20 Minute Leg Workout

So Many Ideas For Leg Workouts! Here Are Just A Few

Can a 20 minute leg workout be a fat burning workout too?  It absolutely is!  And it’s a good thing too.  Who wants to put in all the work to strengthen and tone the legs just to have those great muscles hiding under fat?

The leg workouts below are also good cardio workouts.  But that’s expected from a boot camp fitness site right?  You are still moving from exercise to exercise and burning a lot of calories.  Think of them as good fat burning workouts where we just happen to be focusing on the legs.

In fact, studies show that people who combine cardio and strength exercises together, the essence of a boot camp workout, show greater increases in lower body strength and endurance over those who separate strength training one day and cardio another day.[1]

The leg workouts below will move you from one lower body muscle group to the next.  The goal is a logical and easy to remember sequence of leg exercises that hits all sections of the lower body.

Workout 1:

5 Sets:

• 50 Jumping Jacks
• 12 to 15 Split Single Leg Squat, Right – 30 seconds
• 12 to 15 Split Single Leg Squat, Left – 30 seconds
• Rest 15 seconds
• 12 to 15 Single Leg Deadlift, Right – 30 seconds
• 12 to 15 Single Leg Deadlift, Left – 30 seconds
• Rest 15 seconds
  

Workout 2:

5 Sets

• Step Ups Option 1 – 30 seconds
• Step Ups Option 2 – 30 seconds
• Step Ups Option 3 – 30 seconds
• Rest 30 seconds
• 15 Single Leg Hip Extension – Right Leg Raised
• 15 Single Leg Hip Extension – Left Leg Raised
• 15 Jump Squats
• Rest 30 seconds

Workout 3:

4 Sets

• 20 Air Squats
• Rest 30 seconds
• 20 Good Mornings – Hands behind the head if you don’t have a bar or a broomstick
• Rest 30 seconds
• 30 Jumping Jacks
• Rest 30 seconds
• Side Lunge, Right
• Rest 30 seconds
• Side Lunge, Left
• Rest 30 seconds

A 20 minute leg workout doesn't have to be terribly elaborate to be effective.  And don't forget that you can and should alter these workouts to fit your own needs. 

Give these workous a try and let me know what you think below.

Sources:

1. Davis, W Jackson; Wood, Daniel T; Andrews, Ryan G; Elkind, Les M; Davis, W Bart Journal of Strength& Conditioning Research. 22(5):1503-1514, September 2008.  19 June 2013.