So you look at your legs and wonder why you don’t have the legs of a superstar, or a dancer, or even the young thing that lives down the street? Truth be told, there are some women with absolutely wonderful legs that they didn’t do anything to get. However, the real truth is that they won’t continue to keep those legs if they don’t start doing something for them.

For those women who didn’t come by it naturally, you know that they worked hard to get those legs. Of course, there are different degrees of hard, because not everyone needs to depend on their legs to get them through the day. For instance, a model’s legs need to just look good, whereas a dancer’s legs have to get them through an entire show.

Of course, all women can have wonderful looking legs, if they apply themselves to doing the right thing for their legs. Here are some tips that will bring you wonderful looking legs.

• Step up exercises are wonderful for the legs because they work all areas of the leg at the same time. You can either find a set of stairs in a building that you can walk over and over, buy yourself an exercise stepper, possibly an exercise machine that’s a stepper, or find something else to step up on, such as a low chair that you can step up on easily. Stepping too high isn’t as beneficial as something lower that you can do more repetitions on.

• Lunges are another exercise that works the entire leg at once. To do a proper lunge, you don’t step so far that you can’t stretch your other leg out without discomfort, but you don’t step so little that you don’t stretch it out at all. If you can, it’s best to have your hands at your waist while you’re doing them, but if you need a little bit of support you can hold onto the back of a chair to do them.

• Leg lifts are a great way to get your legs into shape, though they work the thighs more than the calves. You don’t have to lift your legs too high into the air; if you go only 6 to 12 inches that’s high enough, and you hold it for a few beats before lowering them and doing it again. If you wish, you can add to your leg lifts by lifting, then crossing your legs across your body, coming back, then lowering your legs.

• Adding weights to your legs will help make them tone faster, but you have to be careful when adding weights to stress exercises. You need to start out with low weights, no more than a couple of pounds, and work your way up. If you go with too much weight, your legs could end up more muscular than you’re hoping for.

• Squats are great for your legs, but not always great for your knees. If you feel your knees can’t handle it all that well, bend a little bit, but not into a full squat. Where you get the most work is in pushing back up because you’re now pushing the full weight of your body.

These five things will bring lovely legs that you’ll be proud to show. Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do to make them longer, but if they look good, others will think they’re long enough.