Best Leg Day Workout Routine & Exercises (2024)

If you’ve been a part of the fitness community for a while, you may have heard the “they clearly skipped a leg day” joke. When you think about it, this pretty much underlines the importance of leg days, as we don’t tend to make the same joke about not training other body parts. Leg days may be one of the more important parts of a workout split for reasons we will go into later.

Whether it’s a “push-pull-legs” (PPL) training split (which we have covered in more detail in our articles about pull workout and push workout days), a “lower” day, or even a full-body program, you’re going to have a number of exercises dedicated to training the legs. Today, we’ll share with you some of our favorite leg exercises, which are back squats, safety bar squats, conventional deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, leg presses, Romanian deadlifts, split squats, hip thrusts, leg extensions, and lying hamstring curls.

Additionally, we’ll cover the basics of leg days and the muscular anatomy of our legs. We will also give you tips on how to program these exercises into your workout, plan your nutritional intake, and achieve maximum results while training safely.

What Is a Leg Day?

Leg day refers to lower body exercises focused on a single day, typically as part of a body part or movement pattern training split (e.g. PPL). People doing full-body training programs don’t typically have a single leg day, opting to do some lower-body training every time they go to the gym.

No matter what type of training split or program you prefer, training the legs is important for improving strength, size, and performance. There also seems to be some carry-over to upper body development in those who train their legs compared to just training the upper body. [1]

In short, if you want to get the most out of your training for health and performance, you should definitely train your legs with either a dedicated leg day or as part of a full-body workout program. Before we get into our favorite exercises for training the legs and how to organize them into a leg day, let’s cover the relevant muscular anatomy first.

What are The Muscles Worked in a Leg Day Workout?

There are over 40 separate muscles in the human leg, which include the quadriceps, hamstrings, adductors, glutes, and calves.

In this section, we’ll explore the muscle groups targeted in a leg day, sharing where they are and what they do, starting with the one positioned the highest in our lower bodies—the glutes.

Glutes

The gluteal muscle group, commonly referred to as the glutes, are a group of muscles in the buttocks, comprising three muscles: the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. Of these three, the largest is the gluteus maximus. It gives the buttocks their shape, size, and form. [2] The other muscles are both located below the gluteus maximus, with the gluteus minimus being the smallest.

The glutes have many functions, including stabilizing the pelvis, hip extension and locomotion, allowing individuals to perform actions such as walking or running. The gluteus maximus is our body’s strongest hip extensor, acting as the primary mover in actions that require extending the leg backward. They also support certain joints and allow us to perform explosive sports movements. [3] The gluteus medius and minimus are involved in other movements of the hip such as abduction, internal rotation, and keeping the torso upright when supported by only one leg.

Adductors

The adductors are a group of muscles located in the inside or “medial” part of the thigh. This muscle group comprises four main muscles; the adductor longus, adductor brevis, adductor magnus, and gracilis.

The adductor magnus is the biggest of the four and is posterior to the others. Along with the adductor brevis, the adductor magnus is covered by the adductor longus, a long and flat muscle. The most superficial, or closest to the skin is the gracilis, which crosses both the hip and knee joints.

All of these muscles primarily serve to pull the femur towards the middle of the body, which is adduction. However, the adductor longus also allows for the medial rotation of the thigh, while the gracilis has the added function of leg flexion at the knee. [4]

Some anatomy resources consider the quadratus femoris, pectineus, and gemelli muscles part of the adductor group, but this has not been widely accepted.

Quadriceps

The quadriceps femoris, also known as quadriceps or just quads are the largest muscle group in the body. [5] It consists of four muscles: the vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, and rectus femoris. These muscles make up the front part of the thigh and are very important to human function and performance.

All of the vasti muscles work to straighten or extend the knee joint and stabilize the patella. The rectus femoris crosses both the hip and knee joints, and so it also flexes the femur at the hip joint. [6] The other vasti muscles have various contributions to hip rotation, knee stability, and so on, however, the main function of the quadriceps is knee extension.

