing a kettlebell between your legs. Thrust your hips forward and let the weight swing to shoulder level. Drop back to the starting position; let gravity bring the kettlebell back between your legs. .....

Dumbbell Alternating Side Lunge

17. Stand tall, holding a pair of dumbbells at arms length at your sides. Take a big step to your left and lower your body by pushing your hips backward and bending your left knee. As you lower your body, bend forward at your hips and touch the dumbbells to the floor. Pause, and then return to the starting position. On your next rep, take a big step to your right. Continue to alternate sides with each rep. .....

Split Jump

18. Stand in a staggered stance with your feet 2 to 3 feet apart, your right foot in front of your left. Keeping your torso upright, bend your legs and lower your body into a lunge. Now jump with enough force to propel both feet off the floor. While youre in the air, scissor kick your legs so you land with your left leg forward. Repeat, alternating your forward leg with each rep. .....

Dumbbell Goblet Squat

19. Stand with your feet slightly beyond shoulder width. Cup the end of a dumbbell with both hands and hold it vertically in front of your chest, your elbows pointing down. Keeping your back naturally arched, push your hips back, bend your knees, and squat. Pause, and push yourself back up to the starting position. .....

Before Running

20. 1.If you eat before running, wait at least 3 hours before beginning running. Almost nothing you eat immediately before a run will digest enough to give you energy during your run. If you do have to eat, choose something your system can easily absorb, such as a banana, a few spoonfuls of peanut butter or honey, or a handful of dried fruit.2. Drink at least 8 oz. of water a half hour before heading out to prevent dehydration. If youre going for lon .....

After Running

21. 1. After a 3 5 minute cool down jog, stretch thoroughly. Dont just jump back into your car and head off to your next event, or you could be walking around with tight legs for the rest of the day. Doing a cool down and stretching period allows the lactic acid (the waste product created by your muscles) to be flushed out into your bloodstream and eliminated from your body.2 . Take a hot bath or relax in a hot tub after your running workout if you c .....

Work Your Lower Half In Every Move

22. Your lower body is the easiest and quickest place to build calorie torching lean muscle. You have over 200 muscles below the belt, including the largest muscle in your body your gluteus maximus. So get off your glutes and get your lower body going in everything you do. Stand on one leg for shoulder presses or squat during biceps curls. The more you work your lower half, the faster youll see results. Need more ideas? Try this total body routine. .....

Get to the Core

23. Youve probably heard tons about core training and how important it is, but did you know that its impossible to work your core without also engaging your legs? Skip standard crunches and speed up your results with core training. Try this routine to work your core and legs. .....

Start Left

24. Work your weaker side first which is the left side for many of us, says Michele Olson, PhD, creator of the Perfect Legs, Glutes & Abs DVD. When you are fresh, you use better form and tend to do more reps. If you always work your weaker (or left side) last, such as with lunges, you may be unconsciously keeping your stronger side stronger and not giving your weaker side the extra attention it deserves. .....

Lunge like a Ballerina

25. Lunges is one of the best leg toning exercises, but this ballet inspired lunge will shape those legs in half the time, says Laurie Alfano, Director of Education for Xtend Barre in Boca Raton, Florida. To do it: put one leg forward and one back, making sure both heels are on the ground. Lift both heels up off the floor and then lunge down. Do 10 small pulses (raising up and down a few inches in each direction) before switching legs. Be sure to kee .....

Get Off the Ground

26. Get off the ground and let your results take flight, says Alex Figueroa, a certified personal training consultant. Figueroa suggests taking your typical leg routine to the next level with plyometric (or power) moves like squat jumps or single leg lateral ski hops. Get your form down first with a well executed squat, and then progress up, literally, to the plyometric version of just about any leg exercise. .....

Combine Strength and Power

27. To build lean and strong legs, you need a mix of strength and power, which will also help you to burn more calories faster, says Marta Montenegro, an exercise physiologist in Miami, Florida. Perform a lunge around the clock (starting at 6 and ending at 10, which is a side lunge), and do 3 sets of 12 15 reps and right after that, do split jumps (no weight, switching the leg position every time you land for 15 counts) to fully engage all the muscle .....

Go the Distance With Your Cardio

28. Women may need to incorporate more long, low moderate cardio activities since the fat in the hips (pear shape) is harder to melt than around the abdominal area (apple shape). If you need to focus on your legs more than the waist, dont forget to do 45 to 60 minutes cardiovascular exercise, explains Montenegro. .....

Skip the Ankle Weights

29. Before you strap on those ankle weights in hopes of slimmer thighs, consider this: they may cause excess stress on your ankles, knee and hips joints, strain your ligaments or even cause muscular imbalances. Bottom line the risks of wearing ankle weights outweigh the benefits. Save walking for cardio, and focus on your strength training with weights another time.If you want to add intensity to your walks, try using walking poles or a weighted vest .....

