The best leg exercises

A monumental physique cannot be built without good leg exercises… your legs contain some of the largest and strongest muscles in the body…

They also take you wherever you want to go, so it would be foolish or cruel not to give them the love they need—and you have to do that at the gym, developing leg exercises for strength, muscle mass, or flexibility.

A good lower-body workout should guarantee results, and to achieve them you should combine compound and isolation exercises; for fun, you could finish your leg day by climbing stairs, which will make your muscles burn like fire.

To understand everything, we will first focus on the leg muscles, how they fit and function together, and what types of muscle fibers they contain, which will help you make the most of your physical and mental effort when training them.

The leg muscles

The legs consist of dozens of muscles that flex, bend, extend, adduct, abduct, and rotate the legs and enable movement.

A workout with leg exercises should focus primarily on four main muscle groups: quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves.

The quadriceps, or quads, are located at the front of your thigh; composed of four muscles, they are the strongest muscles in the human body.

Additionally, when dividing up your muscle training, you should know the muscle fiber type for each of the quadriceps muscles, expressed as a percentage of slow-twitch fibers and a percentage of fast-twitch fibers.

• Rectus femoris: 35% / 65%.
• Vastus lateralis: 43% / 57%.
• Vastus intermedius: 50 / 50%.
• And the vastus medialis: 50 / 50%.

Located at the back of the thigh are the three muscles that affect hip and knee movement.

The muscle fiber types for each of the hamstring muscles, expressed as a percentage of slow-twitch fibers and a percentage of fast-twitch fibers, are as follows:

• Biceps femoris: 65% / 35%.
• Semimembranosus: 50% / 50%.
• Semitendinosus: 50 / 50%.

Although they are technically not part of the leg, the gluteal muscles help facilitate movement of the hips and legs. The gluteal muscle group (as well as the abductors) consists of 50% slow-twitch fibers and 50% fast-twitch fibers.

The calf muscles facilitate movement of the ankle, foot, and toes; they are located at the back of the leg between the knee and ankle.

Regarding the muscle fibers of the calves, the soleus is composed predominantly of slow-twitch fibers, at 75%, while the gastrocnemius is predominantly composed of fast-twitch fibers.

Leg exercises: benefits

Above all, focus on your knees—those joints that undergo the most wear over time and that will determine whether or not you can enjoy a better quality of life in the long run.

It is a myth that squats damage the knees; when performed correctly, squats strengthen the leg muscles at the front and back of the thighs that support the knees.

On the other hand, doing these exercises will increase your power, helping you feel fulfilled as a human being and allowing you to run faster on flat or uneven terrain, while ultimately becoming stronger.

Exercises such as lunges and squats develop body awareness, core strength, and body alignment, which are essential for a good, safe run.

Because muscle burns more calories than fat, increasing your body’s muscle mass—especially the large leg muscles—will turbocharge your metabolism, whether you do leg presses, squats, or deadlifts.

Likewise, compound exercises will help increase your anabolic hormones, especially testosterone, as long as you nourish yourself properly.

However, while abdominal exercises such as crunches may seem like the path to a stronger core, these movements only work the abdominal muscles and can aggravate the back.

Leg exercises such as lunges and squats (as well as planks) are especially effective for the core because they work several muscles in the area at the same time without putting strain on the back.

Remember that the core is the cornerstone of a strong body, and developing it can protect you from injuries, improve your posture, and prepare you to train your whole body.

Leg exercises: “Quadriceps”

The quadriceps femoris is a four-headed muscle located at the front of the thigh and, as we have mentioned, these are the strongest muscles in the human body.

But how do you make them stronger? A 2000 study worked with intermediate bodybuilders to compare quadriceps exercises while placing electrodes on their bodies to measure muscle activation (1).

As you can see in the chart, the hack squat was the most efficient. Whether at a 50- or 90-degree angle does not seem to matter in terms of muscle activation; however, it does matter in terms of injury risk.

The study also identified the force applied to the knee during squats at different angles (less than 90 degrees means going beyond parallel).

This means that if you do leg exercises, specifically for the quadriceps, you should not go beyond parallel when performing the hack squat.

Heavy compound movements are definitely the best way to add strength and size, noting that one intense quadriceps workout per week is usually sufficient.

A crucial part of your quadriceps training is volume, or the total number of repetitions you do each week. The heavier you lift, the fewer repetitions you can do each week without risking overtraining, since if you train your legs or other muscle groups, you may also be working your quadriceps.

You can adjust this by slightly reducing the volume of your quadriceps (and hamstring) workouts to account for this overlap, which would ensure recovery.

Remember that the best exercises, in addition to the hack squat, include:

Leg exercises: “Hamstrings”

When we think of leg exercises, we generally include leg curls and their variations, as well as the deadlift, whether performed with a barbell or dumbbells, and it makes sense.

To estimate the best hamstring exercises, we analyzed a study conducted by the American Council on Exercise and the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse in 2018 (2).

The study recruited 16 young bodybuilders; each participant attended two one-hour sessions, testing individual strength in the first session and completing a demanding test with nine hamstring exercises in random order during the second.

The researchers placed electrodes on the participant’s skin around the hamstrings to assess muscle activation levels.

Using these 1-RM values, a weight corresponding to 70% of the 1-RM was calculated for use during the second session. This load was used because it is a resistance level commonly used by recreational athletes.

To analyze the results, the researchers compared all the exercises with the machine-based “prone” leg curl.

For the biceps femoris, only the kettlebell swing showed greater activation of the muscle region, although it was nearly the same as the leg curl.