Due to their function in knee extensions and hip flexion, the quadriceps are one of the most important muscles in our legs, and without them, we wouldn’t be able to perform everyday movements such as getting up from a seated position, climbing up stairs, and squatting. They are also engaged during locomotion, especially when we walk downhill. In sports, the quadriceps allow us to perform a variety of movements such as kicking, jumping, cycling, and running. [7]

Hamstrings

The hamstrings are made up of the semitendinosus, semimembranosus, and the short and long heads of the biceps femoris. The semitendinosus and the semimembranosus are relatively smaller than the biceps femoris and have the main functions aiding hip extensions, knee flexions, and the internal rotation of the knees when they are flexed. The biceps femoris is the bigger muscle of the group, and while it mainly does the same things as the semitendinosus and semimembranosus muscles, it also participates in hip extension as well as in externally rotating the lower leg when the knee is flexed.

Calf Muscles

The “calf” muscle group refers to three muscles in the lower leg; the gastrocnemius, the soleus, and the plantaris. Anatomists call this muscle group the triceps surae, with triceps meaning “three heads” and surae meaning “of the calf” in Latin.

The plantaris appears to be mostly involved in sensing the position and movement of the lower extremity. [8] We won’t go any further into the plantaris, but let’s explore the two main muscles of the triceps surae; the gastrocnemius and the soleus.

Let’s start with the gastrocnemius, which is the larger of the two. The gastrocnemius is fundamental for walking and maintaining posture and is a very powerful muscle in our lower legs. [9] It serves as the main plantarflexor of the ankle joint, meaning that it helps us move the foot downwards and apply force to the ground. It does cross the knee and can be a knee flexor like the hamstrings. However, the calf cannot exert the same amount of force on both joints simultaneously, meaning that when there is more focus on ankle-knee movement, the gastrocnemius will be less active in the ankle, and so on. The gastrocnemius also works in synergy with the soleus to produce the required force for jumping. [10]

The soleus muscle lies below the gastrocnemius. Together, they share the Achilles tendon that connects to the calcaneus of the ankle and is one of the strongest tendons in the human body. [11] As for function, much like the gastrocnemius, the soleus acts as a plantar flexor. It also acts as a postural muscle, which is why it’s composed of mostly slow twitch muscles so it can produce a lot of force for long periods of time. [12,13,14,15]

While it’s not necessary to know the anatomy of leg muscles to train them, it may be helpful to have some background in the muscles being trained in order to select the correct exercises. Speaking of which, we’re now going to dive into our favorite exercises for training the legs and give step-by-step instructions for each.

The Ultimate Leg Day Workout Routine

Here’s an overview of the exercises we will cover today:

Back Squat
Safety Bar Squat
Conventional Deadlift
Sumo Deadlift
Leg Press
Romanian Deadlift
Split Squat
Hip Thrust
Leg Extension
Lying Hamstring Curl
Calf Raise

Of note, this is a list of our favorite exercises to train the legs and not a sample leg day routine. To build your own leg day or leg training for a week, we recommend:

One primary squat and hinge exercise each
One secondary squat and hinge exercise each
One tertiary leg exercise to isolate the quadriceps or hamstrings

This is a basic template for a leg day or weekly leg training. More advanced lifters will likely need more volume (sets and reps), which can be included using additional exercises or added to the existing movements. Calf training can be included at the end of the leg day workout or any training day on a full-body split.

Back Squat

Best Leg Day Workout Routine & Exercises (1)

Movement Category: Primary Squat

Programming: 3 to 4 sets of 4 to 6 repetitions.

Weight: Use a weight that leaves you 2 to 4 reps short of failure, e.g. RPE 6 to 8.

The back squat is a staple exercise amongst most serious lifters. It’s a compound (multi-joint) movement that trains a lot of muscle mass over a relatively long range of motion. The squat is also flexible with respect to loading and rep ranges, as it can be performed with heavy weights for a few repetitions or lighter weights for many repetitions.

Squats have also been said to increase testosterone, growth hormone, and a number of other hormones in a manner that drives greater increases in size and strength than other exercises. This is mostly an old wives’ tale, however, as pretty much all exercise increases testosterone, growth hormone, and so on for a short period of time after training.

What’s more, the amount of increase in testosterone or growth hormone does not correlate with size and strength improvement. The available scientific data does not support the hormone hypothesis or that squats are uniquely beneficial for gains through this mechanism.

