Standing Leg Circles | Illustrated Exercise Guide

Primary muscles: Quads, inner thighs
Secondary muscles: Glutes, thighs
Equipment: No equipment

STANDING LEG CIRCLES INSTRUCTIONS

1. Stand straight with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms to the sides.
2. While keeping the toes pointed, raise one leg at about knee high and start rotating it clockwise.
3. Reverse the motion, rotating counterclockwise, and then switch legs and repeat.

PROPER FORM AND BREATHING PATTERN

When doing the standing leg circles, stand up tall, keep your back straight, your head up and your abs tight. Keep the movements controlled and precise, and don’t shift the weight to the opposite leg. Don’t bend the knees, keep your toes pointed and breathe smoothly. It’s important to focus on keeping your body anchored and let the abs do all the work.

EXERCISE BENEFITS

The standing leg circles is a great exercise if your goal is to increase your coordination, balance and build strong, long and lean muscles. This exercise can be included in a lower body workout to help tone your quads, inner thighs and glutes.

DEMONSTRATION

SETS AND REPS

Do 10 to 15 repetitions on each side and start with small circles. As you gain strength, you will be able to increase the diameter of the circles. If your goal is to gain muscle mass, you can use ankle weights and do 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions.

CALORIES BURNED

To calculate the number of calories burned doing standing leg circles, enter your weight and the duration of the exercise:

RELATED LOWER BODY EXERCISES

Try these other lower body exercises to strengthen, sculpt and tone your thighs, hips, legs and glutes:
Lunges
Single leg bridge
Curtsy lunge
Fire hydrant