Put Your Legs to Work to Get to Work

30. Speed up your results, save money, and help the environment by using your legs to commute to work. If you live close enough, you can walk, bike, rollerblade or even use a Street Rider to get work. A 30 minute active commute to and from work each day could add up to an extra 500 calories burned each day. Thats about 3 pounds lost in a month! .....

Stop Trying to Spot Reduce

31. Sorry, the thigh master alone will not get rid of inner thigh bulges no matter how many squeezes you give it. To rid your body of excess fat in certain spots, like around the hips and thighs, youll need to reduce your overall body fat with a total body strength and cardio routine and a balanced diet. Remember that you may see results last in the areas you are hoping to get rid of first (inner thighs) and first in the areas you want to keep (like .....

Dont Neglect Your Diet

32. Even the best workout routine cant make up for a crummy diet. Make sure to supplement your hard work at the gym with a healthy, balanced diet that contains enough calories to lose (or maintain) your weight. Eat whole, unprocessed foods and drink plenty of water to ensure your body has the nutrients it needs to stay energized and perform well during your training sessions. .....

Get Off the Machines at the Gym

33. Those weight machines at the gym may look impressive, but they arent helping you build an impressive physique. Youll burn more calories and work more muscles at once by doing a side lunge instead of using an isolation equipment piece like the adductor machine. During a side lunge there is a lot of balance and stability required, thus meaning more work by the adductors (or inner thigh muscles). In addition to strengthening the ligaments of the kne .....

Sprint for Lean Legs

34. Sprints are cardio intervals, bringing the heart rate up fast and then letting it come down in between. This boosts metabolism and burns more calories than jogging at a steady rate and is a great way to get leaner legs, says Tom Holland, star of the Supreme 90 Day DVD System. Start incorporating sprints into your next cardio workout by moving as fast as you can for 15 seconds (with plenty of recovery in between) up to three times during your sess .....

Stand Up More Often During Your Day

35. Getting out of your chair more frequently during the day will not only help work your legs more, it may also help shrink your waistline and improve your health. A recent study from the University of Queensland, Australia found that out of 5,000 office workers, those who stood more often during their work day had a waist size that was 4.1 cm smaller and lower levels of bad cholesterol and blood glucose than those who stayed seated. Aim to stand up .....

Foam Roll Your Legs

36. Think about it this way: when your jeans first come out of the dryer, they are hard to move around in comfortably, right? Tight muscles feel the same way. Foam rolling acts like a deep tissue massage that can help release adhesions in your muscles that may be limiting your range of motion or performance during your workouts. Iron out the kinks in your legs before your workout for better exercise performance and ultimately, better results. .....

Hit Up Some High Intensity Intervals

37. Rather than spend hours on the elliptical, cut your workout time down with high intensity intervals, says Geoff Bagshaw, area group fitness manager for Equinox in Miami. Intervals, short bursts of maximum effort cardio followed by rest periods, along with resistance training, will elevate the rate you burn calories, helping to torch fat and increase lean muscle to give you the tone and definition youre looking for. .....

Train From All Angles

38. Be sure to train from all angles. Often we get stuck in a rut and use the same exercises over and over again. Mix up your leg training to target all those lower body muscles from different angles, says Bagshaw. At a loss for ideas? Book a session with a trainer to have them develop a program you can work with that has you lunging and squatting through all planes of movement. .....

Hold It

39. At the end of every set, try to hold a contracted position (like the bottom of a squat) for as long as you can. This is called an isometric contraction and will help you get stronger through the toughest parts of range of motion, says Jeff Dolgan, a clinical exercise physiologist at Canyon Ranch in Miami Beach, Florida. .....

Slow Down

40. The lowering phase of leg exercises such as squats and lunges (the eccentric contraction) is the period when strength gains typically will occur. This is often referred to as a negative load because although you are not pushing weight, your muscle fibers are still contracting, says Dolgan. Many people make the mistake of moving through the eccentric phase too quickly. The maximum speed you should lower your body is 4 seconds from standing to full .....

Drop Set

41. Start your set with a weight that is approximately 30% more than you would normally lift. Complete 4 6 repetitions at this weight. Quickly drop the weight to 30% less than you would normally lift and finish your set with 8 10 more repetitions, says Dolgan. This essentially pre fatigues your muscles and makes them think that you have completed more work than you actually have. .....

Mix Up Your Range of Motion on Moves

42. We dont typically use our body in full range of motion (ROM) in everyday activities like we do in the gym. Try to complete one repetition with only 25 percent ROM, one repetition with 50 percent ROM, one repetition with 75 percent ROM and one set with full ROM. Vary these range of motions randomly within each set, suggests Dolgan. .....

Vary Your Pushing Speed

43. The lowering speed should always be fairly slow; however, changing the speeds of your pushing phase will help you mimic real life. Try one repetition slowly, one at a medium pace and one explosively fast. Randomly mix different speeds into your pushing phase, recommends Dolgan. This is a great way to incorporate power training into your strength training routine and speed up your results. .....