Rather, the squat is one of several exercises that can be used to train the lower body, e.g. the quadriceps, hamstrings, adductors, and glutes. It also loads the core.

To do barbell back squats:

The correct squat stance varies significantly between individuals and over time. To start, place your feet about shoulder-width apart, with your toes turned out about 15 to 30 degrees.
Using a barbell in a squat rack that’s set at approximately mid-sternum height, grab the bar with an overhand grip, with your index finger around the score or “power” rings on each side of the barbell.
Move under the bar and place it on your upper back, making sure the center knurling of the barbell is centered on your back. Bar placement can be in one of two general positions:
- High Bar — the bar is placed above the spine of the scapula, resting relatively high on the trapezius muscles.
- Low Bar — the bar is placed below the spine of the scapula, resting lower on the trapezius muscles and rear delts.
- Both squats train the same muscles, though the torso angle in the high bar squat is typically a bit more upright and the low bar squat is a bit more horizontal. The training effects of both squat variations are similar, so this is mostly up to personal preference.
With the bar in the correct position, lift the bar up off the J-hooks, bearing the load mostly on your back with your chest up. Keep your elbows down, tucked into your sides.
Take 1-step back from the hooks with each leg, adjusting each foot into the stance described in the first step of this series.
Take a big breath in and hold it, squeezing your midsection tight. Now you can start your descent by pushing your hips back and knees both forward and out. Your torso will bend forward a little bit and become a bit more horizontal. This is fine.
Keep descending lower into the squat until the crease of your hip is below the top of your knee. This is a below-parallel squat.
Once below parallel, you should reverse the motion by pushing up with your legs and hips, while keeping your torso tight (and breath held).
Stand up straight at the top to complete the rep. Repeat the process for each repetition.

For depth, most people will be able to squat below parallel, though some may prefer a bit lower or higher based on their current abilities. This is also fine outside the sport of powerlifting, which requires a below-parallel squat in competition. For a video tutorial on how to squat, check out this video.

Safety Bar Squat

Movement Category: Primary Squat

Conventional Deadlift

Best Leg Day Workout Routine & Exercises (2)

Movement Category: Primary Hinge

Programming: 3 to 4 sets of 4 to 6 repetitions.

Weight: Use a weight that leaves you 2 to 4 reps short of failure, e.g. RPE 6 to 8.

The deadlift is a lower-body-focused exercise where the individual lifts the weight from the floor. Similar to the squat, there are a number of different variations of the deadlift, each with slightly different execution and training effects.

The conventional deadlift refers to a deadlift variation with the hands placed just outside the feet to lift a loaded barbell from a “dead” stop. The primary movers in the deadlift are the hamstrings, adductors, glutes, core, and erector spinae of the back, though the quadriceps, trapezius, and other muscles of the upper back are loaded too.

It should be noted that the deadlift does not use the same mechanics as a squat. Specifically, the deadlift starts with a concentric (muscle-shortening) contraction whereas the squat starts with an eccentric (muscle-lengthening) contraction. The conventional deadlift also tends to require a more horizontal torso angle and less knee flexion than squats. The different muscle lengths, range of motion, and movement patterns mean that squats and deadlifts are not really interchangeable, which is why we recommend training both hinge- and squat-dominant movements to train the lower body.

Some individuals may be wary about including the deadlift in their routine because it loads the lower back. However, regular exposure to the deadlift and other exercises that train the low back dynamically may help in desensitizing an individual with low back pain, as well as improving function. [17] If you have pain in training or low back pain that’s preventing you from exercising how you want to, contact us. We have a team of professionals that would love to help.

To do deadlifts:

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, and the bar on the ground right in front of you, about 1 inch in front of your shins.
Keeping your knees mostly straight, bend over and grab the barbell with an overhand grip just outside of your legs, right at the start of the barbell’s knurling. Make sure your wrists and arms are straight.
Without moving the barbell, push your knees forward until your shins make contact with the barbell. Your knees should now be inside the “crook” of your elbows.
Without moving the barbell or dropping your hips, squeeze your chest up to flatten your back. This is your starting position.
Take a big breath in and hold it, then drag the barbell up your legs, keeping the bar in contact with your shins.
Stand up tall at the top, but avoid leaning back. This is the top of the deadlift.
Lower the weight down to the floor quickly, but under control.
For subsequent reps, make sure that the bar is always about 1 inch in front of your shins. You may have to move the bar forward or backwards between reps to achieve this.

