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Hello and welcome to Legs of Steel. I'm Tammy Lee Webb. In this exercise program, we're going to
concentrate on working the legs in a standing position. We're going to isolate the inner thigh,
which we call the adductor, the outer thigh, which is the abductor, the thigh area up on top we call
the quadriceps, the back of the thigh in the hamstring, and because the gluteus, your buttocks muscles,
is connected to all of those, you're going to feel it there as well. Now when we do these exercises,
you need not to have any equipment. However, if you have a chair that you can use as a ballet bar or
support while you're standing, and if you have a pair of ankle weights to add more resistance, we want
the overload principle to really shape and tone and sculpture the muscles, you need some form of
resistance. Alright, are we ready? Let's start with our warm up. Position yourself with your feet
shoulder width apart. Inhale up, exhale down, roll the shoulders one at a time. Now bend at the knees
nice and easy. Four more, make sure the knees are not going past the toe. Now right and left. Really get this
down up movement so that you're using the quadriceps, that's your leg muscles, down and up. Now let's take
the arms and just swing them from side to side. Now every three you're going to lift one leg. One, two,
lift this leg up. Now the other. Really concentrate on that down up movement. Four more, two more, one
more. This time we'll double it up and circle the arms. Here we go. Double it up. Two more please. Last one.
Side to side. Now let's step together, bring the arms in and take the legs back out. Now you'll lift
just one leg, squat down and repeat it. Here we go. Lift up, squat. Push up on that leg. Four more.
Three, two, side to side again. Let's repeat it on the other side. Ready, lift, squat. Two, push off on that
leg. Four more. Two, one, side to side again. Let's bring it in to a step touch. Now eliminate the arms
and tap your toe in front. We're going to change this up and every three you'll lift that knee up, tap it back
down and step touch. So it looks like this. One, two, three, knee, tap, touch. Knee, tap, step. Tap knee,
tap, tap, tap. Arms go like this. One more. Step touch. Three, two, march it out. Bend up the knees, roll it up,
press through the spine. All the way up now. Bring yourself over to the side of the chair. Place one foot up with
your hips facing your extended leg. Press your buttocks back, stretching the hamstring. Feel the stretch right in
here. Now bring that toe back towards your body. Feel the stretch down to the gastro, at your calf muscle.
That back is straight, no rounding backs. This knee is soft. Point the toe back down, rotate your hips toward me
and bend the base leg. Stretching the inner thigh. Press it out. Continue to breathe throughout all the stretches.
For four, three, two, and one. Bring it back in. Now push this hip out. All the weight is on this hip. For four, three,
two, and one. Use the chair for support. Bring this heel up towards your buttocks. Slightly bend the base leg and no
arching the back. Pull the heel up, stretching the quadriceps. That's the largest muscle in your entire body.
Feel the stretch and release it. Walk to the other side of your chair. Let's place the other leg up. Toes pointed down.
Shift the hips back and feel the stretch in the hamstrings, the back of the upper thigh. Hips and shoulders are
directly over the extended legs. For four, three, two. Now roll that toe up towards your body. Feel the stretch, move it
down. You tend to hyperextend at the knee. Try to keep the knee slightly bent. Point the toe down. Rotate it forward.
Squat it down. Take this arm and press it out from the inside of the knee. Stretch to the end, doctor. For four,
three, two, and one. Step together. Push this hip out to the side. And bring it up. The chair for a base of support.
Pull the heel up in the back, stretching the quadriceps. Or I should say quadriceps. It's just one leg right now.
And release it. And one more time. Inhale up and exhale down. And now we're ready for the exercises. You need your
chair and your ankle weights. For those of you that want a little bit more energy output and work a little bit harder,
take some ankle weights or rubber bands or whatever you can to add more resistance to the leg workout. For the first
exercise, we're going to do a seated squat. Stand in front of your chair, feet shoulder width apart. Make sure that the
knees do not go beyond that 90 degrees. Or the hip. You're going to sit back. Once you feel your gluteus, touch the seat.
