Though it’s not in the heart of most people to do leg exercises, a 30 minute leg workout at home is highly recommended as the legs house most primary body muscles. Besides, exercising the legs makes them healthy.
Did you know that healthy legs are essential because they’re the backbone of the body’s balance? Did you also know that if you don’t train your legs, your overall body performance declines, and you risk getting injured?
A 30-minute leg workout is good. While it’s not a walk to the park, you can build leg muscle without weights. The five most effective leg workout at home includes:
- Duck walks
- Pistol squats
- Curtsy lunge
- Reverse lunge
- Banded lateral walk
30 Minute Leg Workout At Home
Leg workouts are ideal not only for your legs but also for the lower body. So, unless you have a splint injury that might only require you to focus on an ankle sprain workout, different leg workouts are the best for a 30 minutes session. You can also do them if you have less time.
Therefore, combine different exercises for a full-body workout. For example, you could do duck walks and pistol squats, among others, alongside the most effective upper-body exercises.
Let’s learn how to do half an hour of leg exercise – at home!
Duck Walks
Besides working out the legs and thighs when doing a 30 minute leg workout at home, duck walks are a great way of boosting bowel movement and bladder functions, too.
They would also be effective in flattening your belly, yet you don’t need much time to do them; 30 minutes are enough!
If you are experiencing pain around the general joint line, also known as painful clicking, try doing a duck walk for about 10 minutes daily. Indeed, it’s also a great glute exercise!
Step-By-Step Guide On How To Do Duck Walks
- Standing straight at feet shoulder-width, cross your hands directly in front of your chest. The right hand should touch the left shoulder, and the left one the right shoulder.
- Gently go down as if you’re squatting, but stop at a half-squat angle
- Squat with your hip back and down, and ensure you’re stable before kneeling, starting with the right knee and then the left one
- Get up beginning with the right leg, then the left, but maintain the half-squat position.
- Repeat the reps as many times as you wish.
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Pistol Squats
It is a strength training workout! Better put, a High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), so it’s not for the faint! You read that right! Pistol squats are fun watching others do them until it’s your turn! You want to walk out of the gym and never consider including them in your 30 minute leg workout at home!
Why are pistol squats so difficult, though? Three things must come into play when doing them:
- Balance
- Strength
- Flexibility
Interestingly, they’re the best leg exercises for strong ankle joints. Not only so, but they also make your ankle joints more flexible while giving you better body stability and balance.
Pistol squats are worth it, as they help strengthen the core as you try to keep your body balanced. Again, these squats are also ideal for the glutes.
What’s The Proper Form Of Doing Pistol Squats?
- Stand with your feet apart (hip distance)
- Three things should happen here: slightly lift the right leg while bending the left one, and go down as if to squat on one leg. Go low as much as you can but keep the torso upright.
- If you want to help your body to stay balanced, fully stretch the arms to the sides when going down. Else, have them in front of your chest.
- Remain in that position for about 2 seconds, then carefully drive through your heel (left) to return to the initial position. Repeat.
- If you’re just starting, you might have to do only 1, 2, or 3 reps daily.
Curtsy Lunge
The three benefits of doing lunges are:
- Good stability
- Excellence body balance
- Excellence symmetry and body alignment
Curtsy lunges are good for you, so you should add them to your fitness routine because they target the inner thighs and improve your body posture. In addition, curtsy lunges help stabilize the hips and hugely target the gluteus minimus, not to mention the gluteus mediums.
Curtsy lunges are also good for the back of your legs (hamstrings).
Therefore, consider adding them to your 4-hour body exercise.
How To Do Curtsy Lunge At Home
- Stand upright and have your feet shoulder-width apart
- You can cross your hands as you did when doing the duck walks (check above)
- Move one leg (right or left) backward (diagonally) so that it’s outside the other leg
- Have your hips back as you gently sit into a squat preposition before standing
- Go down again into the squat position. Alternate the legs so that the leg behind moves to its original position. The other leg should now take the place the other leg was in (behind the front leg).
- Keep repeating the rep as you alternate the legs.
Reverse Lunge
The reverse lunge is one type of workout every beginner should start today. It’s a low-impact workout that is also good for warm-ups. It’s easy, and you can do several reps before having seconds of rest.
The health benefits of reverse lunges include but are not limited to the following:
- Activates the hamstrings, core, and glutes
- Heightens the hip and front leg stability capabilities.
Unlike the front lunges that target quads muscles, reverse lunges work out two main muscles: The Glute max and hamstrings. If you care about your knees, as I do, stop doing front lunges. Include reverse lunges in your 30 minute leg workout at home.
Reverse lunges are better for the knees because they’re more tender to your knees as they minimize the pressure on them. Furthermore, working out the involved muscles (quads, glutes, hamstrings) is less of a strain.
How to do Reverse Lunges Like a Pro!
- Place your hands on the hip or hold some weight on each hand, for example, dumbbells for balance.
- Standing upright and feet slightly apart (hip-width)
- Move one leg (right or left) backward as you go down so that its toes give your body support while the front leg stays flat on the floor to increase your balance.
- As you go down, each knee should bend at 90 degrees
- Get back to the initial position by pushing through the front leg and alternate the legs to repeat the rep
- Repeat until you’ve had enough for the day
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Lateral Banded Walk
Your weight loss journey must not be a stressful one when you begin doing a 30 minute leg workout at home. You can have some fun while exercising. So, start doing a banded lateral walk NOW and see how much fun it is!
The lateral banded walk is good for the hip abductor muscles and works out all the glutes (minimus, Maximus, and medius). They’re also good for injury prevention as they stabilize the hips and, most importantly, the knees.
Therefore, a lateral resistance band helps your legs to become strong and well-toned. When you do lateral side steps walk, you work out the muscles around your butts, calves, and thighs.
Since walking with resistance bands target your upper body, you can take your fitness level a notch higher by adding it to your 20-minute home exercise plan.
How To Do Lateral Banded Walk Like The Experts!
- Place a top-quality band slightly above your knees and move your legs apart at hip width to stretch the band.
- Straighten your hands to the sides to have a good balance. Alternatively, hold a weight with your hands in front of your chest. This increases the intensity.
- Maintaining an athletic stance, squat down and then move to the right side one, two, three, or four steps based on the available space.
- Move the left side the exact number of steps you moved to the right to get back to your original position.
I’ve seen people try to improvise a lateral band. While that is cheaper and (probably) readily available, buying a strong and high-quality band is the best idea. Besides, they’re not highly-priced.
Pick one from the list below.
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| Amazon | SUNPOW Bands – Resistance Heavy Duty (5 Sets) | 4.7 |
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| Amazon | Renoj Resistance Bands (5 sets) | 4.3 |
Verdict
Indeed, it’s possible to build leg muscles without weights. A 30 minute leg workout at home is all you need. Besides, it’s remarkably effective in increasing leg muscle mass if consistently done!
Since you now know that healthy legs are vital as they help your body stabilize and stay balanced as you do your daily activities, you cannot continue skipping those leg workouts again!
Moreover, not working out equally has numerous health risks, for example, injury and instability. Therefore, the conclusion is that leg muscles are among the most vital muscles to train daily!
However, the best and most effective leg workout at home but most challenging is the pistol squat! Have you done pistol squats yet? Make it your 30-minute HIIT workout!