For the semitendinosus, three leg exercises demonstrated higher activation levels than the prone leg curl: the Swiss ball leg curl, reverse hip extensions, and floor glute raises.

When looking at the data collectively, it reveals that only two exercises—kettlebell swings and single-arm/single-leg Romanian deadlifts—could demonstrate effectiveness, in addition to both seated and lying leg curls, which could be the selected hamstring exercises.

Leg exercises: “Glutes”

You can stimulate the glutes in various ways, but to continue relying on what science says and on leg exercises, we analyzed a study to determine which one produced the greatest muscle activation.

An interesting study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2018 found that the front squat produces greater muscle activity in the glutes compared with the deadlift; nevertheless, you should combine it with other isolation exercises.

Lunges work the whole body, not just the glutes. Now, if you concentrate while doing them with a dumbbell in each hand or with a weighted barbell, you will feel the glute of the front leg working together with the quadriceps of the back leg.

If you think squats and lunges are excellent for the glutes, wait until you try these single-leg squats.

The idea here is to keep the squats shallow; you will quickly realize that you cannot go as deep as with regular squats. However, you should keep the weight on your heels to really target the glutes.

Step-ups target the glutes, and you will really feel this exercise if you use a high step or platform, one where your knee starts at a 90-degree angle.

You can use a bench at the gym for this, but if it is padded, you should be careful not to fall, and you will feel great.

Another effective leg exercise for the glutes is the hip extension, also known as donkey kicks, which targets the largest muscle in the lower body, the gluteus maximus.

Leg exercises: “Calves”

Something that bodybuilders may struggle with or perhaps use to show off an impressive physique is their calves—always the calves.

But before blaming genetics, you should know that depending on how you work them, you can stimulate the soleus (slow-twitch, fatigue-resistant fibers) or the gastrocnemius (fast-twitch fibers, the ones that require explosiveness).

In reality, there are only two types of exercises you can do to train your calves effectively; the others are variations.

• The calf press, in which you press your feet against resistance.
• Calf raises, in which you raise and lower your body against gravity.

And these specific leg exercises for the calves are divided into seated and standing variations.

Calf presses and standing raises are performed with the legs straight and emphasize the gastrocnemius, using an explosive motion, whereas when you sit with your legs bent, you emphasize the soleus.

It is always important to perform both standing and seated exercises and emphasize standing exercises to work these muscles.

The reason for working this way is to ensure that your soleus is not neglected, while the reason for doing more standing work than seated work is to focus most of your effort on training your gastrocnemius.

A full, controlled range of motion is also extremely important in calf training. One study even states that foot position can produce significant growth of the gastrocnemius (4).

The researchers concluded that position A was able to produce significantly greater growth of the medial gastrocnemius specifically compared with the other two positions.

Additionally, position B was able to produce greater growth of the lateral head of the gastrocnemius.

How to train your legs

The three rules for proper leg training are:

• Work all four muscle groups.
• Focus on lifting heavy.
• Emphasize progressive overload.

The best leg exercises are those that allow you to move heavy loads safely, and most of them improve your strength.

Now, if you are an intermediate bodybuilder and want to get the most out of your leg training, work across multiple rep ranges with weights ranging from 70 to 90% of your 1RM.

Obviously, if you still lack the separation and muscle density you want despite doing leg exercises and varying the volume and intensity to achieve progressive overload, never blame genetics, but rather your “inner self.”

Oh, and remember to take supplements such as creatine with protein to develop strength, power, and promote hypertrophy.

Reality is not the same for everyone.

Unfortunately, less experienced guys have plenty of excuses for neglecting their legs.

Generally, in a misguided attempt to attract the opposite sex, they start developing massive pecs, a thick back, and abs that look spectacular on a beach or in competition, but what about the legs, as they say?… honestly, many look like chickens… no offense, of course!.

On the other hand, there are those intermediate athletes who make excuses such as possible injuries or circumstances; they simply add a little volume without thinking about symmetry or definition, since many are not competitive.

Finally, there is the fear factor… training with leg exercises of the kind that produces results is not fun…

Great workouts can leave you dizzy and nauseated, not to mention that they may leave you limping for a few days.

Many are even so afraid of lifting heavy that they cannot sleep the night before, thinking about the struggle awaiting them the next day.

Success depends on you, and no one else.

The key to success in any bulking phase is to leave other useless exercises or workouts behind and concentrate on the task at hand.

In any case, you need to add size to your legs, which is why you are reading this chapter, prepared especially for you… as long as you are willing to commit, of course…

In this program, you will train four days a week; three of them will be days with leg exercises, and the fourth will be a maintenance day for upper-body exercises.

Ideally, your week will be set up with Monday, Thursday, and Saturday as lower-body days, Tuesday as a maintenance day, and Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday as rest days.

Of course, you can always adjust things according to your needs, but try not to schedule your leg days consecutively.

To design this program, which may use a weekly undulating structure, meaning that the sets and repetitions will change from one week to the next, you can turn to one of our professional trainers, the best on the peninsula.

References:

• Boeckh-Behrens, Wend-Uwe, and Wolfgang Buskies. “Fitness-Strength Training.” Reinbek bei Hamburg 20013 (2000).
• American Council on Exercise: New Research Determines Which Hamstrings Exercises Yield The Best Results (2018).
• Max R. Paquette; Dana K. Fuller; Jennifer L. Caputo; John M. Coons, “Muscle Activation Patterns of Lower Body Musculature Among Three Traditional Lower Body Exercises in Trained Women,” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Published Ahead of Print Feb 15, (2018).
• Nunes et al.; Different Foot Positioning During Calf Training to Induce Portion-Specific Gastrocnemius Muscle Hypertrophy, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research (2020).