10 Best Leg Workouts and Exercise of All Time to Build a Strength

Most of the people skip their leg day because they feel it’s difficult to exercise so here are 10 best leg workouts to build strength, mass, and athleticism.

A good physique is not complete without a strong leg, and your legs contain some of the strongest and largest muscles in your body. But they will not get equal love in the gym. So, here are our ultimate leg workouts that will build your mass and strength.

However, our leg workouts include compound exercises like squats, deadlifts and lunges that will load up the weight and increase the strength. Some exercises use resistance to work your lesser-used muscles.

Having strong legs help you to walk, jump, and balance and also help your body to enjoy every day activities. So, if you’re looking for great leg strength, then follow these 10-leg exercises and tips.

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What are Your Leg Muscles?

It’s very important to know your leg muscles before starting leg workouts, and these leg exercises focus on your four main muscle groups – the hamstrings, glutes, quadriceps and calves. So, understand how they will work with each other and all fit together.

Quadriceps: the quadriceps or quads are the strongest muscles in the human body, and this muscle is located in the front of the thigh. The quadriceps contains four muscles, the vastus medialis, vastus lateralis, rectus femoris and vastus intermedius.

Hamstrings: the hamstrings at the back of your thigh (In the posterior compartment of the thigh), and this consist of three muscles. The semitendinosus, the biceps femoris and semimembranosus. They affect your both hip and flex at the knee.

Glutes: the glutes are not technically part of your leg, these muscles help facilitate movement in your legs and hip. They also engage while performing leg exercises. The glutes are commonly known as buttocks and consist of three muscles: the gluteus medius, gluteus minimus and gluteus maximus. 

Calves: these muscles located at the back on your lower leg between your knee and ankle. This muscle is also known as calf muscle and is made up of two muscles, the soleus and the gastrocnemius. The gastrocnemius muscle has two heads, the medial and lateral.

10 Best Leg Workouts and Exercises

Here are our favorite leg day 10 best exercises that can help you lose weight and build great definition in your lower body. You can combine this exercise and create your own leg workout routine.

Before starting your own workout routine, talk to your personal trainer or fitness experts. So, they help you with correct form and help to avoid injuries. 

01. Barbell Squats

It’s important to warm up first before you start leg workouts. The barbell squats are a compound movement that engages all the target muscles. This exercise trains your hamstrings, adductor, glutes, core and lower back.

You can perform this exercise as some weight for all the sets or you can perform the squats as a drop set like reducing the weight of each set and increasing the reps.

How to perform:

• Start with standing straight, with the barbell across the back of your shoulder.
• Keep your feet shoulder-width apart, with your toes pointed slightly out. Make sure your head is up and look straight ahead.
• Take a deep breath. Slowly, lower yourself into a squat until your knees are at 90-degrees. Make sure that you’re lowering the barbell down in a straight line. Keep your hips back, and the chest up and don’t let your knees slide forward.
• Drive your heels into the floor and push back to the starting position. And try to make this as fast as possible. 
• Bring the weight up in a straight line, engage your core and move your chest and hip as one unit.
• Do 4 set of 10 to 14 reps, (you can reduce the weight in each set and increase the reps if you want dropping the weight).

02. Weighted Adductor Goblet Squat

This exercise is one of the best to work on your inside and outside muscles of your thighs. And will work on your upper legs and make stronger and muscular thighs.

The weighted adductor global squat is great exercise for engaging your inner thigh muscles, you need to have a smooth surface so you can slide on in your socks.

How to perform:

• Take a dumbbell or weight, and hold with both hands at the center of your chest.
• Keep your feet just wider than hip-width apart, put your weight on one leg and the other one leg will do the sliding.
• Keep your weight remaining on the non-sliding leg and the slider will move out from the side of your body.
• At the end of the move, come back up to the starting point and focus on squeezing your inner thighs together.
• Repeat 12 to 14 reps for each leg.

03. Barbell Hip Thrust

The barbell hip thrust is another compound exercise that allows you to load up on the weight. This exercise will target in your glutes, and the hamstrings. 

You can do this exercise with the same weight for sets or you can do a reverse drop-set like increasing the weights as you go (increase the weight each set), start with lower weight that will allow you to get your form and movement pattern properly.

How to perform:

• Make sure you have a table or box (knees height) that won’t move around.
• Start sitting on the floor of your box and keep a barbell across the front of your hips.
• Rest your upper back on the edge of the box, keep your feet flat on the floor hip width apart. With your toes pointed slightly outward. The distance from the box to feet allows your knees to be at 90-degrees angle.
• Push up yourself until your upper thighs and torso are in a straight line. Hold for 3 to 4 seconds so you feel a contraction in the hamstrings and glutes.
• Make sure that your hands do not help shift the weight.
• Slowly, bring your hips Bach to the starting point until your bottom is just above the ground.
• Do 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps (if you want to add on weight each set).

04. Dumbbell TKE Drop Lunge

This great exercise that will shift the focus to work on the vastus medialis, to achieve this movement, you need to extend your knee fully, to a locked position. If you use bands in a drop lung that will allow you to work against the tension created.

