Don’t Skip Leg Day

This week I want to go over some reasons why you should never skip leg day. This is one of the longest standing gym jokes, the big massive muscular guy with small legs, no one wants to look like a Dorito Chip on a tooth pick. I am going to go over 4 reason why you should always workout your legs just as hard as your upper body.

Number One: Look Good

This is the most obvious, working your legs helps you have a more proportional physique. It makes you look balanced and fit from the shoulder to the ankles. Just as you would never want to try and workout one bicep harder than the other, you should never forget to train the top and bottom halves of your body equally to avoid potential imbalances.

Number Two: Athletic Performance

Training your legs regularly will help increase your athletic performance. Whether you are a competitive athlete or you like to play sports for leisure, leg training will help you play better. All sports start from the ground up. You are driving from your legs in almost every sport I can think of. Even upper body movements like throwing a ball, swinging a bat or hitting a golf ball, start from the strength in your legs to generate power up from your hips and up.

Number Three: Reduce Injuries

Some of the most common injuries that most people face in life are lower body related. Strengthening the muscles in the legs will help stabilize some of the most mobile joints in the body (hips, knees, ankles). If you think about high school athletes one of the most common injuries you hear about are knee related. Strengthening the legs cannot prevent every injury but can defiantly help. Weight training has been shown to be the most effective way to increase bone density, which in some that is critical as we get older to avoid breaks.

Number Four: Weight Loss & Muscle Growth

The muscles through the hips and legs are some of the biggest muscles in the body and they take a lot of energy to train. In exerting this energy you create a higher metabolic environment in your body to allow more fat to be burnt. In addition, leg exercises are some of the best full body movement too, many leg focused exercises target the core and back as stabilizer muscles. Meaning you get more bang for your buck. Also, working out these large muscle groups increase the levels of testosterone and growth hormone that your body produces. Both of those are crucial for muscle growth all over the body. So if you want a bigger bench you need to squat. Finally let’s be honest who doesn’t want a great butt, there’s only one way to get that folks, work your legs and work them hard.

By: Logan Ammirati