Anne Luise Freitas, a five-time Olympian and highly successful bodybuilder, recently shared a leg workout video on Instagram. In the post, she emphasizes the importance of proper form, stating, "When you go down to no leg press, for example, you have to execute at all angles...you must recruit at the maximum." Freitas demonstrates her expertise and dedication to building strength with each movement.
1. She Does Leg Presses
Freitas is seen using the leg press machine in her Instagram post. According to The Mayo Clinic, the machine has a lot of benefits. “The leg press is an exercise you can do with a weight machine to work a variety of muscles in the lower body. Specifically, the leg press targets the quadriceps muscles in the front of the thighs, the gluteal muscles in the buttocks, the hamstring muscles in the back of the thighs, and the calves, all in an integrated fashion. Since the leg press works several muscles at once, it's an especially efficient way to strengthen your lower body.”
2. She Does Hamstring Curls
Freitas shared some of her favorite leg workouts in this Instagram post. In it, she is seen doing hamstring curls. According to The Mayo Clinic, hamstring curls are very beneficial. “The seated hamstring curl is an exercise you can do with a weight machine to work the muscles in the back of the thigh. As the name implies, the seated hamstring curl targets the hamstring muscles here in the back of the thigh. Strong hamstring muscles help to protect your ligaments in the knee.”
3. She Does Squats
Anne Luise Freitas/Instagram
Freitas is also seen doing squats in the previous Instagram video. According to Piedmont, the exercise has a lot of benefits. “Squats are a compound, multi-joint movement, which means they exercise several muscle groups. When you perform a squat, you work your calves, quads, hamstrings, glutes, core and part of your back.”
4. She Does Romanian Deadlifts
Freitas shared this video on Instagram of herself doing Romanian Deadlifts. She captioned the post, “Explosive Combined Exercise for glutes and hams! Deadlift is a very complete exercise. It works glutes, quads, hams, in the upper body, lower back, back, abdominals, biceps. And to maximize the result of my goal today, I went straight to the one side Romanian deadlift. To understand this exercise better, it would be between the deadlift and the stiff. Both the stiff and the Romanian deadlift are quad dominant movements, but the difference is in the flexion of the knee. While the stiff, there is no knee movement, the Romanian deadlift, you flex the knee slightly while going down. The focus of this exercise is on the posterior chain, allowing you to develop the hamstrings and hips using lighter weights.”
5. She Uses Weights
Anne Luise Freitas/Instagram
In the previous Instagram post, Freitas is seen using a large dumbbell. She also shares a lot of videos on her page of herself using weights. ACE Fitness reports that using weights is very beneficial. “Using maximal loads for compound (multi-joint) movements like the deadlift, squat-to-shoulder press, bent-over row or chest press can improve intermuscular coordination, which is the ability of many muscles to work together to generate and control high levels of force through multiple joints.”