How to perform:

• Start In Front of the rack and attach your resistance bands to a rack. Make sure that you’re using more resistance bands because your muscles in the legs are strongest and largest so you will need more resistance bands.
• Hold the dumbbells with each hand.
• Take a lunge position, and keep your front foot flat on the floor. and your weight center over the top. And hook the bands behind your knee.
• Keep your back leg for enough back, at the bottom of your lunge.
• Your both knees are at a 90-degree angle.
• Lower yourself into a lunge and keep your arms at your sides, core engaged.
• Lift yourself up back to the starting position, fully extend your legs.
• Do 3 to 4 sets of 10 to 14 raps of each leg.

05. Walking Lunge

This exercise is a variation on the static lunge exercise, and trains your glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, hips, core and calves. 

The walking lunge can help improve your posture and balance, also increase your range of motion and increase flexibility.

How to perform:

• Find a place so you have a space to walk.
• Stand straight with your feet shoulder-width apart. Engage your core and look straight ahead.
• Take a step forward with your right leg, and put the weight into your heel.
• Bend your right knee, so your knee is at a 90-degree angle and your leg parallel to the floor in a lunge position.
• Then, without moving your right leg, move your left foot forward and repeat the same movement on the left leg.
• Repeat this movement, walking forward as lunge.
• Alternate the left and right legs.
• Perform 3 to 4 sets of 12 to 16 reps.

06. Front Squats

The front squats are best exercise to build hard core strength and develop better front rack mobility. This exercise trains your glutes, quads, upper back, core and hamstrings.

How to perform:

• Stand straight and set a barbell on a power rack at shoulder height. Get under the barbell and position the barbell across the front size of your shoulder.
• Hold the barbell with an overhand grip at shoulder-width apart.
• keep your elbows until your upper arms are parallel to the floor.
• take out the bar off the rack and take a deep breath.
• Slowly, lower yourself into a squat in a controlled motion.
• Make sure your core is engaged and your chest up, and go low as you can.
• Put pressure on your heels and drive yourself back to the starting point.
• Repeat, 2 to 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps. 

07. Bulgarian Split Squats

The Bulgaria split squats is a lower body exercise that will strengthen the muscles of the legs like hamstrings, calves, glutes and quads, also target well on your core. This exercise is a bit difficult to get proper form, so get help from a personal trainer or fitness experts.

How to perform:

• Find a box or bench that will be your knee height.
• Hold a dumbbell in each hand and stand in front of the bench.
• Rest your left leg on the bench behind you.
• Engage your core and keep the torso upright.
• Slowly, lower your body until your knee nearly touches the ground and your knee is at a 90-degree angle and your front thigh is parallel to the floor.
• Push yourself back through your front feet and return back to the starting position.
• Alternate the left and right leg for each set.
• Do 2 to 4 sets for 10 to 12 reps for each leg.

08. Deadlift

Deadlift is one of the best exercises that will increase your core strength, core stability and posture. It trains most of the muscles in your leg, core and back, that muscles including glutes, back, hips, core and hamstrings.

How to perform:

• Stand straight with your midfoot the barbell.
• Bend yourself down and grasp it with an overhand grip.
• Bend your knees until your shins touch the bar.
• Take a deep breath and stand up with the weight.
• Hold the movement for seconds and slowly lower the weight to the starting position.

09. Hip Band Ladder Finish

This is best exercise for your leg, and work on the outside of your thighs (the abductor muscles) and this exercise is weight free exercise. To perform this exercise, you will need a resistance band and be strong while pushing.

How to perform:

• Set yourself up with your resistance band, hook the band under your feet and your toes pointing straight out. To the band hook around the outside of your upper arms. 
• Keeping the bands under your feet, take one step to the right and one step to the left.
• Repeat taking steps to the left and then right.
• Make you’re your form is correct and your toes aren’t pointing out.

10. Leg Press

Leg press exercise promotes leg development by isolating the muscles. This exercise is mainly engaging with the glutes, hamstrings and quadriceps muscles. The exercise is an excellent way to strengthen your legs.

How to perform:

• Sit on the machine and take position correctly according to the instructions.
• Keep your feet lower and closer to work well with your quads.
• Slowly, bend your knees to bring them towards your chest until your knees are at 90-degree.
• Then press back to the start. 
• Repeat, 2 to 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps.

Tips on Food and Nutrition for your leg workouts

Stay hydrated: it’s important to stay hydrated because the body stores carbohydrates as glycogen and poor hydration can increase glycogen level. So, low glycogen you lead to build muscle mass.

Eat enough calories: eating enough calories is a key to build muscle mass and provides energy and maintains strength in your body and leg.

Eat a Balanced Diet: to improve your leg and body strength then eat a well-rounded diet that can include adequate hydration and macronutrients. Focus on more intake protein that will help with muscle repair.

Avoid added sugars: foods that added sugars can provide you low-quality calories that may gain unwanted weight in the legs. So, try to reduce added sugar intake.

FAQs on Leg Workouts

The Bottom Line

These are the best leg workouts and exercises that you can add into your leg day and make a well-rounded workout. If you’re not perfect with the form of any exercise, take the help of a personal trainer or fitness experts.

Choose any four or six exercises from the above leg exercise list and create your own well-rounded routine.

Hopefully you like this article, if you have any question and suggestion kindly put them in the comment box below. 

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