Come right back up. Ready? Here we go. Sit down, two, and up. And squeeze it. Down, two, press up, and squeeze.
Try and press through the heels. When you come up, squeeze your legs. Working the quadriceps, gluteus, and little hands.
One more. Now take it to tempo. Down and up. Now this exercise we're going to do in between each of the other
exercises. So we're going to work ourselves around your chair. For eight, seven, sit way back. Check down at the
knees. Five, four, three, two, and one. It comes at the side of your chair. A one-legged squat now instead of two.
Make sure the knee does not go past the toe. Lift this leg up. Go down, two, and up, two. Once again, press through the
heels. When you come up, contract the thigh. Down. Let's do four more. One, press through the heel. Use the chair for support.
Two more, please. Press through those heels. Tempo. Down and up. One, press up. Two, three, four. Do not lock out the knee
when you come up, please. Six, seven. Hold this one down isometric. Press through the heels. Pump it. Just very subtle
movement. Right here, right here. For four, three, two, and one. Let's take it to the other side. Position. Hold this leg up.
Down for twos. One, two, and up, two. Double check the knee. It's not going past the toe. Press through the heel. Four more.
Now, if you're real advanced and you want more from this, you can do this off of the chair. Make sure the chair is supported
by a wall so it doesn't move around. Ready? Tempo. Down and up. Down and up. You can also do this off of a ledge, or you can do it
just right here with me. Four, three, two. Hold this one down isometric. The muscle doesn't change. Now press through the
heels. For eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Bring it back to the front. Seated squats. Ready? Singles.
Down, pull up. Down, pull up. Check your form. The knees are not past the toe. Squeeze your quads when you come up, and your
buttocks. Four more, please, and you'll hold it down to an isometric contraction. That means there's no change, no up or down.
Hold this one right here. For four, three, two. Now press through the heels. Press it up. Squeeze your gluteus. Squeeze the gluteus.
Three, two, and one. Up. Back to the side. Now we're going to go to the back of the thigh called the hamstring. Three positions here.
When you start out, the toe is pointed. Then you're going to flex at the ankle, curl it up. When you curl up, you plie at the base leg.
The knee doesn't go past the toe. Then you're going to lift from the hip, not very high. You do not want to hyperextend. Back down,
lift and point. Ready? One, two, three, four.
Four more. Lift the knee, bring it back down, and point. Five, six. Very controlled. Use the chair for support for your upper torso.
One more, please. Now bend the base and just curl it up for me. Curl and down. Curl and down. Squeeze the back of the thigh.
Squeeze. You'll feel a little resistance on the other side because that leg's holding you up and it's doing an isometric.
Hold it up and pump. Four, three, two, squeeze. Now lift the knee up and down. Very small. No arch in the back. Lift.
Four more. Four, three, two, and one. Release it. Let's take it to the other side. Position. Ready? Curl, lift, in, extend.
Once again, hamstring, gluteus. Four more. Do you feel it? Are you with me? Really tighten it up. Remember to contract your abdominals on the action to support the lower back.
Just curl only now. Curl it up. Point. Two, three, four. Come on. Four more. Five, six. Flex that foot. Seven. Hold this one.
Now lift the knee. Press that heel up. You should really feel it back in the gluteus and the hamstrings now. Two more. One and two.
Release it. Back to the front. Sitting squats. Position. Here we go. Down. Pull up. Push from the heels. Breathe through it. Focus on the muscle groups we're working.
Gluteus, quadriceps. Four more. Then we'll hold it down. Four, three. Don't be sitting down. You have to come back up. Hold this one. It's just touching. Isometric.
Now if you need, you can place your hands on your thighs to help support your upper torso. Press through the heels. A little press up. Just a little one.
You've got it. Squeeze it together. Let's do four more. Squeeze as hard as you can. Three, two, and one. Roll it up and release it. Back to the side.
Now we're going to go to inner thighs adductors. Let's start with the inside leg. There's three positions here.
Face leg is soft. Diagonal lift. Curl it up. Down. Release. Ready? One, two, three. Down.
