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