Nobody looks forward to leg days. Legs workouts tend to be more challenging now more than ever, because we spend so much time sitting down.

Our entire day seems to be revolve around a seat or chair. More and more people are just sitting and not actively moving and getting around by foot. We sit at our work desks, we sit in our cars stuck in rush hour traffic, and our postures while sitting is terrible.

We are hunched over our smartphones. Hunched over the keyboard. Sitting really has become the new smoking and thats something we need to fix.

A result from all the this sitting and hunching over is that we have tight glutes, hips, and hamstrings. All these factors make leg exercises difficult because the lack of utilizing our legs has caused our lower body muscles to atrophy, making it next to impossible to execute a proper legs workout. Not to mention once we our leg muscles to atrophy it can create a potentially dangerous situation since we lack the mobility and stability to pull off the movements safely and effectively.

Add in the fact that a lot of leg exercises are so ineffective that they’re a waste of time and can potentially cause injury to your joints and muscles. So here are seven leg exercises that could contribute to long-term ailments, along with better lower body movements that you should incorporate into your legs workouts.

Pete Williams is a NASM-certified personal trainer and the author or co-author of a number of books on performance and training.

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