The deadlift requires high levels of grip strength. At heavier weights, a double-overhand grip usually won’t work. We recommend using a hook grip, alternate grip, or straps depending on your needs and preferences, which we discuss further in this article.

Sumo Deadlift

Best Leg Day Workout Routine & Exercises (3)

Movement Category: Primary Hinge

Programming: 3 to 4 sets of 4 to 6 repetitions.

Weight: Use a weight that leaves you 2 to 4 reps short of failure, e.g. RPE 6 to 8.

The sumo deadlift is another primary hinge variation that trains the same muscles as the conventional deadlift, e.g. hamstrings, adductors, glutes, core, quadriceps, grip, erector spinae of the back, and other muscles of the upper back as well.

The main difference in the sumo deadlift is that it uses a wider stance, which places the grip inside the legs instead of outside of the legs like the conventional deadlift. The wider stance produces a more vertical torso, which may load the back more comfortably for some. [18,19] On the other hand, the wider stance may be more demanding of the hips’ mobility compared to a conventional deadlift. Both are good choices to train the hinge movement pattern and we recommend most folks train each variation at different times to become proficient at both. However, there is some nuance when it comes to selecting sumo or conventional deadlifts for a barbell sport athlete.

For powerlifters, we recommend sticking to the variation the individual is strongest at. If a powerlifter has never trained the “other” variation, e.g. a conventional deadlifter who has never really pulled sumo, we recommend incorporating both variations into a single training block to see if there’s a particular style that is head and shoulders above the other. For Olympic weightlifters, CrossFit, and Strongman athletes, the conventional deadlift is preferred for meet preparation, as it’s most specific to the sport.

To do sumo deadlifts:

Stand with your feet with a moderate stance, just wider than shoulder-width, with your toes turned out, and the bar on the ground right in front of you, about 1 inch in front of your shins.
Keeping your knees mostly straight, bend over and grab the barbell with an overhand grip inside of your legs, right at the start of the barbell’s knurling. Make sure your wrists and arms are straight.
Without moving the barbell, push your knees forward and out to the side until your shins make contact with the barbell.
Without moving the barbell or dropping your hips, squeeze your chest up to flatten your back. This is your starting position.
Take a big breath in and hold it, then drag the barbell up your legs, keeping the bar in contact with your shins.
Stand up tall at the top, but avoid leaning back. This is the top of the deadlift.
Lower the weight down to the floor quickly, but under control.
For subsequent reps, make sure that the bar is always about 1 inch in front of your shins. You may have to move the bar forward or backwards between reps to achieve this.

We recommend starting with a moderate stance width, e.g. one that is similar to or just slightly wider than your squat stance. Sumo deadlift stances can get very wide, out to wear the lifter’s toes nearly touch the plates. However, we recommend starting with a slightly narrower stance and working out to a wider stance gradually over time.

Leg Press

Best Leg Day Workout Routine & Exercises (4)

Movement Category: Secondary Squat

Programming: 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 repetitions.

Weight: Use a weight that leaves you 2 to 3 reps short of failure, e.g. RPE 7 to 8.

A leg press is both the exercise and the machine it’s performed on, which is typically a plate-loaded sled and foot plate that is pressed at a 45-degree angle. The leg press exercise is a compound exercise that loads the quadriceps, glutes, and hamstrings. [20]

The leg press uses similar mechanics to the squat, save for the torso angle being fixed and the exercise being machine-based and not free-standing. Due to the reduced amount of muscle mass being used (e.g. trunk or upper body muscles) and the lack of a balance component, the leg press likely produces less fatigue than the squat, though this is mostly speculation. Nevertheless, the leg press can be a great exercise to generate leg strength and hypertrophy for beginners and veteran trainees alike. [21]

To do a leg press:

