If you want to build a shapelier body, there are only two things you can do:

1. Build muscle
2. Lose fat

Sure, losing fat will make you look slimmer and more petite.

But building muscle will lift and structure your body from underneath. You’ll look firmer and curvier.

Best part? No restrictive diet required.

Here’s a legs, bums, and tums workout (one for at home, one for the gym) that’ll help you build muscle in all the right places.

Jump to the at-home workout 👇

Jump to the gym workout 👇

Rules for both workouts

Sets and reps

For both the at-home and in-gym legs, bums, tums workouts, you'll perform a few warmup sets, and then just one very hard set.

You must take this set to muscular failure. That is, you must do reps until you cannot complete another rep.

In other words, until you physically cannot move your body, or the weight, at all.

Reaching this point ensures you're maximizing the muscle-building stimulus for the workout. Essential if you want to change your body over time, and not just work up a sweat.

To reiterate:

• Warmup free-form until you feel ready to perform your working set.
• Perform one working set until you cannot move the weight (or your bodyweight) at all.
• Ideally, you'll reach muscular failure before you manage 15 reps. But if it takes 30 reps (or even more) keep going until you hit failure.
• Rest 45-75 seconds between warm up sets.
• Rest about two minutes before you tackle your working set.

The best LBT workout to perform at home

If you’ve got no equipment, don’t worry. Try this set of three unilateral leg exercises, finishing off with a complex for the abs, for a complete LBT workout you can finish in about 30 minutes.

Feel free to add weight to these if you've got a dumbbell lying around. Or add a jump to the end of the first two movements.

If you need to make these easier, you can do bodyweight squats instead of one-legged squats.

1. Bulgarian split squat
2. Pistol squat
3. Unilateral hip thrust
4. Ab complex

1) Bulgarian split squat

Why we love it:

Bulgarian split squats are an awesome glute exercise.

But bodyweight exercises don't give your muscles much resistance. It'll take ages to hit muscular failure.

Adding a jump to the movement will get you to muscular failure more quickly, making your sets more efficient.

Exercise demo:

How to perform it:

• Take a split stance and pop your instep up on a couch, bed, or chair behind you.
• Step forward reasonably far with your other leg.
• In the bottom of the movement, you want your knee to be at about a 90º angle.
• As you descend, think about touching your chest to your knee. This will force you into maximal hip flexion, forcing your glute to do the work.

Optional: Add a jump to the end of the movement to add difficulty.

2) Pistol squat

Why we love it:

Despite being a mainstain of Legs, Bums, and Tums workouts everywhere, regular bodyweight squats will never build you an impressive set of legs.

One-legged squats (aka pistol squats), though, are a great progression.

They do take a reasonable amount of mobility and balance. So don't be afraid to grab something to steady yourself and make the movement more stable. Just make sure you don't use your arm to help you push off.

Exercise demo:

How to perform it:

• Stand on one leg and squat down.
• Perform near something you can hold to gently steady yourself.
• Perform with the non-working leg either straight out in front of you, or bent off to the side if this is more comfortable.
• Push through your mid-foot to come up.

Optional: Add a jump to the end of the movement to add difficulty.

3) Unilateral hip thrust

What it works:

Why we love it:

Like the other movements on this list, all but complete beginners will struggle to create enough mechanical tension in their muscles with their bodyweight alone to stimulate muscle growth.

The solution?

Exercise one side at a time.

This is the only movement on this list that trains the glute in the short position. You'll feel a strong contraction as you push your hips to the ceiling.

Exercise demo:

How to perform it:

• Put your shoulders and upper back on a chair, bed, or sofa behind you.
• Lift one leg off the floor, and with the other, push through your heel to lift your hips towards the ceiling.
• Squeeze your glute hard on that side.
• Come back down and repeat.

4) Ab complex

1. Leg figure 8s (30secs)
2. Plank knee crunch (30secs)
3. Levitation crunch (30secs)

Why we love it:

Your core is a complex chain of muscles that all work together.

To really smoke your abs, you need to challenge them in multiple planes of movement.

