Tips for Thigh Exercises

Long, long ago, man would hunt eight or more hours a day for food, whether it be mobile and made of meat or stationary plant fibers. These people are called “hunter-gatherers”. They made their living by killing or collecting anything edible they could find and bringing it back to their families.

Now that we, as a species, have left the hunter/ gatherer phase and progressed all the way to the “Chinese take-out/ Walmart” phase, many of the muscles that our ancestors worked into perfection have become weaker at best, atrophied at worst. The hamstring muscle group is one such group, but thankfully there are a few simple thigh exercises that can be done to repair or maybe even prevent this.

The squat is an extremely easy exercise and can be improved with the use of a barbell once basic repetitions no longer yield noticeable results. Start by firmly planting your feet to shoulder width. Keeping your back straight and knees pointed in the same direction as your feet, bend your knees forward, lowering your hips as well. Keep this motion going until your knees are barely higher than the back of your thigh. Slowly stand and repeat. To add more resistance to this exercise, take a barbell and rest it high on the back of your shoulders, holding it at both sides.

If a squat puts you too far off balance, a good alternative is the “barbell straight leg dead lift”. This, obviously requires a barbell or other barbell-like heavy object. As intimidating as that may sound, it’s simply lifting a weight of your choice in a simple fashion. Adopting a stance that is slightly smaller than shoulder width, lift your weight to waist level. Keeping your legs completely straight, lower the weight to the top of your feet using your hips, then your waist once your hips are fully bent. Resume the original position and repeat.

As with all exercises. Remember that you should start of slowly and with as little weight as is effective, then increase the weight slowly as your muscles become more used to the exercise.