Most sporting activities require some use of your legs, but some require it more than others. Major leg muscles used in sports include the quadriceps, or frontal thigh muscles, and the group of hamstring muscles along the back of the thigh. Muscles in the calves also are used in sports requiring any jumping or change of direction.
Swimming
Your hamstrings and quadriceps are heavily used in most swimming styles. Your legs flutter and kick to keep your body afloat and propel you forward through the water. Your leg muscles are used in conjunction with other large muscles such as the buttocks and shoulder and abdominal muscles for the butterfly, the breaststroke, the overhand and other swimming styles. When treading water, your quadriceps and hamstrings flutter or "frog kick" to keep your head above water.
Tennis
In addition to the powerful quadriceps and hamstring muscles of the upper thigh, tennis requires a strong gastrocnemius, or calf muscle, for sudden stops, starts and turns. Strengthen your legs for tennis by engaging in lateral lunges, which employ the quads and hamstrings, squats, and alternating forward lunges jump squats to help strengthen your calf muscles.
Football/Soccer
Football and soccer, or any sport involving a ball or kicking, uses your quadriceps for running and kicking a ball. Your hamstrings allow you to extend your leg from your hip during kicking moves. The psoas muscle, known as a hip flexor muscle, connects the lower portion of your pelvis to your upper thigh. This muscle allows range of motion from the hip. Your leg adductors, the magnus, brevis and longus, in combination with the gracilis, pectineus and hiatus, provide a solid foundation for all your leg movements, kicks, leaps, turns and abrupt changes in direction.
Gymnastics
Your buttocks, quadriceps and hamstrings are heavily used during gymnastics, giving you the strength you need to perform round-offs, back flips, forward leaps and moves requiring constant contraction and power. Your gastrocnemius gives you the strength to balance on your toes. Your adductor muscles and quadriceps, including the vastus group of muscles, including the lateralis, offer the bulk of your power moves, while smaller muscles in the calves, including the soleus and peroneus muscles, allow you to flex or point your toes, prepare for leaps or land solidly following your routine.
Skiing
Skiing requires strong buttocks, quadriceps and hamstrings, as well as control of those muscles. Small adjustments of your foot position to the sides allowed by your adductor longus and your peroneus longus muscles help stabilize you during a downhill run. The biceps femoris allows you to flex your knees while the semimembranosus of your hamstring muscle group allows you to adduct your leg away from the center of your body when approaching curves.
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