That's the focus of this abdominal complex: To put your abs through their paces in multiple planes of movement, all in under three minutes.

How to perform it:

For this abdominal complex, you'll perform three exercises back-to-back with no rest for time. Start with 30 seconds per movement, and progress this until you're able to do 60 seconds per movement, once each, with no rest.

Figure 8s

• Lie on your back and place your palms on the floor for stability.
• Raise your legs and move them in a small figure-8 motion, keeping them near the floor throughout
• Gradually open up the range of motion until you're lifting your legs high and low in a big figure-8 arc motion.

Plank knee crunch

• Get in a plank position with your elbows on the floor.
• Bring one knee towards the opposite elbow.
• Twist as you do so to hit the obliques and lower abs at the same time.
• Alternate sides (right knee to left elbow, left knee to right elbow, etc.)

Levitation crunch

• Keep your shoulders and upper back off the floor at all times.
• Lie on your back with your knees bent.
• Bring your shoulders and upper back off the floor into the starting position.
• Squeeze your abs hard to cinch yourself in towards your knees.
• Relax them just enough to return to the starting position, then repeat.
• The range of motion will feel very small, but you'll feel your abs working incredibly hard.

Congrats! You've completed this workout!

Is Ready Brek Good For Weight Loss? (The Scary Truth)

Ready Brek can be a part of a healthy, sustainable weight-loss diet. But there are some considerations we need to take into account before we can decide whether it’s the right breakfast for you.

No Time MuscleAlex

The best LBT workout to perform in the gym

As great as the above workout is, if you really want to build an impressive set of legs with a 🍑 to match, you’ll need to keep challenging your body with resistance beyond what your body can provide.

So, when you’re ready, grab your gym bag and continue making progress with the workout below. 👇

1. Hack squat
2. Calf press
3. Glute drive machine
4. Seated leg curl
5. Standing cable crunch

1) Hack squat

What it looks like in your gym:

Why we love it:

The hack squat is a brutally effective leg workout.

If you've ever tried back squatting with a barbell, you know it's relatively difficult to coordinate. And as the set wears on? Your muscles fatigue, and your form starts to break down.

Machines solve this problem. Your form cannot change over the course of the set, meaning the final rep always looks exactly the same as the first. Which is exactly what we want for the best stimulus in the target muscles

Exercise demo:

How to perform it:

• Experiment with your foot stance to find a position that's comfortable, where your heels don't rise off the foot plate.
  • A wider stance will work the adductors (inner thigh) more.
  • A lower stance (feet towards the bottom of the foot plate) will force your knees to come further forward, which will emphasize the quads more.
  • A higher stance will lengthen your glutes more in the bottom, and stimulate them more on the way up.
• Go all the way down by bending your knees, keeping your back flat to the back pad.
• Push through your mid-foot to stand back up.
• Try not to let your heels rise off the foot plate, or your lower back to come off the back pad.

2) Calf press

What it looks like in your gym:

Why we love it:

Calf exercises that you perform with a straight leg work the soleus as well as the gastroc. The soleus sits beneath the rest of the calf, and when it grows, lifts the muscles above it, making your legs that much more shapely.

Calf exercises performed with a bent knee, like seated calf raises, do not work the soleus, so choose a straight-legged variation for maximum benefit.

Pin-selectorized machines are also just super easy and comfortable. No loading and unloading weight plates. Just straight to work.

How to perform it:

• Use your legs to "unrack" the weight.
• Then, with a straight leg, lower yourself and really emphasize the stretch on the calves.

• Hold the stretch for a count of five before coming up to emphasize the stretch and remove all momentum from the movement.

3) Glute drive machine

What it looks like in your gym:

Why we love it:

The glute drive machine has all the benefits of the barbell hip thrust that's so popular. But it's far less hassle to set up.

This movement really challenges your glutes in the short position, so you'll feel an incredible contraction as you drive your hips towards the ceiling.

You can also load this machine up really heavy, giving you plenty of room to progress and get stronger.

An added bonus: As you get stronger on this movement, you'll notice your back pain disappearing, as the big muscles of your glutes become better at helping your lower back support your torso when you lean forward.