Sit on the leg press machine with your back and neck resting comfortably on the pads. Your bottom should be flat on the seat.
Place your feet flat on the footplate shoulder-width apart, toes slightly angled out. The higher the feet are on the foot plate, the more adductor-dominant and hamstrings-dominant the movement is likely to be. The lower the feet are on the footplate, the more quadriceps-dominant the movement is likely to be. We recommend placing the feet towards the bottom of the leg press, to replicate the joint angles and positions of the lower body in the squat.
Straighten the knees and unlock the sled using the safety locks. This is your starting position.
Take a big breath and hold it, initiate the descent by unlocking your knees while pushing them out to the side (inline with your toes), lowering the sled until your hips are below your knees when viewed from the side. Make sure your entire foot stays planted on the foot plate.
Reverse the motion and press the sled all the way back up to lockout. Keep your head, back, and feet flat on their respective surfaces throughout the range of movement. That’s one repetition.

Romanian Deadlift

Best Leg Day Workout Routine & Exercises (5)

Movement Category: Secondary Hinge

Programming: 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 repetitions.

Weight: Use a weight that leaves you 2 to 3 reps short of failure, e.g. RPE 7 to 8.

The Romanian deadlift is a deadlift variation that starts at the top of the movement rather than the floor like a conventional deadlift. Contrary to popular belief, the Romanian deadlift is not performed with extended or “straight” knees, as this is a different exercise called the stiff-legged deadlift. The best way to think about the Romanian deadlift or “RDL” is that it’s a partial range of motion deadlift in reverse.

Similar to a conventional deadlift, the RDL loads the glutes, hamstrings, erector spinae, adductors, and muscles of the upper back like the trapezius. There’s some evidence showing that the RDL causes more electrical activity in the hamstrings as measured by surface EMG (sEMG), however, it is unknown whether these differences manifest as more or less improvement in strength and/or hypertrophy. [22]

We recommend doing Romanian deadlifts out of a power rack, though they can also be done from the floor like a conventional deadlift. In this tutorial, we’ll discuss how to do Romanian deadlifts out of the rack, but the steps after this are the same as if they were done from the floor:

Place a barbell in a power rack at about mid-thigh level.
Take a double overhand grip right at the start of the knurling and deadlift the bar up.
Take one step backwards with each foot to clear the j-hooks. Take a stance hip-width apart, standing tall, toes slightly turned out, and your knees softly locked. This is the start position.
Take a deep breath and hold it, then begin the descent by unlocking your knees and hips at the same time. Push your hips back and bend your knees, tracing the barbell down your legs and maintaining contact with the barbell the entire time.
Continue the descent until the bar is a few inches below the knees, but the bar is not yet touching the ground. This is the end of the range of motion.
Stand up tall at the top, but avoid leaning back. That’s one repetition.
Lower the weight down to the floor quickly, but under control.

Make sure to unlock your knees during the descent as you’re hinging forward at the hip. The bar should remain in contact with your legs at all times.

Split Squat

Best Leg Day Workout Routine & Exercises (6)

Movement Category: Tertiary Squat

Programming: 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions (each side)

Weight: Use a weight that leaves you 2 to 3 reps short of failure, e.g. RPE 7 to 8.

The split-squat is a compound exercise that works the glutes, adductors, quadriceps, hamstrings, and potentially the calves to some extent. The split-squat is also a unilateral exercise, meaning that it requires the legs differently based on which side is forward or backward, in addition to challenging balance. [23]

Though a split squat shares similar mechanics to the lunge, they are different in the way that the split squat is a stationary exercise, while the lunge typically requires movement, e.g. a step forward or backward.

Split squats can be performed using bodyweight only or with external resistance from dumbbells, kettlebells, a barbell, and more. We’re going to describe how to do a split-squat with dumbbells, but the instructions also work for other loading strategies.

To do split squats:

Stand with your feet about hip-distance apart. If holding dumbbells, they should be at your side with long straight arms
Take a big step forward, as if you’re performing a lunge, but keep your feet hip-width apart. When viewed from the front, your knees should be slightly bent and your ankles, knees, and feet should form a single line. This is where you’ll begin.
Keep your spine mostly vertical, and descend by lowering your back knee towards the ground and pushing your front knee forward under control. The “trail” or back knee should gently touch the floor.
Return to the starting position by pushing upwards with your legs to the starting position. The majority of the upwards force should be generated by your front or “lead” leg.

