leg workouts

Print this workout and start the week off right, rocking those short and skirts in confidence! With a focus on your legs, this workout mixes cardio bursts like star jumps with target moves like Pilates side-lying leg lifts to crank up the burn. Without weights or fancy equipment, you can do this series anywhere or incorporate it into a total-body workout with our other printable posters!

Click here for the printable version so you can hang it on your fridge to remind you to get your sweat on!

You may not have an hour to devote to a full-body gym session, but everyone can find five minutes to spare! Work to tone and shape your legs with this quickie workout; perform each of the following exercises for one minute. If you have a little more time to spare, then repeat this sequence two to three more times.

Number 1: Lunge

• Keep your upper body straight, with your shoulders back and relaxed and chin up (pick a point to stare at in front of you so you don't keep looking down). Always engage your core.
• Step forward with one leg, lowering your hips until both knees are bent at about a 90-degree angle. Make sure your front knee is directly above your ankle, not pushed out too far, and make sure your other knee doesn't touch the floor.
• Keep the weight in your heels as you push back up to the starting position.
• Switch sides, and then come back to the starting position. Move through as many lunges as possible for one minute.

Number 2: Side Skaters

• Start in a small squat. Jump sideways to the right landing on your right leg. Bring your right leg close to your left ankle, but don't let it touch the floor.
• Reverse direction by jumping to the left with your left leg.
• Keep alternating sideways jumps for one minute.

Number 3: Twisting Fierce Pose

Photo: Jenny Sugar

• Stand with your feet together. Bend your knees and lower your hips as you raise your arms overhead. Hold for eight breaths.
• Once you've held traditional Fierce (aka Chair) Pose, exhale to cross your right elbow over to your outer left knee. Press your palms together, and actively push your bottom elbow against your thigh to lift and rotate your chest up, increasing the twist. Pull your right hip back slightly, making sure both knees are parallel. Stay here for eight breaths.
• Then inhale as you press into your feet and lift your torso, rising back into Fierce pose. Exhale to cross your left elbow over your right outer knee, holding for another eight breaths on this side.

Keep reading for two more exercises to help work your legs.

CrossFit encompasses everything from the simple push-up to impressive feats of weight-lifting, but each move has a few things in common: they're basic, functional, and scalable as your level of fitness improves. So while this simple CrossFit-style workout may not seem like much, as you repeat the circuit, you'll learn just how effective it can be. You can time yourself so that as you get better, you can race against your previous times.

You'll need two dumbbells for the deadlifts and (optionally) to hold while you perform the lunges. Alternating lunges means alternate lunging forward with your right, then left (five times on each side). Check out our tips on how to do a reverse crunch here as well as how to do a deadlift here.

If cold, wet weather threatens to dampen your outdoor running goals, don't sweat it. Do this 25-minute leg-strengthening circuit indoors instead. The lunge and plank variations help work leg, butt, and ab muscles that running overlooks — so you'll become a better runner the more you do this workout — and the short but sweet circuits ensure you'll be toning and burning calories as well.

To do a walking lunge, read our tips here. Find out how to do a basic reverse lunge here.