The thighs are highly important muscles to train and it's a tragedy that many women – and many men – tend to forget them and leave them off of their workout routine. The thigh muscles are important for many reasons. First and for most they are useful for a range of activities that involve running, jumping and any other leg movements, secondly they are an area that many men look to when deciding if a woman is attractive or not (and one of the first places that show extra fat), and finally they are some of the largest muscles in the body – meaning that if you train them this will burn the most fat (as the body requires a lot of energy simply to sustain muscle).

So the question is, how can you train your thighs? Fortunately there are countless exercises which target the thighs and they are actually one of the easiest muscles to include in your workout. Here then we will look at a few thigh exercises you can do at home or in the gym.

Thigh Squeezes: Here what you need is a thigh master, or any kind of blow up ball (a children's football for instance will work fine). Lie on the floor on your back and place the ball between your thighs or between your knees – now squeeze for three seconds at a time.

Thigh Raises: Lie on the ground on your side so that one leg rests above the other. Now raise the top leg gently and then let it back down. That's one rep. You can also mix this up by drawing circles with your legs or bobbing them up and down or even holding them still.

Horse Stance: Horse stance involves standing like you're sitting in a chair and it requires a lot of thigh strength. This is a static contraction exercises meaning it trains the slow twitch muscle fibres and improves your thighs' endurance. To get started try leaning against a wall to take some of the weight.

Squats: Any kind of squat trains your thighs as well as practically every other muscle in your body. There are many types of squats you can do from pressing a barbell, to squatting dumbbells, or having no weights and simply squatting down on one leg.

Lunges: Another 'general' leg workout that works a treat. For a variation that doesn't require weights, try putting one foot behind you up on a bed or chair giving yourself further to lunge.

Thigh Abductors/Inductors: This is a machine you can find in the gym and essentially it provides the same workout as thigh squeezes except sitting upright with the ability to alter the amount of resistance. You sit up, place pads on the insides or outsides of your thighs and then squeeze or push apart.