Really focus on the inner thigh, our adductor right here. Concentrate on it. And if you have resistance, you're going to work a little bit harder than without any resistance at all.
Contract. Tighten the abdominals when you lift. When you release, expand the abdominals. Collect some air. Up.
Three more. Up. Squeeze. Down. Release. Two more. Squeeze. Now this one, you'll hold it up after you extend right here.
Now lift it up. Two, three, four, five, six, seven. Flexion. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Release it.
Let's take it to the other side. Same position. Three positionings. Diagonal. Curl it in. Extend. And down. Lift. Curl. Extend. And down.
Remember the base leg is slightly bent at the knee. Really squeeze it as you come up. As high as you can. Here's four.
Concentrate. Adductors. There's five. And six. Seven. One more. Hold it up after the flexion right here. Isometric.
Now lift. Lift. Three, four, five, six, seven. Now curl it in for eight. One, two. Breathe in. Three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.
Release it down. Let's go back to the front. Seated squats. Ready? Here we go. Take it down. Pull up.
This should be getting a little bit easier. Press to the heels. Just like you're going to sit in a chair and say, nah, I'm not going to.
And you better not be sitting down watching this. You're not going to get anything out of it. You've got to take action. Do it with me.
Four more. Four, three, two. Hold it down. Isometric. Remember if you need a little bit of support for the torso, place your hands on your thighs.
Four, three. Now press through the heels. The back is straight. Push up. Squeeze the gluteus. Come on. Press. Press. Press.
Let's do eight more. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Roll it up. Shake it out. Move it back to the side.
Abductors, outer thighs. Base leg is bent. Again, there will be three positions here. You lift up. Curl it in. Point it out. Drop.
Lift. Curl. Extend. And drop. Try not to lean over too far. You should still be upright. The hips should not go any higher than what's comfortable for you.
Press it out. Outer thigh. Lift up. Curl. And we're going to do ten on each side. That was seven. Eight. Do you feel this? If you don't, you need some type of resistance.
One more. Hold this one out. Lift it up. Lift up. Two, three, four, five, six, seven. Continue. But just bend the knee and lift the knee up.
Focus more on the knee. Four, three, two, and one. Bring it in. Shake it out. Take it to the other side. See, we have two sides, so we have to work twice as hard.
Outer leg. Base leg. Three points. Here we go. Lift up. Curl. Extend. And down. Up. Curl. Extend. And down.
Come on. Feel it. Outer thigh. You'll feel a little bit on the one that's holding you up. It's going to hold all your body weight. So what type of contraction is it doing? Isometric.
Three more. Can we do one more? Sure we can. Hold it out. Isometric. Ready? Lift it up. Lift it. One, two, three, four, five, six. Continue to do it, but bend at the knee. Lift up.
Four more. Two and one. Release it. Bring it back to the front. Before we go on, let's just stretch this out. Push that hip out, just like we did in the beginning of the warmup.
Push the hip out. Feel the stretch right in here. Shift it to the other side. And back in. Here we go.
Now this last time what we're going to do is we're going to run through each of those three exercises. So we're going to do squat, adduction, hamstring curl, and outer thigh.
And then repeat on the other side. Are you ready? Let's start with our seated squats. Singles. Here we go. Your bottom should just be touching that chair.
And it better not be a real high chair either. You've got to be able to come down no further than that 90 degrees.
Four more. Four, three, two, and one. Hold this one for four, three, two. Now press through the heels. Press eight, seven, six. Very small. Five, four, three, two, and one. Bring it up.
Other side. One-legged squat. Here we go. Singles. Down and up. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Right here. Hamstring. Up, lift, in, and down.
Up, lift, in, and down. Up, lift, in, and down. Come on. Hamstrings and gluteus here. Continue breathing. Not that you would stop.
Some people hold their breath while they're exercising. Then they'll take one deep breath and then they'll try and hold it again.
One more. Right here. Inner thigh. Lift up, curl, extend, and down. Lift up, curl, extend, and down.
