You know the predicament all too well.
You want to trim the fat from your thighs and develop your calves so they pop when you walk, but you don't necessarily want to pay the price of a costly gym membership.
You've looked into purchasing leg exercise machines for your home but that seems like an enormous investment just to improve the shape of your legs.
So What Are Your Options? Before the days of luxury, convenience and drive-through fast food people didn't need leg exercise machines because they controlled their weight and shaped their bodies through an active lifestyle and healthy food.
They took care of their body the natural way, and you can do the same.
If you think the only way to have great legs is to use leg exercise machines you have been deceived.
When all you really need is something you already have: body weight.
Body resistance is all you need to get started on toning and sculpting your legs.
Heck, you can even use your body weight for full body workouts and for cardio to shed fat and create lean muscle so your thighs, buttocks and other areas of the body look slimmer with fewer lumps, bumps and jiggles.
Hit the Steps and Bleachers! The simplest thing you can do to develop great legs without using leg exercise machines is using steps or bleachers.
Whether you're stepping up onto a flat weight bench, an aerobics step or running up bleachers you can help strengthen and tone your legs.
What's more, it increases your heart rate helping you burn more calories.
Running up bleachers also provides a great cardiovascular workout and works similar to interval training.
You're running up the bleachers (higher intensity) and then walking down (lower intensity).
You can also use steps, benches and bleachers for other body resistance leg exercises such as step-ups and side step-ups.
Hit the Deck! There is a multitude of kick butt floor exercises for your legs such as leg lifts and knee ups that will help tone and shape your lower body, hitting areas of your thighs and butt that you probably haven't specifically trained in years.
Did you know you can actually perform leg extension and leg curls without leg exercise machines? I'm not joking! Not to mention lunges, squats and calf raises.
Toss the Mayo out the Door What you put into your body will either add to your fat stores or take away from them.
Some foods that will work against your efforts to tone your thighs are: * Sugar * Refined Carbohydrates * Fatty Meats * High Calorie Drinks Head for the produce aisles and load up on fresh veggies and fruit, whole grains, low fat and low GI dairy products, eggs and egg whites...
and of course other sources of lean protein.
You can admit that leg exercise machines can be nice for convenience sake, but realistically, they're simply not essential - far from it.