Starting with a slower tempo, e.g. 2 seconds on the descent and 2 seconds on the ascent, may make the movement a bit easier from both balance and coordination standpoints. Some individuals may choose to hold onto a stable surface with one hand, and carry a dumbbell or kettlebell in the other hand to reduce the balance component.

Hip Thrust

Best Leg Day Workout Routine & Exercises (7)

Movement Category: Tertiary Hinge

Programming: 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions (each side)

Weight: Use a weight that leaves you 2 to 3 reps short of failure, e.g. RPE 7 to 8.

Hip thrusts are a glute bridge variation in which the torso is lifted off the ground against a loaded barbell, dumbbell, or other weight. The glutes are very strong muscles and typically require a significant amount of external load to train effectively, making the hip thrust a great exercise to load the glutes. [24]

Many claim that the hip thrust produces greater improvement in glute strength and hypertrophy when compared to other exercises like the squat. There’s also some sEMG evidence modeling in support of this, as some have found the hip thrust has higher levels of glute muscle excitation than the back squat. [25] That said, the squat and hip thrust produce relatively similar hypertrophy and strength gains in other exercises (like the deadlift). [26] If glute size and strength are important, we recommend training the muscle using multiple different exercises, e.g. the hip thrust and the squat.

To do hip-thrusts:

Take a seat on the floor near a bench with your knees bent. Your upper back should be supported by the bench and your feet should be slightly wider than hip-width apart, with your toes turned out.
Place the bar across the hips ideally with a pad or towel wrapped around the bar, and hold onto it with an overhand grip. This is your starting position.
Take a deep breath and hold it, then push the bar up using your hips until your torso is level with the floor, e.g. a reverse tabletop position. Your chin should be tucked slightly throughout the range of motion. Try to make sure you’re lifting through your hips instead of your arms to ensure maximum glute activation.
Slowly and carefully lower your body until your hips are just a few inches off the floor. Do not sit entirely and immediately press your hips up before they hit the ground.

Leg Extension

Best Leg Day Workout Routine & Exercises (8)

Movement Category: Quadriceps Isolation

Programming: 2 to 4 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions

Weight: Use a weight that leaves you 0 to 1 reps short of failure, e.g. RPE 9 to 10

Leg extensions are an isolation exercise for the quadriceps where you sit on a padded seat against back support and lift a padded bar placed across your ankles to fully extend your knees. The leg extension is an open chain exercise, which means the distal part of the limb moves freely and the proximal part is stationary. In this case, the feet move the weight, whereas the hip and trunk are held still.

It has been said that open chain exercises for the lower body that involve the knee can cause pain due to greater “shear” forces on the joint. These claims stem mostly from mechanistic research on surgical anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) repair, suggesting open-chain exercises might harm the repaired ligament. However, the current evidence does not suggest leg extensions “hurt the knees” or are otherwise harmful. If you have previous knee injuries, feel free to contact us to help you with your programming.

To perform leg extensions, you’ll need a leg extension machine, which features a seat and a padded bar pressing against your legs. Variations may include ankle weights or a resistance band.

How to perform the leg extension:

Set up the leg extension machine in a way where your knees are just at the end of the thigh pad, your back is against the back support pad, and the padded bar is at the level of your ankles. Your knees should be bent greater than ~ 90 degrees.
Pick your preferred weight. We recommend starting with a light weight to perform the entire range of motion in a smooth, controlled manner.
Put your hands on the hand bars at the side of the machine.
Extend your knees by trying to lift your shins and ankles up, towards the ceiling. Go to full extension and squeeze your quadriceps.
Lower the weight back to the beginning position.

Maintain a controlled tempo up and down to target the quads.

