Leg and Stomach Exercises for Quick Results

If you want to slim your legs and stomach fast, it's time to blast calories and gain muscle. Resistance training exercises for your legs, butt and abs will build muscle strength and definition that improves your physique. High intensity interval cardio workouts are the secret to burning more calories in your workouts. If you're solely interested in gaining muscle, high intensity interval cardio does that, too. For quick results, commit to doing three to five cardio workouts and two to three strength training workouts each week.

  1. Cardio

    • Burning more calories than you consume will shed the fat covering your abs and thigh muscles. Sprinting is a calorie-blasting cardio exercise that builds the muscles on your legs and works your whole body at once, recruiting your core muscles for explosive power. Do sprinting exercises by doing high intensity interval training. Run for three to five minutes, then sprint for 30 to 90 seconds at 80 to 100 percent of your absolute maximal intensity. For a low-impact aerobics workout that blasts calories and works all of your muscles, swim freestyle laps with high intensity intervals.

    Leg Exercises

    • According to the American College of Sports Medicine, leg exercises that recruit more than one muscle, called multi-joint exercises, stimulate more muscle growth and fat burning in less time. Do squats and lunges for your glutes, hamstrings and quads. To target your calves, do calf raises holding dumbbells for extra resistance. To isolate your hamstring, do hamstring curls, and do knee extensions to build your quads.

    Butt Exercises

    • According to the American Council on Exercise, lunges and hip extensions are the most effective exercises for your butt. Do lunges holding dumbbells for extra resistance weight and do hip extensions using the four-way hip machine at the gym. You can also do hip extensions on your hands and knees. Keeping your spine in a straight line and your hips squared, lift one leg bent at a 90-degree angle so that the bottom of your foot is facing the ceiling. Lower and switch legs.

    Core Strength Training

    • According to a 2001 San Diego State University study, the most effective ab exercises for targeting the entirety of your abdominal muscles are leg raises on a captain's chair machine, the bicycle maneuver, reverse crunches and crunches on a stability ball. Do these ab exercises to build defined muscles to show after the fat is burned off with cardio exercise. Do several different ab exercises per strength training session, and mix it up with other ab exercises. Pilates is a practice centered on strengthening your core and building long, lean muscles. Taking a class once a week in addition to strength training your abs with other ab exercises may speed up your results.

    Weight, Reps and Sets

    • For faster muscle gain, vary the number of repetitions you do in different sets. Lifting for a few reps means lifting heavy weights you can't lift for more than eight to 10 reps at a time. When you lift heavy, try to do up to three sets. Lifting heavy works your fast-twitch muscle fibers, which release fat-burning hormones to use glucose instead of oxygen for explosive power. Lifting light for a high number of reps works your slow-twitch muscle fibers, which use oxygen for endurance energy. Therefore, doing one set of 15 to 25 or more reps strengthens your muscular capillary system, which strengthens your muscles in a way that will allow for more growth when you lift heavier weights.