In American culture, the legs are a symbol of not only beauty but also strength and power. And it’s no wonder we are so enamored of them; legs are impressive! The leg makes up about half of an average person’s body height. Legs are highly mobile, allowing us to sit, stand, walk, run, jump, and more. However, without proper care, they can easily weaken and suffer injury. And unfortunately, leg weakness and injury can really slow you down. To keep you up to speed, let’s take a closer look at how the legs work and how to keep them strong and injury-free.
Four bones make up the leg: the femur, patella, tibia, and fibula.
The femur, also known as the thighbone, is the only bone in the entire thigh. It connects to the knee at one end and the hip at the other and is the longest and one of the strongest bones in the body. The majority of the femur is called the shaft. At the top outer edge of the shaft is the greater trochanter. You can feel this bony knob protruding from the shaft when you sit into your hip. The head, or ball, of the femur is the upper end of the bone that sits in the hip socket.
The tibia and fibula are the two bones that make up the lower portion of the leg. The tibia is the thicker of the two and is sometimes referred to as the shinbone. The fibula is the thinnest bone in the body in proportion to its length. It is located on the lateral (outer) side of the tibia. Though the fibula does not bear much weight, it provides stability for the ankle joint and has many grooves to which muscles, tendons, and ligaments attach.
The femur and the tibia connect at the knee joint. The patella, more commonly referred to as the kneecap, protects the knee joint. The patella is a small, round-triangular-shaped bone and is the largest sesamoid bone in the body. A sesamoid bone is a bone that is embedded in a tendon or muscle.
Though there are only four bones, the leg is still incredibly complex. Numerous muscles, tendons, ligaments, veins, arteries, and nerves make up the leg. The three major muscle groups in the leg are the quadriceps, the hamstrings, and the calves.
The movements of the leg can be divided into movements at the hip joint and movements at the knee joint. The hip is a ball-and-socket joint, which allows for a fairly large range of motion. Movements at the hip include flexion, extension, abduction, adduction, lateral rotation, and medial rotation.
Flexion at the hip happens with you lift the leg in front of you to climb up a flight of stairs. Hip extension is when your leg lifts behind you when winding up to kick a ball.
Hip abduction is when you open your legs wide, like when riding a horse. Hip adduction is when you bring your legs together so they are touching, like when you need to use the restroom but there’s a long line.
You are laterally, or externally, rotated at the hip joint when the kneecaps and toes point out to the east and west sides like a ballerina in first position. Medial rotation is when the femur rotates inward such that the knees face each other. When the toes touch and the heels open east and west, the legs are medially rotated.
The knee is a hinge joint, meaning it primarily allows for two types of movement; in this case, flexion and extension. If you are kneeling and the knee is bent, the knee is in flexion. When standing tall with straight legs, the knee is in extension. There is also a slight amount of medial (inward) and lateral (outward) rotation that can happen at the knee joint when the knee is bent, but over-rotation can cause severe injury.
The chance for injury in the legs is fairly high. The legs are incredibly mobile; more movement options increase the chance of injury. Additionally, the legs bear a lot of weight. Walking, running, and jumping all put added pressure on the legs. When all the bones and muscles are properly aligned proportionate, the leg can easily absorb the shock of the added pressure. However, if the bones and muscles are out of alignment, the pressure may settle on a bone or muscle that is weak or not designed to bear the pressure, leading to fractures or sprains. A misalignment of the bones often puts undue pressure on certain muscle groups and favors others. Strength training is important because it helps to strengthen weak muscles and also increases bone density, which helps prevent injury. Gently stretching overused muscles and practicing relaxation techniques can help restore proportion to the body. A stronger, more proportionate body is less prone to injury.
The legs are also an integral part of our health and independence. Muscle strength decreases more rapidly as people age, especially after the age of 50. When the legs are weak, it becomes harder to walk, run, or stand up out of a chair. When movement becomes increasingly difficult, people often become more sedentary to prevent discomfort. However, with less movement, the muscles deteriorate and the bones weaken, making them more susceptible to injuries and maladies. Broken bones are likelier to occur when the bones and muscles are frail. Additionally, when a person spends a disproportionate amount of time sitting or lying down (for instance, if they are bedridden), cardiovascular health worsens. In turn, circulation to the feet decreases, and the likelihood of developing blood clots in the legs increases. Blood clots that travel to the heart can lead to heart attack. Furthermore, without the ability to move around on their own, people often lose their sense of freedom. This can profoundly affect overall emotional well-being.
Activate the Legs to maintain overall mobility and reduce the risk of repetitive use injuries—think tendinitis, arthritis, and bone spurs—and acute injuries—think ACL tears, fractures, and strained muscles—in the legs, knees, and hips.
To Activate the Legs, first imagine a line connecting the base of the big toe, the inner ankle bone, the inner knee, and the inner thigh. This is your inner leg line. Now draw a line connecting the base of the pinkie toe, the outer ankle bone, the outer knee, and the outer hip. This is your outer leg line. Pressurizing the bases of the big toe and the pinkie toe engages the muscles along these lines.
To practice this technique, follow these cues:
1. Inhale; pressurize the bases of the big toes to engage the inner leg muscles.
2. Exhale; pressurize the pinkie toes to activate the outer leg muscles. Equalize the pressure between the big toes and pinkie toes.
In everyday life, you can Activate the Legs while cooking dinner. Whether you’re chopping vegetables, making a stir-fry, or just heating up leftovers in the microwave, equalize pressure on the bases of the big toes and pinkie toes to equally activate the right and left leg.
Try our legs workout to stretch, strengthen, and optimize the legs, and practice our Activate the Legs technique.
The most common injuries in the legs are sprains, strains, fractures, and dislocations. Some additional maladies that can affect the legs include runner’s knee, ACL, MCL, and meniscus tears, iliotibial band syndrome, Achilles tendinitis, pain related to sciatica, hip osteoarthritis, varicose veins, and deep vein thrombosis.