Looking for those tree-stump legs that would put a rugby player to shame? Those legs that could kickstart a Boeing 747?
We’ve put together a list of our 20 favourite exercises to make the most out of leg day and build the legs you’ve always dreamt of. We’ve only included exercises that use equipment that you would expect to find in any gym and ranked them from easiest to most difficult. Adding a variety of these exercises to your leg day routine will help you improve your strength, stamina, and stability and promote rapid muscle development in your quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves. A number of these exercises will also stimulate your core and back as an added bonus.
Make sure to read our safety tips for advice on how to safely develop your leg muscles without injuring yourself at the bottom of this article.
On your marks, get set, SQUAT!
1. Bodyweight Squats
Equipment Needed: None
Target Muscles: Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, Core
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart and your arms crossed in front of your chest. Squat down by bending your knees and pushing your hips back. Keep your chest and chin up, and spine neutral. Return to the starting position and repeat.
2. Leg Press
Equipment Needed: Leg Press Machine
Target Muscles: Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, Calves
Sit in the leg press machine with feet shoulder-width apart against the push plate. Push up enough to disengage the safety lock, then lower the weight towards your chest by bending your knees. Push back to the starting position.
3. Step-Ups
Equipment Needed: Box or Step
Target Muscles: Quads, Glutes, Calves
Stand in front of a box or step. Step one foot onto it and push off from the other foot to stand straight. Keep your head, neck, and back in a straight line. Step back down and repeat. For an added challenge, hold a dumbbell in your hands when performing the step-ups.
4. Lunges
Equipment Needed: None
Target Muscles: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes
Take a step forward and lower your body until both knees are bent at a 90-degree angle. Make sure to step far enough so that your front knee does not extend past your toes. Push off your front foot to return to the starting position. Repeat on the other side. For an added challenge, hold a dumbbell in your hands when performing the lunges.
5. Lying Leg Curl
Equipment Needed: Leg Curl Machine
Target Muscles: Hamstrings, Calves
Lie down on the leg curl machine, hook your ankles under the pads, and curl your legs towards your buttocks. Slowly extend your legs back to the starting position. Make sure to use slow and controlled movements, avoiding any jerking action. Make sure to grip the handles tightly to avoid pulling yourself up by your back.
6. Goblet Squats
Equipment Needed: Dumbbell or Kettlebell
Target Muscles: Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, Core, Upper back
Hold a dumbbell at chest level, gripping one side of the dumbbell with upward-facing palms and letting it hang vertically between your arms. Perform a squat, lowering your body while keeping your chest up and spine neutral. Return to starting position. You could substitute the dumbbell for a kettlebell.
7. Bulgarian Split Squats
Equipment Needed: Bench
Target Muscles: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Core
Stand facing away from a bench (about one pace), with one foot resting elevated behind you on the bench. Lower into a lunge, making sure that your front knee doesn’t extend past your toes and that your chin doesn’t sag down to your chest. Push up through your front foot to return to the starting position. Repeat on the other leg. This requires some balance, and you might find yourself tipping to the side as you perfect your form.
8. Calf Raises
Equipment Needed: Dumbbells, Calf Raise Machine, or Box
Target Muscles: Calves
Stand straight, holding dumbbells or use a calf raise machine. Raise your heels by pushing down on the balls of your feet. Lower and repeat. Alternatively, stand straight on a box while supporting yourself on the balls of your feet. Allow your heels and midfoot to drop down in a controlled motion, then lift yourself back up by the balls of your feet.
9. Leg Extensions
Equipment Needed: Leg Extension Machine
Target Muscles: Quads
Sit in the leg extension machine, hook your ankles under the pad and extend your legs straight. Return to the starting position slowly. Make sure to use an appropriate weight to avoid kicking or jerking the weights up. Only use a weight that allows you to use also and controlled movements.
10. Romanian Deadlifts
Equipment Needed: Barbell
Target Muscles: Hamstrings, Glutes, Lower back, Core
Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding a weighted barbell in a standing position (unlike regular deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts start in a standing position). Hinge at the hips while only slightly bending the knees and lowering the barbell towards the floor. Return to starting position.
11. Hip Thrusts
Equipment Needed: Bench and Barbell
Target Muscles: Glutes, Hamstrings, Core
Sit on the ground with a bench behind you and a barbell over your hips. Brace your shoulders against the bench and thrust your hips upward. At the top of the motion, your thighs and torso should be in line and parallel to the ground. Make sure that the bench is secure and won’t slide away as you lift with weight on your hips. Lower and repeat. Extend your calves until you are on the tips of your toes at the height of the movement to bring your calves into the mix.
12. Hack Squats
Equipment Needed: Hack Squat Machine
Target Muscles: Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, Calves
Stand in the hack squat machine with your shoulders under the pads. Push up slightly to disengage the safety latches, then lower yourself into a squat and then push back up to the starting position. Be careful not to add so much weight that you cannot push yourself back up and get stuck in the machine.
13. Front Squats
Equipment Needed: Barbell
Target Muscles: Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, Core, Upper back
Hold a barbell in front of you at shoulder height. Have your elbows pointed forward, and balance the barbell on your shoulders. Perform a squat, keeping your chest up and spine neutral. Return to starting position.
