I have good news for you if you’ve been wanting to tone your legs and hips without going to the gym every day. I’ve worked in the exercise business for over 25 years and am the Director of teaching at Balanced Body. I’m an expert in Pilates teaching and have helped a lot of people change their bodies through simple, effective movements.
One of the easiest and healthiest exercises you can do is walking. With a few smart changes, you can make it tone your lower body a lot better. Find out how to turn your daily walk into a powerful workout by reading on.
1. Why Walking Works for Toning
Walking has been linked to a lot of health benefits, such as better breathing, less stress and sadness, and a general feeling of well-being. Talking about specific ways that walking can help you tone, a regular walking routine will tone your legs and hips. To walk, your legs have to move, and your hip, knee, and ankle joints have to move and articulate. This requires your leg muscles and glutes to be active.
The fact that you are standing up against gravity and moving forward means that your muscles have to work with and overcome ground forces in order to achieve the gait cycle. There are also parts of the exercise that help with balance, rhythm, and muscle control.
The first step is to start walking regularly. Don’t stress about getting it right or going too fast or too slow. Promise to go for a walk, enjoy being outside, and ask a friend to join you.
If you want to build muscle faster and with more specific exercises, then adding the following will definitely help.
2. Intervals: Mix Up Your Pace
To change your speed, walk at a slow pace for short periods of time and then quickly pick up the pace again. This will push your cardio capacity and improve the health of your heart in general. Even doing short bursts of light running will help—just 20 to 30 seconds of jogging every two minutes of walking can be very helpful.
3. Change Your Terrain
Walking the same route and the same terrain repeatedly will have value, but as the body anticipates and learns your routine, the benefits may not be as impactful. However, adding inclines and declines will both increase the challenge and change up the routine while keeping the mind in tune with the body and elevating the heart rate.
Both incline walking and decline walking will also challenge different muscle groups, creating strength and the development of power. Walking stairs is another way to add inclines and declines to your routine.
4. Fitness Moments: Add Strength Training
Adding squats, lunges, and other fitness-based movements is a great way to mix up your walking practice. For every 15 minutes of walking, stop, do a set of 10-15 bodyweight squats and/or lunges, and then continue. Adding some lower body fitness moments will go a long way in building strength while you also improve your cardio ability. Three good workouts to add include lunges, squats, and heel rises.
5. Master the Perfect Squat
You work out your quads, hamstrings, hips, and knee flexors when you squat.
Hold your body straight, with your head, ribs, and hips all in line with each other. Space your feet about shoulder-width apart.
– Sit back and bend your knees, hips, and feet as if you were in a chair.
It’s okay for your chest to tilt over your legs as you lower, but you should keep your body in line.
– Go as low as you can while keeping your body line.
– Get back up straight. Before you go down again, make sure you stand as tall as you can.
– For an isometric challenge, hold in the squat position for 30 seconds to one minute, or longer if you want. When you’re in the hold position, pulse within a small range of motion to make the exercise more challenging.
6. Lunges for Functional Strength
Your hips, hamstrings, knee flexors, and quads all get stronger when you squat. The lunge is closely connected to walking and the useful movement of both legs back and forth.
– Stand tall with your head, ribs, and hips aligned, and put your straight legs over your tall body.
– Take a step forward, bend both knees, and kneel down toward the ground.
– Keep your back straight and your body line straight as you lower yourself.
– Raise your legs straight to go back to the starting position.
– For more trouble…Hold for 30 to 60 seconds while in the lowered lunge position. When you are in the hold position, pulse within a small range of motion to make the exercise more challenging.
– To make it harder on your balance and muscles, start with your legs together and take three steps forward, down, and back.
There are some mistakes that people often make when they do squats and lunges:
1. Give up your body line to squat or slide deeper.
2. The lower back rises, or the hips and pelvis stay high as the body goes down.
7. Heel Raises for Ankle Strength
You can work out your legs, knees, and feet with heel raises. They also help you get more balanced and coordinated.
As you stand tall with your legs straight, lift your heels and press the floor away with your toes.
– Lower with care and do it again
– To make it harder, stand on a step with your feet flat on the ground. Bring your heels down below the step, and then press your balls of your feet into the step as you raise your heels.
It’s most likely that you won’t move your ankles all the way through because you are too focused on keeping your balance. For just the right amount of support, stand next to a table or inside a door frame. This will let you move freely.
Focusing only on the heel raise phase is the second biggest mistake. The slow, controlled return is important for improving balance and building up the muscles in the calf, ankle, and foot.
This is a very easy workout that will help you build strength in your feet, ankles, and calves.
