Why is training your leg muscles so important?

Train your legs for better fitness results

First of all, it is useful to know that when you train intensively, your body produces a growth hormone. These hormones are very important when your goal is to increase muscle mass. These are produced faster in the large muscle groups such as your legs. This means that when you train your leg muscles, the hormones that are produced will also affect the growth of the other smaller muscle groups. However, this is only relevant to the men among us. Women make very little to no growth hormones and testosterone. The reason many women give up weight training is because they are afraid of becoming too muscular. Yet it is true that women can never achieve the same muscle growth as men, unless they take large amounts of extra growth hormones. So if you want to burn a lot of calories or accentuate your leg and buttock muscles, leg muscle exercises are the way to go!

In addition, training your leg muscles comes with a number of benefits that will have a direct impact on the following:

1. Natural ratio
1. If you only train your upper body for a toned six-pack, broad shoulders and big biceps, your body will fall out of proportion sooner or later. Most of us will most likely also believe that a wide upper body with narrow legs doesn't really look good. On the contrary. If you also give your leg muscles enough attention in the gym, your body will remain in balance. No natural ratio means a greater chance of injuries in the muscle groups that are less well developed.
2. Stimulation for the growth of the upper body
1. As a connection to the previous point: if you put your lower body to work, this will affect all muscle groups in your body. Leg muscle exercises such as sets of squats, leg presses and wall-sits produce a lot of growth hormones and testosterone. Several studies have shown that squats and deadlifts release most growth hormones and testosterone. These hormones stimulate muscle building in your entire body, including the smaller muscle groups.
2. TIP: Do you want to get the most out of your leg exercises? Then be sure to try our compression stockings from Stox Energy Socks. These sports socks speed up recovery time, promote blood circulation in your legs and ensure that waste products are removed even better. You can read more about this on the website!
3. Burn calories faster
1. Strength exercises in the leg muscles are not only important for people who want to gain muscle mass, but also for people who want to lose weight. Because your leg muscles are the largest muscle group, you burn the most calories with leg exercises. This does not only apply during training, but also afterwards. Even after training, your leg muscles still use a lot of energy to recover from that intensive training. Whatever your goal in the gym is, training your leg muscles is therefore very important! To improve recovery, we have developed special crossfit socks that are ideal for strength training.
4. More stability
1. Let's face it, people walk, run, jump, keep going. Especially when you do running sports (such as running), training your leg muscles will benefit greatly from this. Stronger leg muscles and a core provide more stability. You also have much more explosive power, which is very useful for crossfit or HIIT. As a runner you will stumble less often and the chance of running injuries is much smaller.
5. Mental strength
1. The main reason why many strength athletes train their leg muscles little or not at all is simply because this is very heavy. Not only physically but also mentally. Somehow it is understandable because everyone wants to put energy into the muscle groups where you want to make a lot of changes. So it takes a lot of discipline and perseverance to put your leg muscles to work in addition to your regular workouts. After a leg day you will get quite a lot of muscle pain in your buttocks and leg muscles and you will need these muscles all day long. But hold on! By pushing hard you will bridge one of the toughest physical and mental obstacles, which has a direct effect on your mental strength.

In short, don't forget the leg days and give yourself that extra push. You can do this! Do you have any additional tips or benefits for training your leg muscles and do you want to share them with the rest? Sharing is caring!