Lying Hamstrings Curl

Best Leg Day Workout Routine & Exercises (9)

Movement Category: Hamstring Isolation

Programming: 2 to 4 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions (each side)

Weight: Use a weight that leaves you 1 to 2 reps short of failure, e.g. RPE 8 to 9

The hamstring curl is an isolation exercise for the muscles on the back of the leg, the hamstrings. The hamstrings are mainly involved in knee flexion, hip extension, and dynamic movements like walking, running, jumping, and so on. Current evidence suggests that strengthening the legs through exercise reduces the risk of injury in sports. [27,28,29]

The lying hamstrings curl has several variations that may be executed with a few different pieces of equipment. Nevertheless, the targeted muscle remains the same. They can be done without a specific machine, with dumbbells held between the feet, or with resistance bands. They can also be done with machinery, such as a leg curl machine, of which there are variations that can be done lying down, standing, seated, and with a single-leg.

In a previous article going over the best hamstring and glute exercises, we shared instructions on how to do a standing hamstring curl. This time, we’ll explore another variation where the exercise is done lying face down.

To do a lying hamstring curl:

To set up the machine, adjust the pad so that it is lined up with your ankles when you lie down and extend your legs.
Lie down on the bench part of the curl machine and grab the handles. This is your starting position.
Lift the weight by pulling up with your ankles and lower legs, arcing them towards your backside. Try to do this slowly, and with control.
With the same amount of control, lower your legs back down into the starting position. That’s one rep.

We recommend aiming for a slow, controlled tempo up and down for each repetition.

Calf Raise (Seated or Standing)

Best Leg Day Workout Routine & Exercises (10)

Movement Category: Calves Isolation

Programming: 2 to 5 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions (each side)

Weight: Use a weight that leaves you 1 to 2 reps short of failure, e.g. RPE 8 to 9

The calf raise is the last isolation movement on our list, and just as the name suggests, it trains the calves. This exercise specifically works the two muscles of our calves, the gastrocnemius and soleus, which are integral in extending and flexing the ankles, sprinting and jumping. One of these muscles, the gastrocnemius, also works along with the hamstrings to assist in knee flexion. The soleus aids balance and ankle movement (plantarflexion). Together with the small plantaris muscle, the gastrocnemius and soleus form the triceps surae muscle group. As with other muscles, strengthening the triceps surae can reduce the risk of injury and improve function. [30,31,32]

There are many ways to perform calf raises. In this tutorial, we’ll discuss how to do standing calf raises:

Adjust the shoulder pad’s height to where you move it six to eight inches by standing up straight. Take a hip-width stance with the balls of your feet on the step. This is the start position.
Keeping the knees softly extended, slowly lower yourself by lowering your heels towards the floor. This is dorsiflexion. Do this movement slowly, over about two seconds.
Hold for another two seconds at the bottom of the movement.
From here, push off on the balls of your feet to return to the top. This is plantarflexion.
That’s one rep. Make sure to perform the movement slowly and under control.

A Few Extra Tips for Programming a Leg Day

That pretty much wraps up our exercise selection for a leg day routine.

If you’d like to switch out some exercises to your preferred variations, that’s totally fine. Just make sure to follow the following workout formula in terms of movement category and order:

Pick one primary, secondary, tertiary, and isolation exercise for each leg day.
Alternate squat and hinge patterns based on the priority for the day. For example, if it’s a squat or quad priority leg day, do a primary squat, secondary hinge, tertiary squat, isolation quad, and calves. If it’s a hinge or hamstring priority day, do a primary hinge, secondary squat, tertiary hinge, isolation hamstring, and calves.
The lower volume schemes (e.g. less sets) should be implemented by novice trainees, and more experienced trainees may go for the higher end of the recommendations.

Following this formula will allow you to build muscle and strength; however, there are additional things you should do to help you on your fitness journey. One of the key ways of ensuring strength and muscular hypertrophy is through correct nutrition.

Leg Day Nutrition & Supplements

The truth is, it doesn’t matter what kind of training split you have—any diet plan for a resistance training program will pretty much be the same. When we talk about planning nutrition for resistance training, two very important dietary components come to mind; protein and carbohydrate intake. But before we delve into our recommendations for each, let’s first explore the relevance of nutritional planning to resistance training.

Why It’s Important to Eat Right

Protein and carbohydrates provide two very important things to trainees—the raw building blocks and energy for muscular development. By consuming the proper amount of protein and carbohydrates, we can ensure great performance and results from training.

In the following sections, we’ll go into detail on each of them, starting from protein—the building blocks of muscle.