How to perform it:

• Take a stance on the foot plate that allows you to have a knee angle of about 90º at the top of the movement.
• Position your upper back on the pad behind you, and put the soft pad in the crease of your hips.
• Come down right to the bottom to incorporate the hamstrings a little. Your knees will move towards you in the bottom if you do this.
• Or, cut the range of motion a little shorter so your knees don't move towards you at all. This will keep the focus entirely on the glutes.

4) Seated leg curl

What it looks like in your gym:

Why we love it:

The seated hamstring curl works every head of the hamstrings. It's the most complete hamstring movement there is.

Barbell movements with an entirely straight leg don't (there's one head that crosses the knee, but not the hip, that gets left out.)

Neither do lying leg curls. The heads that cross the hip don't get enough love in this variation.

But in the seated leg curl, your hips are flexed, and the knee bends.

Plus, you can brace very effectively using the handles, and lock yourself in tight to the machine to stop other muscles taking over as you get tired.

Exercise demo:

How to perform it:

This machine can look a little intimidating. There are usually three adjustable points, and you might feel a little silly trying to get them right.

Here's how to set up for a seated leg curl:

• Set the back pad first. It should sit comfortably against your back with the crease of your knees right at the edge of the seat.
• Then, adjust the pin in the middle. Your knee should be in line with the camber, which is the "joint" of the machine that rotates.
• Finally, adjust the bottom pad that sits under your ankles.
  • This pad should feel comfortable and stable beneath your ankle, even in the bottom of the movement.
  • If it feels like it's rising up your calf as you do reps, or beneath your heel instead of your ankle at the top, adjust until it feels just right.

Performing the movement:

• When you're ready to do the exercise, you'll lock yourself in place like you're in a rollercoaster seat.
• Lock yourself in tight, and just curl your hamstrings.
• Use the handles to push yourself back against the back pad, so you don't slide forward in the seat.
• Curl your hamstrings all the way down, then come all the way up. You should feel a bit of a stretch in the top.

5) Standing cable crunch

What it looks like in your gym:

Why we love it:

Performing a stable crunch on a piece of equipment like this allows you to brace your back against the pad behind you.

You can use your bum as a lever, really allowing you to load up the weight and challenge the abs.

Plus, it's way harder to cheat and use momentum to throw yourself forward like it is with seated ab crunch machines.

Perform this movement right and it'll also strengthen your transversus abdominis. A sheet of muscle that sits around the spine and acts like a corset, cinching your middle section in. When this is weak, your belly sticks out more even when you're lean. So strengthening it is a must for a small waist.

Exercise demo:

How to perform it:

• Attach a straight bar to the cable overhead.
• Brace your bum against the back pad.
• Pull the bar down so it's resting on the crown of your head.
• Blow all your air out as you crunch down.
• Squeeze your abs hard at the bottom.
• Come all the way back up.
• Towards the end of the set, you should feel your abs in a bit of a stretch at the top.

Congrats! You've completed this workout!

Should I lose weight or build muscle? (How to transform your physique)

If your goal is to lose weight, rather than build muscle, exercise is actually a poor way of doing it.

The best Legs, Bums and Tums workout in the world can only help you build muscle. You'll burn a few calories in the process, sure, but no more than a cereal bar's worth.

Don’t get me wrong. Nurturing an exercise habit is a great thing to do for yourself.

But exercise itself doesn’t burn that many calories. Killing yourself in the gym is unsustainable, and creates too much fatigue. Strive to be more active, exercise intentionally, and to get more steps in. But understand that weight is lost in the kitchen.

It’s also sadly impossible to spot reduce body fat from one area of the body. Weighted crunches will grow your ab muscles, making them firmer and more defined, but you’ll only notice the difference if you lose the fat that’s covering them up.

Building muscle in the larger muscles of the legs, like your quads, adductors, hamstrings, and glutes, will make a far more rapid visual difference to your physique.

Do You Need to Lift Heavy to Build Muscle?

While some claim you have to lift heavy weights to build muscle mass, you’ll maximize hypertrophy when you take sets of 5-30 reps to failure.

No Time MuscleAlex