Best Leg Exercises

[EnzoLove]

Hi Everyone. I am having a bit of trouble building muscle on my legs. I train legs twice per week. What exercises have worked best for you? Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[rdferguson]

- Squats and deadlifts are good general builders.
- I hate doing lunges, so have never stuck to them consistently enough to get anything out of them, but they do load up the rectus femoris (front-most part of the quadriceps) in a way that squats simply don't. The weakness with lunges is that they're a very unstable exercise, so it's often instability that limits the weight or volume you can perform, rather than your quads being exhausted.
- Hinge movements (RDLs, goodmornings, hyperextensions) are good for lower back, glutes and hamstrings.
- Leg curls and GHRs are great for isolating the hamstrings, and since they work the hamstrings through knee flexion rather than through hip extension, they actually get more hamstring muscle mass involved, as all hamstrings are knee flexors, but not all hamstrings are hip extensors.
- I don't rate front squats or overhead squats for leg growth, because you're more likely to fail from your trunk giving out than from your legs giving out. However, they certainly can be implemented effectively into a program.
- Leg presses and leg extensions are good exercises for putting meat on your bones, despite the anti-machines attitudes found here on the internet. I'd probably have at least one of those two in my current program if my gym actually had those machines.

ETA: Oh, how could I forget? Since legs include below the knees, if you want to build up your calves, then do calf raises. Because gastrocnemius (the upper calf muscle) attaches just above the knee, bent-legged calf raises will take slack out of that muscle and focus on soleus (the lower calf muscle) and the deeper plantar flexors. Straight-legged calf raises will train gastrocnemius, and will still use the lower and deeper muscles. Tibialis raises are also good for building up the front of your shins, if you need that.

[illiniStrive]

I've been having a lot of "fun" with split squats in the 12-15 rep range lately. Pretty humbling if you're used to loading up the weigh for exercises like bb squats and leg press.

[Hannah82]

Besides the squats and deads I like going unilateral. Kicks my butt.

[Running2live]

I've found my legs grow best and see best definition with a combo of three leg days:

High rep, low weight
Low rep, high weight
A mix of both (killer leg day) - lots of pyramids

I do front squats, back squats, calf raises on the smith, weighted lunges on the smith and sometimes walking (depending on if large exercise room is being used), weighted step ups, weighted glute bridges, leg extension machine every time (gives me good definition in my quads), leg curl machine 1-2x a week, leg press, and I think thats it. Occasionally throw in some plyo exercises to kick my own butt.

For growth, I have seen the most from heavy leg press (pyramids) - I'm talking spending 15-20 minutes on this machine if not more. Same with the leg extension machine. Might irritate other gym goers, but do your thing and you'll feel the burn, see the definition, and see some growth. This is coming from someone with some little chicken legs to a little bit larger chicken legs - one day at a time

[SoccoCN]

Hi Everyone. I am having a bit of trouble building muscle on my legs. I train legs twice per week. What exercises have worked best for you? Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

(first post ever so here goes )

I'd say it depends on a few things: technique, goal, past-injuries, motivation.

If you can safely back squat & deadlift with good technique... no questions asked: Squat! then you may adjust intensity (sets/reps) if you want to squat twice/week. & Deadlift once every week or other week.

if you can't safely back squat & deadlift with good technique...
1) check what the problem is (past injuries, just bad technique)
2) correct technique
3) or go for alternatives.

Alternatives and/or accessory movements could be:
Unilateral squatting (RRESS, with DBs etc.), Leg press (careful with lower back), Lunges, Leg curls/extentions combo.

Don't forget those calves too !!

High reps or low reps ??? combination of both always work well for me !!

[toddchaney]

Hi Everyone. I am having a bit of trouble building muscle on my legs. I train legs twice per week. What exercises have worked best for you? Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

You can try Squats, Leg Presses, Leg Curls and Calf Raises. Also try to eat more meals per day to increase your calorie intake. For example, you can eat oatmeal and fruit in the morning, tuna, rice and green beans for your lunch and perhaps have chicken, yams and a variety of vegetables for dinner.

[MadCatLady]

Squats, deadlifts, lunges, hip thrusts and squats.

Go heavy (for you, not in comparison to other people in the gym)
Make sure you're eating enough. No food no build.

Oh and did I mention squats?

