Fastest Ways to Muscular Legs With Dance or Exercise

Dance and exercise your way to fabulous, muscular legs in no time. Dancing uses the body's weight as resistance, so there is no need for any cumbersome gear. Dancing involves extensive use of the leg muscles. All you have to do is move to the beat to get definition in your legs. Adding additional leg exercises to your dance routine will decrease the time it takes to increase the size and tone of your leg muscles.

  1. Building Muscular Legs

    • There are three muscle groups in the leg that you will want to focus on building. The hamstrings on the back of the thigh, the quadriceps on the front of the thigh, and the calf muscles on the back of the lower leg. Muscles move through what is called "concentric" and "eccentric" contractions. This is the contracting and lengthening that occurs every time you move. When you apply resistance to the muscles when they move, they become fatigued and micro-tears form. The muscles then repair themselves and grow slightly in a process called hypertrophy.

    Dance Styles

    • Because dance is the interaction between you and the floor, virtually any style of dance will be ideal in building leg muscles. Although any dance you choose will likely benefit all leg muscle groups, some specific dance types may be better suited for building particular muscles. For example, when you plie in ballet, as you lower your body, it works your quads. As you rise again, it works the muscles in your hamstrings. In hip-hop dance, the legs are often bent, so the upper leg muscles will be getting a good workout. In salsa, the calf muscles are heavily worked, because the body's weight is often on the balls of the foot as you stand with a raised heel. Jumping in any form of dance will build hamstrings, quads and calves.

    More Leg Exercises

    • Turbo-boost leg muscle mass by adding additional leg exercises such as squats, lunges and single-leg calf raises to your dance workout. A body-weight squat is done by standing with feet slightly more than hip-distance apart. Bend your knees as if you were sitting in a chair, stopping about where the chair seat would be. Forward lunges are performed by stepping one leg in front and then lowering the body until both legs are at a 90-degree angle. For squats and lunges, keep your knee over your foot and your back straight for proper form. Single-leg calf raises can be done by standing with one leg slightly bent and then rising onto the ball of the foot of the standing leg, holding on to a chair back for balance.

    Frequency Counts

    • Repetition is what it takes to build leg muscles fast. Plan on dancing at least twice a week for an hour each session. Add several leg exercises that work the three main muscle groups of the leg and do two or three sets of 10 repetitions. Ideally, you should dance and execute the leg exercises on three or four days per week, with one or two days of rest between workouts. If you are not sore on your rest days, increase the repetitions of dance moves and leg exercises.