Things to remember when training your legs:
No matter what exercise you are performing keep your midsection firm. Don't hold your breathe though! Just remember to keep your tummy tight to help support your lower back.
Beware of knee injuries. If you have knee injuries always make sure you check with your doctor or physio before performing your leg exercises.
Don't go
too heavy. When starting out go for no weights at all if possible. Training too heavy can cause injuries.
Make sure when performing squats or lunges, (unless the squat specifies it and you are advanced or experienced in squatting), that your knees don't move forward past your ankles. This puts too much pressure on your knees.
Don't over train your legs. Unless, of course, you don't need to use your legs for two weeks- :-). Just train your legs according to your personalised program and that's it. Believe me, you won't do it again in a hurry once you've felt the severe muscle soreness of overtraining.
Make sure your program works all of your leg muscles not just one area in particular. Back and front, inner and outer thighs plus back and front of your lower legs. Train according to your body type. Certain exercises will acheive different results. For example you wouldn't perform a workout that encourages muscle mass and growth if your thighs are large and you want them smaller. Your requirements would be a workout that includes toning, re-shaping and the reduction of the size of your thighs.
Muscle Recovery. Give yourself a few days rest in between training your leg muscles, they will need time to recover and repair. You will most probably feel muscle soreness kick-in almost immediately up to a day and a half later, this can last for 1-2 days. If you can hardly move for about a week or two then you will be experiencing what I mentioned above about overtraining - which means you should re-assess your program to a more appropriate workout to suit YOUR needs.
Make sure you train your calf muscles. Toned calf muscles look great and really do make a difference to the appearance of your legs. Once again, don't over train them. If you flex your foot up and down you will feel your calf muscles moving - feel it? yep? Well imagine if you couldn't move them from overtraining. Yep, you will be most definately walking funny for a week or so. Note: Always perform a warm up before your workout, a cool down after and then your stretches.
