Pintastic: How to get smaller, toned legs

One of the most frequent questions I get asked by female clients is, “how can I make my legs smaller and more toned?” As a rule of thumb, women tend to lose fat from the top down and build muscle from the bottom up, so at the end of the day, there’s one word that will get those pins lean and that word is, CONSISTENCY.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdwzUs5wIPw Yep, you’re gonna have to exercise regularly for a long period of time (regularly, but not every day or OTT, as rest and recovery is just as crucial!) and importantly, you need to cut out a few particular foods completely and boost your intake of others.

Here are my simple rules for lean legs:

• Train consistently and with workouts that will encourage change and hormonal shift in your body. This means metabolic circuits, interval training, weights, or bodyweight resistance work and sprints.
• Avoid trans fats completely for up to 12 months (beyond, if possible). These kinds of fat are hard for your body to process and will ‘sit’ in your best ‘storage’ spots (hello legs/hips) for a very long time – up to a few years if you don’t help your body break them down with plenty of live enzymes from real food! Cutting trans fats out means avoiding anything deep fried in icky vegetable oils (goodbye hot chips), as well as anything containing partially hydrogenated oils. These are found in most processed baked goods (biscuits, donuts) and cake mixes, as well as in takeaway meals from fast food chains, frozen entrees/meals, margarines, crisps and fried crackers, microwave popcorn and even a lot of cocoa/hot chocolate mixes (tip: raw cacao is great for you though, so grab some of that online/at your local health food shop).
• Cut down on starchy carbs and simple sugars, to give your body a chance to burn through stored energy, rather than continually topping it up with new supplies! This doesn’t mean going ‘no carb’, it just means choosing unprocessed, complex and fibrous carbs instead. Great options are veggies, fruits, or healthier grain substitutes such as quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, brown/wild rice and nuts/seeds, or perhaps a piece of organic sourdough with your brekky.
• Include a wide variety of squats, lunges, single-leg deadlifts, glute activation moves and full-body exercises that get your heart rate up in your workouts. Hire a PT, or join a group with an instructor that will help you get your technique spot-on, because if you do your squats incorrectly, you can end up building your quads up, rather than leaning them out. Technique and variation is imperative.
• Increase your consumption of green veggies & green tea, while giving soy milk/tofu the heave-ho from your diet. Here’s why… (A) Green veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, asparagus and brussel sprouts break down into something called DIM with the assistance of enzymes upon chewing. DIM helps your body process oestrogens more effectively, which helps to lean out your legs. You can also try a DIM supplement to speed-track the process. (B) Green tea gives you a little metabolic boost, is packed with antioxidants and improves liver function, all of which protects your body from oestrogen excess and flushes weight from your legs. (C) Processed soy foods does the opposite of these things and can actually encourage your body to put weight ON in the legs when over-consumed, so stick with small serves and if you’re a soy lover, reach for fermented and unprocessed versions of soy instead, like tempeh, miso and edamame beans.

Last but certainly not least… make sure you try our PINTASTIC workout from today’s video. It’s packed with the kind of exercises that will help you achieve your leanest, loveliest pins ever! Here’s the basic rundown…

Pintastic

Spend 60s on each exercise in the workout, or 30s per side for unilateral moves. Once you’ve been through them all, take a minute to catch your breath, then repeat the circuit twice more through. Add weights to the squats and lunges for extra difficulty, if you dare. Your Exercises (see the video for demos):

1. Plie to Toe Raise (make sure you squeeze your glutes at the top position!)
2. Kneeling Kick to Tuck
3. Clock Lunges
4. “Jane Fonda” Leg Lifts
5. 1-Legged Burpees
6. Shuttle Sprints

Enjoy!