An easier workout video this week!

The moves in this exercise video are great if you are new to bodyweight strength exercises and are looking to begin toning your legs. As suggested, try them out three times a week. Then you may want to move to exercises that are a bit more challenging, like the ones below the video:

If you are looking for something with a greater level of difficulty, try this lunge exercise.

Or for a squat variation, try these squats with a leg kick.

Remember to really focus on your form, keep your working muscles squeezed nice and tight and do your repetitions slowly for greatest effect.

Have fun!

This week’s video workout is the Split Squat or, more specifically, the Bulgarian Split Squat, a move I’ve not seen or tried before now.

But given that my physiotherapist has me doing squats, squats and more squats as well as stretching my quads and hip flexors, this is a move I was eager to try since it covers both strength and stretching alternate legs.

See what you think:

Now I have to say two things about this before you give it a try:

First, be careful hopping your leg out – I’d recommend grabbing a kitchen chair and placing it beside you to steady yourself as you get that front leg out far enough so that your knee is not extending over your foot.

Second, I’m already pretty strong in the balance department and I credit running on trails and uneven surfaces for much of my balance. But if you don’t have good balance, then I’d definitely save this move until you’ve worked on your balance a bit. (Want to know if you have good balance? An easy way to see is to close your eyes and lift up one leg. Can you stay balanced one one leg with your eyes closed? If not, I’d suggest you might want to try the alternate move (foot on the floor) that he recommends instead.

Let me know your thoughts when you try it out – how does it feel for you? Hard? Easy? How’s your balance? Could you do fifteen? I definitely felt my supporting leg shaking by the last couple of reps.