A dreaded leg day: feared by most, skipped by many. 

While devoting a whole day’s workout to strength training legs isn’t necessary for everybody, skipping leg exercises all at once can cause you to miss out on many benefits that would assist you to achieve your overall goals. albeit you’re already working your legs during cardio exercises you'll still be missing out on exercises that would be a game-changer for your fitness. Adding in only a couple of leg exercises like squats, lunges, leg presses, or step-ups, can make an enormous difference within the effectiveness of your workout routine and supply the subsequent benefits:

Strength training your legs can assist you burn off more calories. 
A number of the most important muscles within the body are in your legs, including your gluteus (butt), Quadriceps (front of your thigh), and your Hamstrings (back of your thigh). The larger the muscle is, the more blood is required to urge oxygen and fuel to the muscle during exercise. These muscles also are located beyond your heart than the muscles in your upper body, so your heart must work more to urge blood sent to them. Both end in your body burning off more calories once you are strength training your legs.
Strength training your body releases testosterone and somatotropin. This process helps in muscle recovery and building. By training larger muscles your body will release more testosterone and somatotropin than when training other, smaller muscles. this may benefit your entire body as you not only add more muscle, but also increase your metabolism within the process.

You can gain strength in areas you're missing. 
Many of us who stick with primarily doing cardio on treadmills or ellipticals feel as if they need much strength in their legs. However, after a couple of leg exercises, they notice they aren’t really as strong as they thought in some areas, and that they can begin to ascertain what they’re missing out on. this is often because strength exercises target your leg muscles at different angles and range of motion than cardio exercises.
Strength exercises specialize in a special sort of muscle cell within the body than cardio. Cardio exercises work the sort I muscle fibers which are smaller and made for endurance. Strength exercises work the sort II muscle fibers which are larger in size and are needed for shorter duration strength and speed movements. By focusing only on cardio exercises, you'll be missing out on training a whole sort of muscle cell. By incorporating strength exercises and training your Type II muscle fibers you'll also enhance your ability to perform cardio exercises.




Strengthening your legs can help improve performance and overall quality of life. 
Strength training your legs will help with many activities that you simply do from day to day throughout your life like sitting down and standing up from a chair, learning something off the bottom, and walking upstairs. It also can increase your overall balance. For those that participate in sports, strengthening your legs will help with many skills like jumping, running, and other powerful movements that are of important importance to your performance.

Working legs can help correct muscle imbalances and aid in injury recovery. 
Adding leg exercises to your routine allows you to specialize in muscle groups that get underworked and neglected during your lifestyle, sports, or other exercises. Strengthening these muscles can assist you to stop imbalances. If you have already got an imbalance or an injury that you simply know of, adding specific leg exercises can help to counteract that imbalance or injury and help to strengthen and stabilize the part affected.

Leg work keeps your body looking balanced and toned.
This is often possibly the most vital benefit to some people. Adding strength exercises to focus on your larger Type II muscle fibers will assist you to be simpler in getting toned looking legs. it'll also keep your body looking proportional and avoid chicken drumstick syndrome (large upper body with small skinny legs) which will result if you simply work the upper body.
If you're not currently doing any strength training for your legs an honest growth goal would be to undertake to add one to 3 exercises to your routine twice every week with a minimum of each day in between. If you already regularly mix a couple of leg exercises into your routine try adding a couple of more and concentrating on a whole day of six to eight leg exercises.

Leg exercises are often targeted towards your personal goals and wishes. A physical therapist or a fitness advisor can help determine what leg exercises to feature to your routine, suggest appropriate modifications to exercises, and assist you to develop a technique where you are feeling confident that you simply do an excellent leg workout that's right for you!