Battle Between Wanting Thin Legs and a Booty Too!

[ct_leading]Almost all moves described for tone thin legs have a link to a video of me performing the move![/ct_leading]

Tone Thin Legs!

[ct_leading]Easily one of the hardest things to master. It is hard to balance toned legs and a big butt, but it can happen.[/ct_leading] First BIG suggestion BUY RESISTANCE BANDS, I bought a pack of 5 from amazon for $11. Not the best quality but they get the job done and are great for the college budget. Resistance bands are key for toning!

Simple Cardio tips:

Cardio is your best friend but not necessarily just the elliptical. The elliptical can shape your legs but if you are consistently using it eventually your legs will grow muscle especially if you have the resistance up. You don’t need to forget about the elliptical, you just need to mix it up. SO here are some options:

-Running up hill at a slow pace is a GREAT way to tone your legs, It’s painful and boring but its needed. Try running up hill at a slow pace for 3 mins and walking up hill for 2. (Total 5 mins, repeat for however long you want/can). Or if you can run the full 5 mins do it!

–Use the stair-master. I usually do 15 – 20 minutes on it and add in various kicks to the side, back etc. I also stay in a low squat position put the speed down to about 4 or 5 hold on to the side bars and climb. Staying in the squatted position engages your entire leg and will tone everything because you are fighting gravity and your own bodyweight. Skip steps too! I also climb the stair-master backwards to work my hamstrings and help lift the butt and tone my inner thigh. (Inner thigh is the hardest just be patient).

-Run on the tread mill at a fast pace for 4 mins hop off and complete a 1 min wall-sit (5 mins total) Again repeat for as long as you can/want. Wall-sitting after cardio is the best way to tone your legs. Your legs do most of the work during cardio. When they are that burnt out and you push them that extra minute in a wall-sit they have no choice but to tone and give you muscle to complete the exercise.

–SHUFFLING! The god of all gods for thin legs. My Instagram has a video of me shuffling.
Pattern: (speed: 3.2 Incline 14.5) Please adjust speed and incline to your needs!
-Walk up hill for 15 seconds
-Shuffle left side 15 seconds
-Shuffle right side for 15 seconds
-Run backwards for 15 seconds (If you can’t run backwards just walk up hill for 30 seconds.)
I do this for 5 minutes usually after a run or other cardio workout, do it for as long as you want/can.

-Squat walks and lunge walks on the treadmill
-2 variations for squat walks:
-1: I stay squat walking on one side of X amount of minutes then switch to the other side for the same X amount of minutes. (At a high incline and lower speed, I think I do 2.5 speed but I can’t remember exactly.) Do not come up from the squat stay down low and climb. Hold onto the railing of the treadmill if needed.
-2: Pivoting squat walks. I squat one way stand up turn/pivot and squat on the other side for however long I want to. Again, at a high incline and low speed. In this one you do come up out of the squat to turn around to the other side.

Lunge walks:
High incline and low low speed. You really want to be able to get in a deep lunge and kick the back leg up before stepping it forward so your speed needs to be low, I go around .5 – 1 speed. Very slow but the slower the better the more you are in a low position forcing your muscles to stay contracted you are toning and thinning.

-Also run, just run. Running at any pace, any incline, no incline, whatever it may be is great for your legs mix up between sprints, long distance, or just a mile keep the legs guessing and working.

Leg workouts:
Resistance bands can be used for all of the cardio I just listed but they will be most important for the actual leg moves. Thinning your legs can jeopardize your butt, I lost mine for a while and am now slowly building it back up because I am comfortable with the size of my legs. All exercises I suggest here you should do at a light weight, or even no weight, and complete lots and lots of reps/ sets if your goal is toning. I’m talking like 15-25 reps and 4-5 sets. That’s the nature of toning. BUT to maintain a round butt which we all want, throw in some heavy weighted squats and lunges on the smith machine occasionally. Soon you will find a good balance and be able to bounce back and forth between heavy and light weight.

–Squat jumps or squat jacks!  Not only are the squat jumps or jacks cardio for your body but the force you used to jump and control your landing is very toning for the legs, plus you’re only using your body weight so they will not get bigger. (You can hold a light weight kettle bell if you want to up the difficulty.) If you choose to hold the kettle bell hold it between your legs below your belly button and keep your arms straight. If you hold the weight by your chest it makes it easier on your legs and we want your legs pushing through the weight.

