One of Australia’s top personal trainers has unveiled her go-to workout for banning “saddlebags” using a simple set of exercises you can do at home.
Rachael Attard, the Gold Coast-based founder of the Lean Legs program, shared a video on Instagram showing the five simple moves to target the muscles of the outer thigh.
“Do each exercise for 30 seconds and do all the exercises on one side before moving on to the other. Complete 2-3 rounds in total,” she explained.
She begins by starting on all fours and moving one leg out to the side and back in.
She then repeats the move, but extends her leg after pushing it to one side.
While still on all fours, she moves her knee to her elbow before extending her leg behind and extending her arms so that her entire body moves backwards.
She starts on all fours and moves one leg out to the side and back in. She then repeats the move, but extends her leg after pushing it to one side.
For the next move, she extends her leg and diagonally behind her, before moving it up and down.
Finally, she extends her leg behind her before bending it and moving into a lunge position — while her arms are in the air.
“For added challenge, you can add ankle weights, like I did here, but you can also do this workout without any equipment,” she added.
Third, while still on all fours, she moves her knee to her elbow before extending her leg behind her and extending her arms so that her entire body moves backwards. For the next move, she extends her leg and diagonally behind her, before moving it up and down.
Finally, she extends her leg behind her before bending it and moving into a lunge position — while her arms are in the air.
Rachael often shares tips for weight loss and healthy living on her Instagram and blog, and recently revealed that high-intensity cardio at 100 percent of your maximum heart rate isn’t the secret to effective fat burning.
“When you’re working out, most people think you should give the workout all the energy you have and train as hard as you can,” says Rachael, a sports nutritionist, said.
However, the fat-burning zone theory says you shouldn’t push your body all the way to 100. Instead, you burn the most fat when you work at 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate.’
Doing high-intensity cardio at 100 percent of your heart rate isn’t the secret to effective fat burning, Rachael said earlier
Rachael Attard, the Gold Coast-based founder of the Lean Legs program, takes pride in helping clients lose extra body fat and weight in the most efficient way; for this she teaches them the ‘fat burning zone’
Rachael explains that fat burning occurs when carbohydrates and fat are converted into energy called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
The body needs oxygen to convert fat into ATP, and when you do low to moderate intensity exercise, you can breathe more easily, so your body gets more oxygen than when you do an intense workout.
“The most efficient thing your body can do during lower and moderate exercise is to convert your stored fat into energy,” she said.
“The most efficient thing your body can do during lower and moderate exercise is to convert your stored fat into energy,” she said.
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“So according to the fat-burning theory, you need to do long, low-intensity exercise to use up the fat stores and burn enough calories to see weight loss.”
Rachael added that during intense exercise, the body burns carbohydrates (glycogen) rather than fat because it doesn’t have enough energy to burn fat.
“When you do an intense workout, your body burns through your glycogen stores and may eventually go back to burning fat, depending on the length of the workout and the amount of stored carbohydrates in your body,” she added.
“But if you eat before an intense workout (and especially if your diet is high in carbohydrates), your body is likely to burn a lot more carbohydrates than fat.”
“So according to the fat-burning theory, you need to do long, low-intensity exercise to use up the fat stores and burn enough calories to see weight loss,” she said.
This explains why walking is Rachael’s top exercise recommendation — and the one she says is the key to lean, toned legs.
“Walking is the best form of exercise for slender legs. It will help get rid of excess fat on your legs and make them lean forward,” she said previously.
‘The longer you exercise, the more fat your body will burn. So doing longer power walks will help your body burn more fat and help you get leaner legs,” she said.
Rachael said she tried “every workout under the sun” but found that “nothing is more effective for getting thinner thighs and legs in general than walking.”
“Through my years of working as a PT with girls who had the same goal (especially getting thin legs), this has always been the best method,” she added.
Rachael added that a walk first thing in the morning will lead to better results.
“If you do cardio before you eat in the morning, you’ll have less glycogen stored, so your body will burn more fat and muscle,” Rachael said.
“Less fat and less muscle mass equals leaner legs, but for this to work, you need to eat low carb (try to eat no carbs the night before so your glycogen levels are already low) and you need to do cardio for a reasonable amount of time.” (more than 60-90 minutes).’
The bottom line is that there are three main steps to reducing muscle size and building lean, toned legs: learning your body type, doing the right type of cardio (walking), and eating a low-calorie, low-carb diet.
For more information about the fat burning zone, click here.