Lower Body Toning Exercises

If you’re on a mission to firm up your lower body, there’s no question that you’ll want to look at the many different toning options you have available. By performing the right series of exercises in a row, you can quickly gain more definition in your lower body and help rid yourself of some of the body fat that you’ve tacked on over the last few years.
The key is performing the following exercises with a weight that challenges you and that also keeps your heart rate slightly elevated. By doing so you’ll help to really burn fat quickly as you increase your metabolic rate and really give your muscles something to work hard against.
Here are five great lower body toning exercises that you’ll want to consider.
Squats
Squats are one of the most common lower body toning exercises to perform and almost everyone could easily perform them whenever they happen to be working out. Whether you use weight or not is your decision but more often than not your results will be better if you do have some degree of resistance to act against.
Squats can be done with a set of dumbbells, holding a barbell across your back, or done using a kettlebell for added resistance so choose you preferred method and then get to it.
Lunges
Second, another great lower body toning exercise are lunges. Lunges are nice for firming up the glutes and hamstrings, giving you a very nice appearance to the back of your body. If you step further away from the starting foot while performing the lunge you’re going to work the bum to a larger extent than if you stepped closer, so keep that in mind as you execute these.
Step-Ups
Third are step-ups. Like squats these are excellent to do if you are going to pursue an at home workout since all you’ll require is a bench to step up and down off of.
Hold a set of dumbbells in either hand as you step up and step down to add to the resistance and fully stimulate the muscle fibers. The higher the step the harder you’ll find this exercise to be so find something where you can adjust the height level as you progress forward.
Split Squats
Split squats are similar to a lunge except you’re going to remain stationary and be standing just on a single leg. These are especially good for firming up the glute muscles so if your biggest goal is a firmer backside, these are the ones for you.
Note that these can take some getting used to at first as you learn to maintain control of your balance so be patient with yourself as you go about performing them. If you can’t do them at first, don’t get too upset. Keep working at it and soon you’ll have no trouble adding them to your workout.
Deadlifts
Finally, deadlifts are another lift that typically gets added to most people’s routine and will firm up the back of the body as well as stimulate the muscles in the lower back as well. This is a more advanced technique and MUST be preformed correctly.
When performing these you want to ensure that your back stays flat at all times so there isn’t any additional stress being placed upon it and that you are strictly focusing in on the muscles you’re aiming to work. Keep the belly button pulled in to protect the back.
So keep these five exercises in mind as you create your lower body program. You don’t necessarily have to do them all each session but if you can add two or three per workout, you’ll be right on track for building a killer lower body.