-Scissor Jumps: Just lunge jumps where you are jumping and landing with a new leg in front each time in a lunge position, Place hands on hips.

-Squat with side kick. Squat down kick right, squat down kick left = 1 rep. The side kick is just like what you do in dance, you can mix up between turned out, turned in, pointed or flexed. Turned out works the inner thigh, turned in works your outer thigh.

–Sumo squat (2nd position in ballet). Your toes and knees are painted out and heels pointed to each other. (Do not over turn your knees out, its slight).This variation of the squat makes your legs work super hard from the inner thigh out.

–Bulgarian split squat– sounds fancy but it’s really not. You are in a lunge position with either your front leg up on a bench or back leg. The elevation of either leg moves the focus to your standing thigh, using it from every angle, light weight and lots of reps will tone it.

–Hip abductor machines– this is the machine where the pads are on your knees and you are either pushing your legs together or apart. Again, light weight lots or reps, wear a resistance band and add in pulses. I love to do 10-15 at a heavy weight then immediately after do 25 pulses at a lighter weight.

–Curtsy lunge/cross back lunge– this is where you step your leg back in a lunge but cross it back on a diagonal. Like when a girl would curtsy and her leg is diagonally behind the other. This is one of my favorite moves for toning and really rounds the butt too.

-Cable kickbacks- There are lots of variations here
1: Face the cable machine hold it with 2 hands and kick your leg back. Really focus on lifting from you hip and squeezing your leg from top to bottom. You can kick the leg up with a straight leg or slight bend at the knee.
2: Face the cable machine hold it with 2 hands kick your leg up and hold it there as you perform leg circles.
3: Face one side of your hip to the cable machine and place one hand on it for support. Have your outside leg attached to the cable strap. Step out into a side lunge then come back to a standing position and repeat. (Targets inner thigh, switch sides) (Ex. If my right hip is facing the cable machine and my right hand is holding on my left foot will be strapped in, you can vary between your left foot being infront of the right or behind).
4: Face one side of your hip to the cable machine place one hand on it for support and have the ankle strapped to the foot closest to the cable machine. Pull your foot across/ in front of your other leg, huge toner for the full leg, and specifically inner thigh. (Ex. If my right hip is towards the cable machine and I am holding on with my right hand my right foot will be strapped in)

–Fire hydrants: Grab a light weighted dumbbell go onto all 4’s curl your knee and pplace the dumbbell in it, raise your leg like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant. Also, remain in this position and flex the heel keep the knee bent and pulse your heel towards the ceiling.

-Sit on the ground with your legs slightly lifted same position as if you were going to do Russian twists. This will require ab strength, place 1 resistance band around your thighs and one around the ankle/calf area. You may hold a dumbbell above your head if you want. Open and close your legs like sciccors, do some fast and do some very slow and controlled. (This will also really work your lower abs and oblique’s).

Some last key notes and advice:

Half the time you see girls with tiny legs they have worked to get there, but it’s also sculpted through illusion. If you grow your butt, shoulders and back it will make your legs look tiny in comparison so don’t forget about all the other muscle groups.

Also for every move I have mentioned I suggest adding in pulses and drop sets.

Pulsing is holding in whatever position of the move you are doing and doing tiny movements of the exercise. Example: In a squat stay low in the squat and bounce up and down slightly. Pulses are a huge toning agent, like I said before, controlling and forcing your muscle to stay in a locked, position that causes muscle contraction really aids in toning.

A drop set is starting at a heavier weight and going down in weight each set but upping in the amount of reps you do. Example: Fire Hydrants start with a 15lbs weight on your knee and do 15 fire hydrants, immediately after grab a 10lbs weight and do 20 fire hydrants then grab a 5lbs weight and do 25 fire hydrants. (This is just an example do whatever weight you prefer and whatever amount of reps you prefer). Drop set styled reps cause your muscles to grow and tone a lot. It’s a good balance to have because it will continue to let you have a butt and the simple fact is you cannot tone something that does not exist.

If you just continue to cut you will lose muscle and you cannot tone anything, your body needs muscle to tone. I really hope this helps, I tried to be as thorough and knowledge supplying as possible. Kill it in the gym beautiful and always remember to love yourself! Cause your #bodygoals is #bodypositivity.