14. Sumo Deadlifts
Equipment Needed: Barbell
Target Muscles: Hamstrings, Glutes, Inner Thighs, Lower back, Core
Stand with a wide stance, toes pointing outward, and hold a barbell with your hands shoulder width apart. Your knees should be bent and your torso slightly tilted forward. Simultaneously straighten your legs and move into an upright standing position. Return to starting position.
15. Plyometric Box Jumps
Equipment Needed: Plyometric Box
Target Muscles: Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, Calves, Core
Stand in front of a box of about knee height. Bend your knees, then jump onto the box by pushing off the ground with both feet. When you land, stand up into a straight and neutral position, then jump backwards onto the ground. IMPORTANT NOTICE: make sure that the box you are using is secure or on a non-slip mat. You could seriously injure yourself if the box slips when you land on it.
16. Zercher Squats
Equipment Needed: Barbell
Target Muscles: Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, Core, Upper back
Hold a barbell in the crook of your elbows. Perform a squat, keeping your back straight and chest up. Your knees should be pointing outward as you dip into the squat. Return to the starting position.
17. Good Mornings
Equipment Needed: Barbell
Target Muscles: Hamstrings, Glutes, Lower back, Core
Hold a barbell on your shoulders, behind your neck. Bend at the hips and knees to lower your torso forward, keeping your legs, neck, and back straight. Return to start.
18. Single-Leg Romanian Deadlifts
Equipment Needed: Dumbbell or Kettlebell
Target Muscles: Hamstrings, Glutes, Core, Lower back
Stand upright with a dumbbell or kettlebell in one hand. Plant the opposite foot firmly on the ground, keeping a slight bend in the knee. Engage your core and hinge at the hips while extending the leg backwards, maintaining a straight line from heel to head. Keep your back straight and the weight close to your body, then return to the starting position.
19. Pistol Squats
Equipment Needed: None
Target Muscles: Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Core
Stand on one leg and extend the other leg forward. Lower into a squat on the standing leg, keeping the other leg extended. As you lower yourself, you might lose balance if you are unfamiliar with this motion. Extending your arm in front of you might help you keep your balance. Return to start and switch legs.
20. Sled Push
Equipment Needed: Sled
Target Muscles: Quads, Glutes, Hamstrings, Calves, Core, Upper body
Stand behind a weighted sled, lean forward, and grip the handles. Push the sled as fast as you can while maintaining a straight back.
Safety tips for exercising leg muscles
Safety really is a priority when working out your leg muscles. A lot of leg exercises involve heavy weights, often held or balanced high above your centre of gravity. Other exercises, like plyometric box jumps, require you to jump onto a platform. Both of these examples could potentially lead to serious back or neck injuries when safety advice is ignored. In the best-case scenario, an accident while exercising your legs will lead to stiff and sore legs and a bit of trouble walking up stairs. The worst-case scenario could be catastrophic.
1. DO NOT overload yourself when using weights
This is arguably the easiest way to seriously injure yourself in the gym. Trying to manhandle a weight above your capabilities, especially when held up high like when you’re doing front squats or good mornings, could easily cause you to lose your balance and result in you on the floor with a heavy weight crashing into your back or neck. Don’t risk it!
2. Warm up to avoid injury
Some of the biggest muscle groups in your body are found in the legs. Putting these muscles (and joints for that matter) under strain without warming them up with a few minutes of light aerobic exercise or stretching is a good way to cut your session short and having to ask for help getting up or down some stairs.
3. Ask for help to perfect your form
As with other muscles in the body, the key to seeing the best results is good form. Unlike a bicep curl, for example, incorrect form when performing deadlifts or front squats could end up with you being unable to move and might even end up with you being hospitalised with a spinal injury. As mentioned before, leg exercises often employ much greater weights than exercises targeting the arms or chest, and good form can help you move these weights safely and productively. Don’t assume that your form is perfect from day one. Ask someone, preferably an experienced and qualified trainer, to help critique your form, offer advice, and work out safely.
4. Avoid developing DOMS if you’re new to fitness
It can be very tempting to see how much you can calf raise or deadlift when you’re new to working out. Unfortunately, muscles unaccustomed to exercise could easily develop DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness) or muscle fever. While this isn’t life-threatening, being so sore that you can’t walk or perform normal functions is a miserable experience that could put you off exercise for a bit and delay your progress. Take your first few leg day workout sessions easy and build up your strength over time.
Getting the most out of leg day
Leg muscle groups are largely comprised of slow-twitch muscle fibres. These are small muscle fibres with a high concentration of mitochondria and myoglobin, low ATPase levels, and high oxidative capacity. This makes them slow to fatigue, helping us walk, run, and cycle for hours on end without tiring. While this evolutionary development is critical to our day-to-day lives, it has one serious implication when trying to bulk them up – it slows down muscle growth and development.
Building strong and muscular legs takes time. Even the most dedicated gym-goer who gets enough sleep, rest, and optimum nutrition can’t expect overnight results. To get the most out of leg day, Studio Society recommends spending some time with a personal trainer who can provide you with up-to-date and personalised workouts, and advice on scheduling and nutrition.
Please feel free to look at our personal trainer page to schedule an obligation-free consultation with one of our many experienced and qualified personal trainers to get the most out of your workouts and blast through your goals.