Home Gym Setup for Cheap: Leg Lifts and Leg Weights

Home Gym for Cheap: Leg Lifts and Leg Weights

Walking really keeps your legs in shape, but it doesn’t work all the muscles evenly. Fortunately, you can do leg lifts with or without weights on them.

I’ve got a pair of 8-pound weights shown here (approximately $25) that wrap around with Velcro. Note that yours won’t come with the dog fur that inevitably clings to mine. These weights have different compartments each filled with a packet of sand. Be careful that they don’t get a hole in them if you’re removing them to have less weight than the full set.

For instance, I removed half of the packets initially when I started trying to still keep the weight left evenly distributed around the leg. You’ll likely need to play around with how the Velcro attaches and it moves when you’re actually using them, but this is quite easy to do.

Here are six easy exercises that you can do whether you have leg weights or not. Depending on how far out you do them, they also help with stretching.

A good goal to aim for is doing 3 sets of 15 reps each with a break of 1-2 minutes between sets. I use Netflix as my reward for doing exercises, so they take me a bit longer when I get distracted by a show.

To shorten the total time, I superset these.

What’s a “superset”? It’s working one muscle group through the reps then immediately working a different muscle group with a set of reps. Then a break before repeating the two exercises back-to-back again.

Six leg exercises:

Backward

(1) Swing leg behind keeping the leg straight and holding on to something for balance. Still shoulders in retracted mode. You can use a yoga block to stand on if that helps you swing back better. Then immediately do #2.

(2) Bend the leg at the knee and kick back with the leg. Then rest between sets. Repeat 3Xs

Sideways

IMPORTANT NOTE: Your knee is not designed to handle side-to-side motion very well. So turn the foot you are standing on 90 degrees out from your body so when you kick with the other leg, your knee flexes back and forth due to the foot pivot. This is also what you need to do in martial arts. This is where I have seen too many adults blow their knees out if they do it improperly.

(1) Swing straight leg inside and in front of the other leg. Shoulders in retracted holding on to something for balance. Yoga block is fine. Then immediately do #2 sideways.

(2) Swing straight leg out to the side away from your body. Rest between sets. Repeat 3Xs

Forward

(1) Swing leg forward. Shoulders in retracted. I find I have to stand next to something like a counter rather than in front of it so I can get a full swing and stay upright well. Immediately do #2 forwards

(2) Bend your knee and lift it up as high as you can. Rest between sets. Repeat 3Xs

BONUS: This move preps you for doing front kicks in martial arts!

Variation: Don’t just swing up or out, hold at the end for a bit to really have gravity test you.

BONUS with that variation: Black belts hold out some of their moves in their forms to show their perfect form and how they could hold the pose for a while….but they won’t and they eventually put the foot down after proving their form and control.

Variation: Do full front, side, round, etc kicks if you know how to do them properly. The biggest thing is pivoting your knee so it only bends front to back not side to side where you can blow out your knee. The kick sequence is up – out – back- down. Slow-motion is fine. Gets gravity working your leg out and helps you build muscle control. It’s better to do it slowly at first anyway so you can master form.