Enjoying a Strong Lower Body

According to research, the key predictor of whether you’ll need to live in an assisted living facility when you’re elderly is your leg strength. Here’s why you need to work on those glutes, quads, hams, and calves:

• Real-life benefits: When you take the time to strengthen your legs, you have more stamina for waiting in line at the post office, racing through the grocery store to catch a small child, climbing office stairs when the elevator is broken, and standing on tiptoe to paint the corner of your ceiling.
• Injury prevention: Strengthening your lower body muscles is a good way to preserve your hip, knee, and ankle joints — three joints that put in a lot of overtime and are particularly susceptible to injury. It’s true that many joint injuries result from torn ligaments or tendons (the connective tissue that holds your bones in place), but many of these injuries won’t occur in the first place if you have a strong army of muscles surrounding and protecting your joints. Often, lower body injuries result from a lifetime of repetitive motions such as walking up and down stairs. Weak muscles allow the bones to grind down the protective cartilage more rapidly and can’t support the proper alignment that is necessary for healthy joint function. By strengthening the muscles that surround the joints, you give them the support they need to do their job day after day. With strong lower body muscles you’re less likely to sprain your ankle by stepping off a curb because your joints have the strength to hold up even when they’re wrenched into positions they’d prefer to avoid. If you’re already at the point where you have bad knees or a “trick ankle,” it’s not too late to pump some iron with your lower body muscles.
• The “Feel Good” factor: When your lower body is strong, you feel confident because you know that you can lift that heavy item, you can walk up those stairs, and you can take care of yourself. Leg strength is the leading indicator of who will end up living in nursing homes. Be strong and feel good about you.

Understanding Butt and Leg Muscle Basics

You have several muscles that make up the lower portion of your body. Each muscle serves a purpose and works with the other muscles in your lower body to help you move around. Take a look at the breakdown of the muscles below your waist:

• Gluteus maximus (glutes): The glutes is the granddaddy of all muscles in your body and covers your entire butt — both cheeks. The gluteus maximus straightens your legs from your hips when you stand up and propels you forward when you walk or run.
• Hip flexors: The muscles opposite your gluteus maximus, located at the front of your hips. Your hip flexor muscles help you lift your leg up high so you can march in a parade or step up onto a ladder. You don’t need to spend much time working your hip flexors; they tend to be relatively stronger than the glutes in most people. When the hip flexors become disproportionately strong and tight compared to other muscles, they pull your pelvis forward and throw your hip and lower spine into an excessively arched position. This strength imbalance may contribute to poor posture and lower back pain. Keep in mind that balanced muscle development is as important as strong muscles.
• Abductors: The sides, or meat, of your hips: your outer thighs. Your outer hips move your leg away from your body, like when you push off while ice-skating. The main outer hip muscle is called the gluteus medius.Adductors: The muscles that span the inside of your upper leg or inner thighs. They pull your leg in toward the center of your body or, when they’re feeling ambitious, they sweep one leg in front of and past the other, like when you kick a soccer ball off to the side.
• Quadriceps (quads): The quads are located at the front of your thighs. Together these four muscles have one purpose: to straighten your leg from the knee.
• Hamstrings (hams): These muscles reside directly behind your thighbone. They bend your knee, bringing your heel toward your buttocks, and help the glutes do their thing.
• Gastrocnemius (gastroc): The gastroc is shaped like a diamond. The gastroc allows you to rise up on your tiptoes to see over your neighbor’s fence. Check out the calves of any competitive bicyclist, and you’ll see precisely what this muscle looks like.
• Soleus: Your soleus lies directly underneath the gastroc and helps out the gastroc when your knee is bent and you need to raise your heels up, like when you’re sitting at the movies and you realize that you just stepped in gum.
• Tibialis anterior: The partner to your calf muscles is your shin muscle, covering the front of your lower leg. Whenever you’re listening to music that makes you feel like tapping your toes, you can thank this muscle for allowing you to literally make this movement happen.