Kristen Stewart, Selena Gomez & More: The Top 15 Sexiest Legs And How YOU Can Get Them Too!

1 of 15 Return to Article

skip advertisement

Posted Tue, June 7, 2011 9:25am EST

The June 5 MTV Movie Awards was packed with celebs wearing short, tight dresses that showed off many sets of long, lean legs!

Reese Witherspoon, Cameron Diaz & more top our list of sexiest summer legs. Celebrity trainer and fitness expert Joe Dowdell tells YOU how to get your legs in mini skirt-wearing shape!

As the weather heats up, clothing shrink down! Be prepared with these tips and tricks from Joe!
What are some of fast, yet effective, leg workouts?
Here are two leg circuit workouts to try — one for beginners and one for the more advanced.

Beginner:
Lateral split squats, 10-12 reps on the right side and 10-12 on the left
Put your hands over your head and do 15-20 prisoner squats
Finish off with 15-20 double leg hip bridges.
Rest after that circuit for about a minute and then repeat the circuit 2-3 more times.

Intermediate-advanced:
Reverse lunge, 10-12 reps on the left and then right legs
Lateral lunge, 10-12 reps on the left and then right legs
Squat jump stick, 15-20. Start at standing, squat down, explode up as if jumping up to grab something and the key is to try to land softly.
Get on your back, but instead of a double leg hip bridge, you could do a single leg hip bridge.

Tip: Progress by holding dumbbells or a medicine ball through the circuit for some resistance.

Are there any great water exercises for legs, as people may have access to a pool or beach?
“I like to use the pool a lot for recovery workouts. I find the breast stoke to be a really good leg-kicking movement. Get a kickboard and hold onto the kickboard so all of the work is being done with the legs.” Joe suggests holding the kickboard with your arms outstretched in front of you.

In the summer, people are pouring outside for their workouts. What outdoor activities specifically are great for toning up the legs?
Surfing and Running stairs or hill running

What area of the legs do you find women have the hardest time with? Why do you think that is?
“There’s a lot of physiology that goes into this. Hormones. A lot of times women who tend to store more body fat in their hips and thighs tend to be estrogen dominant, or they are not detoxifying their estrogen well. There’s no such thing, in essence, as spot reduction. [Women] diet really well and exercise really hard and they have this estrogen dominance issue that they don’t realize that they have and they end up with this smaller version of the body that they already have. Imagine a pear shrinking down to a smaller pear. In my book, Ultimate You, we go over this and how you can fix that [estrogen dominance] and numerous other hormonal issues.

Is there any common mistake you see people making when trying to tone up their legs?
“Women tend to do too little strength training and they tend to be very afraid of challenging themselves with resistance for fear of getting too big, They spend too much time doing low to moderate intensity aerobic activities. Women tend to be very good at these aerobic type activities so they gravitate towards them. Basically take yourself outside of your comfort zone and challenge yourself more. There’s this preponderance of misinformation targeted at women more than men. There’s a lot of people out there praying into women’s fears, especially with regard towards things like lifting weights.”

So HollywoodLifers, are you ready to get your legs in shape for summer?