Lovely Legs!

Ok so if you want to have lovely legs your going to have to do a little work to help get there. One thing you can do is squats!

Squats are one of the best ways to strengthen and condition the lower body.

If your new to squats here a few things to help you set up and execute the squat move:

* Heels start a little wider than your hips and toes are slightly turned out
* The movement is initiated from the hips, with a simultaneous movement at the knee and ankles
* A squat should not go any lower than 90 degrees, so your butt should go no lower than your knees.
* You should keep the abdominal strong so it can support your lower back.
* Keep chest proud and avoid leaning over as squat
* As you lower down into the squat position your knees should stay in line with your toes, and as you raise up you should push up through the heels to help activate the glute.
* The chin should be tucked in slightly as to avoid straining the neck.
* As you push up try to keep the knees soft and avoid locking them out.
* The hips should finish directly under the shoulders

Now if your a first timer to squats you may like to start off a little easy, so if you've never done a squat before, simply sit down on a bench and then stand back up, following the above set up and ways to execute the moves. When your starting out it's best to use just your body weight. As you get a bit more practice you might like to add a weight to hold onto, you do this by either using a weight plate and hugging it to your chest. Again make sure you keep your chest up should blades in at the back, try to avoid leaning forward as you do the squat.

Common faults with squats include:

* looking down and dropping the chest position
* When coming to the stand position pushing the hips forward and doing like a pelvic thrust move
* Butt going lower than 90 degrees
* Not pushing up through the heels, therefore not activating the glute
* Knees not staying in line with the toes as you come down
* Knees and ankles rolling inwards

Ideas on how to use the squat in a workout

warm up- very important you could do this by going for your regular walk and then come back and do a few sets of the following:

* slow down for 4 counts then slow up for 4 counts (2 times)
* A little quicker down, this time 3 down and push up for 1 ( 4 times)
* A little quicker again this time down for 2 counts then up for 2 counts ( 4 times)
* Single up and down ( 8 times)
* Hold down and do 4 little pulses at the bottom then rise ( 4 times)

If your new I suggest you start off doing this set of exercises 3 times using just your body weight. If you have done squats I suggest you try either with hand weights each side of you or a bar on your back positioned on the meaty part of the upper back, away from the neck, starting light with the weights. You can start with doing this routine 3 times and as you get stronger you can increase your weight selection.