Stronger Legs, Without the Guesswork or Pain
Lower Body Muscle Mass & Strength Are Essential
Whether you’re aware of it or not, lower body muscle mass and strength is essential for your everyday life.
It helps you:
- Get up and down from a chair, toilet, or car
- Climb out of bed
- Walk up and down stairs and hills
- Bend over to pick things up safely
- Put on your shoes and socks- Safely get up off the floor
If you want to be able to do all of these activities easily for decades into the future (or even recover your ability to do them), building your leg strength must be on the top of your list!
Not only will strong legs keep you moving like a “spring chicken”…
…it will help to keep you injury and pain free, too!
In fact, if you have strong lower body muscles, you’ll be less likely to experience chronic low back pain and knee pain.
Two common issues that plague millions of women in midlife.
Even women with irreversible knee and hip arthritis can decrease their daily joint pain and improve their quality of life by building up the strength of the muscles surrounding these joints.
Avoid any misery (and reverse it we need to) by making your legs as strong as you possibly can!
Why This Matters
Your leg muscles (glutes, hamstrings, quads, inner & outer thighs, hip flexors and calves) are some of the largest muscles on your body. When they’re weak and underdeveloped, not only will you deal with joint pain and a lack of everyday strength, but you’ll also be fighting poor balance, coordination, and yep, even a slower metabolism.
FITNESS SIMPLIFIED
Your lower body relies on two essential movements: squatting and hip-hinging.
These are the foundations of strength and mobility.
And it’s important to maintain them for as long as possible.
Fitness Tip for Lower Body Strength & Mobility
Include both squats and hip hinges in your routine.
A hip hinge is not the same as a squat.
Both movements engage the major muscles of your legs, especially your glutes.
But they target different areas:
Hip Hinge (like a deadlift): The movement happens at your hip joint, with your glutes and hamstrings doing most of the work.
Squat: The action is distributed between your hip and knee joints, engaging your glutes and quads together.
For balanced lower body strength, your training program should include variations of both squats and hip hinges.
Squats vs. Hip Hinge - What’s the Difference?
- Hip Hinge - Keep your knees slightly bent, then fold just at the hip, creating a deep hip crease as your glutes push out behind you. Your knees will barely bend.
- Squat - Sit down into your legs, making your sure hips are pushing back as far as possible while you sit down. Keep your torso fairly upright as you bring your thighs towards parallel with the floor.
- Practice 10-15 repetitions of each motion.
Extra tip: With both moves, ensure alignment through your legs by having your knee stacked above your ankle. You can even place a band around your knees when squatting to encourage your glutes to stabilize your leg in this position more, and to decrease any knee pain.
Did You Know...
- You might have been told to “never let your knees go past your toes”, but that’s a myth - especially for healthy knees. If you don’t experience knee pain, it’s perfectly fine to allow your knees to press past your toes - in fact it can make your knees stronger!
- Strengthening your inner/outer thigh muscles is also important for good balance, and healthy knees and hips. Split squats, lunges, single leg deadlifts and side lunges all strengthen these muscles in a functional way.
- Bridges, single leg bridges, hamstring curls, and single leg dead lifts are all additional glute and hamstring exercises that are great for building strong knees and hips!
NUTRITION SIMPLIFIED
Want your eating habits to support your metabolism?
Nutrition Tip Of The Week
Eat more protein
Building muscle mass in your lower body not only makes you stronger, but also gives your metabolism a boost!Your quads, hamstrings, and glutes are some of the largest muscles in your body.
By increasing their muscle mass, you’ll naturally raise your baseline metabolic output. 💪
The key to fueling this process? Protein.
Here’s why eating more protein works:
- It takes more effort for your body to digest and metabolize it into energy, giving your metabolism a natural lift.
- Protein keeps you feeling full for longer, reducing the urge to snack on unhealthy foods that slow down your metabolism.
- It’s essential for muscle growth—your number-one metabolism booster!
Eat meals that make protein the “star” of the dish so you get plenty of muscle-building protein throughout the day.
A six-ounce sirloin steak packs over 40 grams of protein!
Make it a delicious and balanced meal by pairing your protein with produce, like a mixed green salad or roasted veggies.
Keep it easy to remember by thinking about “eating PRO’s” - protein + produce.
P.S. This steak marinade is hands-down the BEST I’ve found—give it a try!
The Best Steak Marinade
More Ideas For High-Protein Foods:
- Lentils, tofu, beans, peas, nuts and seeds are the best plant-based protein sources with the highest amounts of protein.
- Dairy, like cottage cheese and Greek yogurt, have lots of protein, plus calcium & vitamin D.
- I share more ideas for how to eat 100g of protein in a day in this podcast episode.
MINDSET SIMPLIFIED
When you were younger, you might have fallen into the trap of thinking that being skinny was the ultimate health goal.
This mindset often leads to unhealthy habits like chronic calorie counting, restrictive eating, and choosing workouts solely for how many calories they burn.
Confession: I once believed the myth that eating fewer calories was the key to losing body fat and achieving the toned body I wanted.
But here’s the truth: chasing “skinny” can backfire.
It can slow your metabolism, weaken your bones, and leave you feeling frail and weak as you age.
And let’s be honest—constantly feeling hungry and exhausted isn’t the way to live.
Instead of striving for “skinny,” shift your focus to being strong. 💪
Building muscle not only makes you stronger in daily life.
It also protects your bones, boosts your longevity.
AND improves your metabolism, which can lead to a leaner body with better overall composition. (Bonus!!)
Mindset Tip To Strengthen Your Upper Body
Aim for “strong” instead of “skinny"
THE TAKEAWAY
Building lower body strength is essential for staying active, preventing pain, and improving metabolism as you age. By focusing on a few simple things, you can create a healthier, more resilient body for midlife and beyond.
- Incorporate squatting and hip-hinging into your routine
- Eat more protein
- Aim for “strong” instead of “skinny”
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Self Care Simplified podcast
Ep 372: How to Reduce Knee Pain & Build Healthy Knees for Life
Ep 249: Achy knees? Building Strong and pain free knees as you age
Ep 319: 3 Simple hip mobility exercises for hip osteoarthritis
SPECIAL RESOURCE
This is a quick full-body workout that you can easily do anywhere, and it only uses your body weight. Join me and follow along as we do a quick warm-up, then a simple workout, and then end with a refreshing cool down.
15 MIN Full Body Workout for Beginners.
Until next week... Be strong
