Leg day
Why is Leg Day so Important?
We all have many friends who absolutely hate leg day, we also all have that one sicko friend who loves it. So what is with this love/hate relationship and why is leg day so damn important?
Your legs are home to some of the largest muscles in your body, so it’s no surprise that working them hard is extremely hard. The quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings and calves are all key players when it comes to leg day.
The quadriceps are the muscles on the front of your thigh. They’re responsible for straightening your leg at the knee joint. The glutes are the muscles of your butt – they help to extend your hip and keep your spine in alignment. In fact the biggest muscle group in the body is in that booty (Gluteus Maximus).
The hamstrings are the muscles on the back of your thigh and they work with the glutes to extend your hip. The calves are the muscles on the back of your lower legs and they help you rise up onto your toes.
So when you think about it, one should be doing more than one leg day a week.
The legs are responsible for a lot of movement so they need to be strong in order to support the rest of the body, and to allow us to move around easily.
In a study done by Queens University, they took 468 men and woman aged 18-88 to determine where the majority of their muscle mass was in their body. Men averaged 42.9% of their muscle mass in the upper body and 54.9% in their lower body. While women averaged 39.7% in their upper body and 57.7% in their lower body.
There you have it! If you are looking to get bigger, stronger and faster you should be training your legs. Leg day is important for many reasons. Firstly, legs are the foundation of the body and strong legs lead to a strong body. Secondly, training your legs will help you burn more fat, and thirdly, leg exercises help improve overall athleticism and explosiveness.
Now what if you are looking to lose weight? There are a few reasons why you should train legs if you are looking to lose weight. Firstly, when you train legs, you are actually working multiple muscle groups at once-and we know the more muscles we hit the more calories we burn during our workout. Secondly, the majority of your muscle mass lays in the legs, and interestingly enough resting muscle tissue burns about six kcals/lb./day at rest-so it would be easier to burn more calories with strong legs. Finally, training legs can help prevent injuries in the future, as strong legs help to support the rest of your body.
So when you hit your stems you:
Reduce the risk of injury
Improve full body strength
Build more muscle
Burn more calories
There’s no doubt about it, leg day is important. Think about all the daily activities that involve our legs – walking, running, jumping, climbing – and it’s easy to see why strong legs are essential. So how can we make sure we’re giving our legs the love they deserve? By incorporating a few key exercises into our workout routine like squats, lunges and deadlifts- all great ways to target the large muscles in our legs.
Now go get after it!
By Brett Kirkland
FAQ
We certainly do! You can either purchase programs or book personal training sessions and be given your workout at the end of the session.
We have free parking, showers, sweat/shower towels, wifi and toiletries.
If you need to reschedule a session, no worries at all! Just give us a 24 hour heads up and you will not be charged for your workout.
Ideally, you should have some form of fuel in your system before you workout. Eating an easily digested carbohydrate an hour or so before you come to the studio ensures that you’ll have enough energy in the tank to get through your workout. Fruit is always a great option if you are concerned about getting an upset stomach. But once again everyone is different so experiment with what works best for you.
Most likely you will start to feel better before you really see the results. We always remind clients to celebrate everything along their fitness journey- whether it is lifting a heavier weight, recruiting the proper muscle groups or dropping/gaining inches. The more consistent you stay to your workout and nutrition plan the quicker you will see physical results.
There is no magic pill or diet. At the end of the day it is a very simple equation and that is calories in vs. calories out. If you would like to lose weight you need to eat fewer calories than you are burning. If you are looking to put on weight you want to eat more calories than you are burning.
We definitely believe we are the best gym in Edmonton. With our owner having 15 years of experience in the fitness industry, being named one of the Top 10 Trainers in Canada by Muscle Insider and having owned training studios for over 12 years there is confidence in our team. Every trainer is fully certified and extremely knowledgeable with tons of experience from all types of clientele. Don’t believe us? Come try out a free one-on-one personal training session and find out for yourself.
All of our trainers are fully certified and have the knowledge to help you reach your goals. We are so confident that you will love our team that our first training is always free. We will literally put our money with our mouth to prove to you that we are what you are looking for.
You’ve come to the right place. Zone 105 is a private personal training studio and our only goal is for you to crush yours.
That is a loaded question but weight loss comes down to a simple equation – calories in vs. calories out. If you eat less calories than you burn you should lose weight. Unfortunately sometimes the scale can be stubborn but your body composition will change. That is why we always recommend that you take measurements to also track your progress.
We are a private personal training studio located centrally in Edmonton. All of our clients in the gym can only work out when they are with their trainer so you will never have to deal with a busy, public gym.