[sweetkissees918]

Squats are the bread and butter of all leg exercises.. It will throw size on your legs and everywhere else. Make sure you go as heavy as you can, add reps or weight to everytime you train legs next. The more weight you squat the stronger your legs will be, not to mention throw size on them as well! In addition to that... add leg press, lunges, hack squat, split squat and you can change these up , try a narrow stance or more of a wider stance or for lunges, you can go out to the side, placing foot behind you, longer stride or shorter stride. It countless! Make sure you are eating for your goals. To gain muscle.. you have to lift heavy and eat a surplus. I hope that helped some.

[Jessicafitbod]

This pretty much covers it.

- Squats and deadlifts are good general builders.
- I hate doing lunges, so have never stuck to them consistently enough to get anything out of them, but they do load up the rectus femoris (front-most part of the quadriceps) in a way that squats simply don't. The weakness with lunges is that they're a very unstable exercise, so it's often instability that limits the weight or volume you can perform, rather than your quads being exhausted.
- Hinge movements (RDLs, goodmornings, hyperextensions) are good for lower back, glutes and hamstrings.
- Leg curls and GHRs are great for isolating the hamstrings, and since they work the hamstrings through knee flexion rather than through hip extension, they actually get more hamstring muscle mass involved, as all hamstrings are knee flexors, but not all hamstrings are hip extensors.
- I don't rate front squats or overhead squats for leg growth, because you're more likely to fail from your trunk giving out than from your legs giving out. However, they certainly can be implemented effectively into a program.
- Leg presses and leg extensions are good exercises for putting meat on your bones, despite the anti-machines attitudes found here on the internet. I'd probably have at least one of those two in my current program if my gym actually had those machines.

ETA: Oh, how could I forget? Since legs include below the knees, if you want to build up your calves, then do calf raises. Because gastrocnemius (the upper calf muscle) attaches just above the knee, bent-legged calf raises will take slack out of that muscle and focus on soleus (the lower calf muscle) and the deeper plantar flexors. Straight-legged calf raises will train gastrocnemius, and will still use the lower and deeper muscles. Tibialis raises are also good for building up the front of your shins, if you need that.

[brainy22]

I agree with others here who wrote about squats, leg press, curls & extensions and, calves. Thats the order i do my leg workouts in and after doing my squats, i do a few sets of lunges w/the bar too. Its taken me about 6 months to build up my legs and, they def. look better than last season.

[brainy22]

Forgot to also mention to try and do lunges on the treadmill; do as many as you can, i.e. 10-15 or however many you can do and then walk for 10-20 seconds and do some more, alternate that way untill you can do 75 or 100. Dont know what your fitness background is but when i began building my legs up about 6 mnths ago, i was able to work my way up to about 125 lunges in different spurts on the treadmill. But what really has made a huge difference are the squats in addition to the other 3 excercises mentioned above.

[canadiandude99]

the main ones are squats and dealifts. Just make sure you get a rull range of motion on your squats haha dont be that half rep guy who sais he squats 495

[canadiandude99]

the main ones are squats and dealifts. Just make sure you get a rull range of motion on your squats haha dont be that half rep guy who sais he squats 495

And the way i do my squats are, I pyramid my way up to a 3-5 rep max set, then i finish with a drop set. That'S get me the best results. And try to keep your rest period short. Most of the time its not what exercise you do, it's how you do that excercise.

[Cara0915]

Forgot to also mention to try and do lunges on the treadmill; do as many as you can, i.e. 10-15 or however many you can do and then walk for 10-20 seconds and do some more, alternate that way untill you can do 75 or 100. Dont know what your fitness background is but when i began building my legs up about 6 mnths ago, i was able to work my way up to about 125 lunges in different spurts on the treadmill. But what really has made a huge difference are the squats in addition to the other 3 excercises mentioned above.

Lol don't do this
DO follow every one else's advice though. I'd add in hip thrusts and Good mornings too (didn't see them listed)

[EnzoLove]

Thanks for all the replies everyone! I will take all your advice with me to the gym. I squat, but not as much as I should and I haven't done deadlifts. I do a lot of leg presses, curls, extensions and calves. I do lunges with dumbells as my warm up. and I looooove the stairmill.

I recently lost 30 pounds. I'm trying to build muscle now.

[alliikhan]

Hi Everyone. I am having a bit of trouble building muscle on my legs. I train legs twice per week. What exercises have worked best for you? Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I thin there is some best simple exercises you can do at home also kindly check this out thanks

shrinke.me/6UlSC62