The Best Workout to Improve Your Leg Strength and Cardio Fitness

Working the lungs and legs is a combination punch to being healthy and living longer. Studies show that leg strength and heart and lung efficiency are the keys to staying mobile, doing things outside of the house and adding life to your years. Here is such a workout that incorporates working the legs while adding cardio components to the plan of the day. This can help you do both at the same time and save time with your training:

Warmup with the Half Pyramid: Squat/Toe Touch Pyramid 1-10 with 50-meter jogs:

• One squat, one toe touch, jog 50 meters.
• Two squats, two toe touches, jog 50 meters.
• Three squats, three toe touches, jog 50 meters ...

To loosen the legs and lower back and increase your body temperature, continue up to 10 squats/10 toe touches. Then run one mile or do 10 minutes of cardio (bike, rower, elliptical machine, etc.).

After the warm-up, you can run, bike or use another cardio machine, but between each run or two-minute set of cardio, you do 20 squats and 10 lunges. Repeat six times.

Repeat six times.

• Run 400 meters or bike two minutes fast.
• Squats 20
• Lunges 10/leg

Between the first section of cardio/leg resistance training, take a cardio break but select a cardio option that challenges the legs and the lungs, such as running stairs or hills or using a stair-stepper machine for 10 minutes:

Run stairs/hill/stair stepper for 10 minutes: For this leg--burning cardio set, you can do it outdoors up/down a hill, up/down stairs or bleachers, or use a stair stepper or high-incline elliptical machine. This is followed by the leg workout section below:

In a circuit of four sets, do squats (weighted or unweighted), farmer's walks carrying a kettlebell or dumbbell in one hand up and down a flight of stairs three times or walk flat for one minute. The next circuit exercise is lunges for 10 reps on each leg (no weight), then "rest with cardio" -- your choice to run, jog or bike for two minutes.

Repeat four times.

• Squats 10
• Kettlebell farmer's walks up/down stairs 3x or a one-minute walk
• Lunges 10/leg
• Jog 400 meters easy or bike for two minutes

Cooldown cardio is an easy jog or bike for 20 minutes, followed by a short stretch of the legs.

This heart, lungs and leg workout is ideal if you like cardio and need to add strength training to your workouts. If you already like strength training, this is a good way to start practicing some cardio if you do not perform much in your training. This healthy mix of the two is not too much of either but yields optimal results for keeping the heart, lungs and legs strong and mobile.

There are many other ways to work the lungs and legs, and you can find them at the Military.com Fitness Section. Transform your fitness experience into time-saving workouts that enhance fitness on multiple levels. If you have questions, email coach Stew Smith at Stew@StewSmith.com.

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