Leg Workout Routines to Build Muscle

Best Home Workout Routines and How to Build Muscle, Weight Lifting Workout Routines

Your workout routines to build muscle start with two strong legs.

Workout routines to build muscle too often ignore the lower body. Home workout routines need a lower body component to deliver an overall fit look, rather than making you look like a bull elephant walking on toothpicks. The best workout routines for men and women include upper body weight lifting workout routines with weight training exercises that promote leg strength and fitness. When planning home workout routines, it's not enough to go for an intermediate jog, or ride your exercise bike while watching television. Knowing how to build muscle means knowing how to run, lunge, and squat until it hurts, because you're not growing if you're not hurting (fatigue pain, not injury pain).

Workout routines to build muscle in your lower body can be divided into exercises devoted to speed, and exercises that increase power. When looking at how to build muscle, it's important to consider what kind of muscle you want: the lanky endurance of a cross-country runner, or the driving power of an NFL running back? Are you taking up weight training exercises as a beginner trying to drop some saddlebags and keep up with your kid, or is your home workout getting you ready to haul a 75-pound pack up a mountain? Weight lifting workout routines are often devoted to muscle bulk, while aerobic workouts are often more attuned to building lean muscle.

Workout routines to build muscle can also focus on explosive energy—that coiled spring effect that makes you quicker. The workout video INSANITY® by expert athlete Shaun T gives you sport-specific training for fast feet and agility, burns fat with intense cardio geared to the lower body, and builds muscle with long bursts of max intervals that will push your legs to their limit. Shaun T's workout DVDs make use of plyometrics, where a muscle is loaded and then contracted in blasting sequences to amp up strength and elasticity. The home workouts of INSANITY will have you running faster, jumping higher, and kicking harder.

Your workout routines to build muscle in the legs should not ignore the importance of range of motion and flexibility. How to build muscle isn't your only consideration with leg workouts. The best workout routines include elements of yoga, developing long, lean muscles, while giving you coordination and balance, to perform weight training exercises. Workout routines for women, as well as men, need some sort of stretching exercises to maintain functional fitness.