Leg and hip muscle weakness are common, especially in old age. Weak leg muscles are more likely to cause injury due to muscles being too tight. Muscles strengthening exercises have as much importance as stretching for both injury prevention and sporting performance.
Benefits Of Strong Leg Muscles
(i) Keeping leg muscles strong is key to stability as we age. Strengthening your leg muscles will make it easier for you to perform the routine activities such as climbing stairs, riding a bicycle, and even walking.
(ii) Your legs, especially thighs, have sizeable muscle mass. So, building leg muscles through resistance training will also help you burn calories more, even when you’re sitting still.
According to Michael J. Joyner, MD, a physiologist at the Mayo Clinic and expert in exercising and aging: “When you have more muscle mass, the muscles can, in fact help burn a lot of calories.”
Exercises To Strengthen Legs
These 3 exercises are the best to work out for strengthening your legs, including calf, hamstring, quadriceps, and gluteal muscles.
Squats
(i) Squat is a compound, full-body exercise that trains the muscles of the thighs, hips, buttocks, quadriceps, and hamstrings primarily, so it can help build strong legs,. They also strengthen the bones and ligaments throughout the lower body. Squats are the most common exercise for increasing the strength and size of the legs and buttocks, as well as developing core strength.
(ii) But squats must be done correctly in their proper form to avoid any damage to the knee. The basic version of a squat entails holding a barbell on your shoulders behind your neck and lowering your torso a few inches by bending your legs. If you are an old individual or have any condition, avoid going all the way down because that would put far too much strain on the knees. Learn here how to squat correctly in its proper form.
(iii) If you are doing it first time, try first doing squats without weight simply by standing with your back against the wall. Now lower yourself slowly a few inches by bending your legs and then stand up again. Never go all the way down into a crouch. As your legs build up strength, you can gradually try going further down.
For the individuals who are into advanced training, here are advanced versions of squats:
(d) Front Bar Squats
Leg Lunges
(i) The leg lunges are a safe and effective method of working the legs.
(ii) Training your legs with lunges offers explosive power to your legs. All in all, this compound exercise not only strengthens your legs but is a great way to improve flexibility and balance.
(iii) Lunges elicit a huge metabolism response, meaning you burn a ton of calories.
(iv) If you’re ready to bulletproof your body, reduce your risk of injury with the added reward of strong glutes, lean hamstrings, and toned calves, then incorporate lunges into your workout routine.
Watch this video to learn the correct way of doing lunges
(v) You can also do lunges, holding a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing toward your body. Step forward, keeping your arms at your sides, parallel to your body, and bend the knee of the forward leg, making it bear the weight of your body. Return to your starting position and repeat with the other leg. Perform this 8 to12 times with each leg.
Calf Raises
This is the most common exercise to build calf muscles. This exercise strengthens the calves and engages muscles that support the ankle joint.
(i) Basic Version: While standing on a flat surface, position your feet hip-width apart. Slowly raise your heels until you’re on your tiptoes, then slowly lower back down to the starting position. Take three slow counts to raise and lower your heels. You can do 3 sets of 10-12 reps or less as per your fitness condition.
(ii) Advanced Version: Lift a barbell and hold it against your thighs, or hold a dumbbell in each hand keeping your arms hanging straight down at your sides. Lift your heels off the floor 8 to 10 times. Increase the weight of the barbell or dumbbell as you get stronger.
Many studies have found that the strength losses in our bodies’ lower limbs are greater than in our upper extremities as we age. From a functional perspective, it’s vital that anyone who does resistance training must work on a variety of muscle groups, particularly in the lower extremities, as leg and ankle strength are significantly critical for balance and the prevention of falls.
No matter whatever your age is or how sedentary you are, resistance or strength training can always benefit you. They are so effective that within just 2 months, one can reverse 3 to 4 decades of strength loss”
Related Post: 45 Minute Leg Workout
The above 3 leg strengthening exercises must have motivated you to start working out your legs in different ways. Don’t just follow the crowd to the leg extension machine. This machine targets 1 muscle at a time. You will get better results by doing the above exercises (bodyweight versions) first to improve balance, posture, and strength. Later on, you can add weight to do advanced versions of the above exercises.
About Author: Renu Bakshi, AKA Fitness Buffhq, is ISSA Certified Elite Trainer. He passed 
Personal Fitness Trainer Course, Nutrition Health Coach course & Specialist Exercise Therapy course from ISSA, the USA, obtaining + 97% marks. He shares his experience and knowledge about nutrition and effective workouts to get you in the best shape of your life, no matter how old you may be. The author says: “For me, age is just a number!”
I do those exercises every day!
My husband is bedridden his calves are getting thin what exercise can I give him to get back muscle? Thank you