Adductor inner thigh. There's four. Four more, please. Here's five. Six. Seven. One more. And eight.
The outer leg now. Here we go. Lift up, curl, extend, and down. Lift up, curl, extend, and down. How you feel? Are you feeling it? You should.
And if not, what do you do? You add that resistance. Whether it's with ankle weights, rubber bands, or maybe in just applied resistance with your hands.
Six. And seven. One more. And eight. And release it to the other side. Here we go. One-legged squat. For one. Two. Press through the heels.
Four. Five. If you need more of a challenge, take it off of a ledge. Right here. Curl it up. One. Two. Three. Four.
Come on. Really concentrate and squeeze it in. Five. Three more to go. Just for this exercise. Two more, please. One more.
And turn it. Inner thigh. Three points. It's one. Two. Three. And down. Lift up. Two. Three. And down. Diagonal. Curl. Point. And down.
There's four. And five. And six. Come on. Lift it up. Seven. One more. You can do it. Eight. And abductors. Outer thighs. Lift. Curl. Extend. And down.
Abduction. That's two. Three. Control. Four. And five. The body is still upright. Soft at the base. Six. Seven. Eight. And release it.
Now, instead of going back to our squats, we're going to take off the ankle weights. And we're going to do some plyometrics. Switch lunges.
Now, these are very important. I'm going to give you two options. One option is you can just do reverse lunges. Make sure the knee and the hip only stay at 90 degrees.
Not any further. Plyometrics is lifting your body and using power to lift yourself up. So we're going to do ten of them and switching from the legs in the front.
Are you ready? Here we go. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. How'd that do? It's okay?
Let's do it one more time. Real slow and controlled. If you find yourself wobbly, maybe you have a ballet bar or you want to use the chair. Ready? One more time.
Let's do ten of them. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. And ten. And shake it out. That'll get your heart rate up.
But more than that, it's going to work all the legs. Whenever you lunge forward, you're working the inner and outer thighs. Instead of just getting on your side or standing lifting, just by lunging, you have to balance yourself.
That's what our inner and outer thighs are meant to do. Okay? Now, it's time for the stretching portion of this exercise program. Inhale up and exhale down.
Let's take it over by your chair and run through the same exercise as we did. If you're a runner and you need to stretch before you run, this is a good stretching exercise that you can do.
Place it up on a chair or a stool or a step. Whatever you can to elevate the foot. Feel the stretch in the hamstring.
It's important to warm up and stretch before and after your exercises. To stretch out those muscles, you just work. Bring the toe back. The back is straight.
Point the toe down. Rotate it toward me. Drop the hips down. Stretching the inner thigh. Pressing the arm out against the knee.
Feel the stretch. You should hold the stretch for 10 seconds or maybe even longer, especially if you're just getting up in the morning. Hold it a little bit longer.
And release it. Bring it in. Press the hip out. All the weight is over on this leg. Feel it in the hip and thigh area.
Bring it up. Let's stretch the largest muscle in your body. What is it? That's right. It's the quadriceps. That knee is directly underneath the hip joint.
There's no arching the back. The stomach is pulled in.
And continuing to breathe through all these exercises, especially the stretch. And release it. Take it to the other side.
Starting with the toe pointed. If you hyperextend at the knee, make sure that you keep the knee somewhat soft.
Press the pelvis back. The back is straight. You extend it over your extended leg.
Continue to breathe. Exhale.
And roll the toe up toward you. Feel the stretch move down the leg.
Point the toe. Turn the body inward toward me. Bring the hips down. Stretching the inner thigh. Take the arm and press it away.
And bring it together. Put all the weight over on this hip. Press it out. Stretching the hip and thigh area.
And bring it up. And back to the quadriceps. Pull that heel in.
Notice the leg that's holding me up, which we call the base leg, is always soft at the knee.
That's to relieve any pressure to the lower back. So pull the hips in. Knees are underneath the hips.
And release it. And let's inhale up. And exhale. And that completes your legs of steel. Thanks for joining me.
Thank you.