Why Proteins Are Important

Protein bars, protein shakes, protein powder, recipes of protein-heavy meals—you’ve probably seen it all. Popularity aside, without the right amount of protein intake, your muscles wouldn’t have enough resources for repair, remodeling, and growth.

Resistance training leads to both the synthesis and breakdown of muscle protein, and for muscles to grow larger, the former must outpace the latter. Muscle protein synthesis is an anabolic (tissue-building) response that requires two key inputs: 1) dietary protein and 2) resistance training. When a high-protein meal is taken, muscle protein synthesis increases for a few hours before returning to normal. [33] By comparison, resistance training is far more anabolic than dietary protein alone, but combining them together by consuming protein after a workout is even better. [34]

While high doses of protein are well-tolerated, consuming around 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of total body weight per day is enough for most to maximize their results from training and improve body composition compared to a lower protein diet. [35,36]

Our Protein Recommendations

Here are the key things you need to keep in mind regarding your protein consumption while training:

Unless you have a specific health concern, try to consume around 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight every day. Higher is okay, especially if someone is actively losing weight, very lean, and/or training more than ~10 hours per week. [37]
If you’re a competitive physique athlete, you may consume up to 2.3 to 3.1 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. [38]
Try to distribute protein evenly over 3 to 5 meals per day, 3 to 5 hours apart. [39]
If you are on a protein-restriction diet (e.g., consuming less than a gram of protein per kilogram of body weight), it may be more beneficial to choose animal-derived protein sources. [40] Save for that, protein source doesn’t seem to matter much at higher doses.

Why Carbohydrates Are Important

Carbohydrates provide the energy our bodies need to drive muscle recovery and development. [41] Carbohydrates are not essential in the truest sense of the word, as the body can create glucose (sugar) on its own to fuel a number of tissues in the body. This process is called gluconeogenesis. [42]

In terms of our muscles, maintaining blood glucose levels is a pivotal part of force production during resistance training. When our blood glucose levels are lowered, our exercise performance may drop as we won’t have the necessary amount of energy to produce the required force. [43,44] Lowered blood glucose levels hinder the flow of calcium, which is needed for contractions. [45,46]

Muscle glycogen levels below ~70 mmol/kg are thought to cause weakness and limited force production. [47] This phenomenon is referred to as glycogen depletion and is one of the factors that cause fatigue during long workout sessions, or ones that are done on an empty stomach. [48]

Data is limited on low- and very-low-carbohydrate diets and their impact on strength adaptations, as existing studies are relatively small, of short duration, and in untrained individuals. [49] With respect to muscle size, however, it does seem like low- and very-low-carbohydrate diets don’t do quite as well from a hypertrophy perspective. [50]

For these reasons, low- and very-low-carbohydrate diets do not appear to be great choices for building muscle and strength, particularly in trained individuals. On the other hand, a low-carb diet may be a reasonable choice for those new to exercise training who are trying to lose weight. There is likely minimal risk of impairing muscle gain in these individuals, particularly when compared to the substantial benefits of reducing fat mass and improving dietary patterns.

Our Carbohydrate Recommendations

We recommend ~3 to 5 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of total body weight per day as a starting point for carbohydrate intake.
Healthy carbohydrate options include fruits, vegetables, rice, quinoa, oats, beans, and potatoes.
Carbohydrate supplementation, either before or during a workout, may prove to be beneficial for longer endurance workouts and/or high-volume resistance training sessions that last over 90 minutes. [51]

Implementing these recommendations will help support training performance and results. However, there are further steps you could take to boost your results. Enter nutritional supplements!

Our Supplement Recommendations

Dietary supplements are products that contain amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and herbal extracts. They come in the form of tablets, pills, capsules, powders, and liquids. They are usually ingested for one of the following reasons: to address nutritional deficiencies, to make up for things lacking in one’s diet, or to support specific health or fitness goals.

Supplements can be used to increase certain fitness adaptations, but they’re definitely not necessary. Taking them or not should be a personal choice. Additionally, there are many claims out there that some supplements can help cure certain health issues, but most of these are baseless. A good example of this would be that taking vitamin D, fish oil, or multivitamins does not appear to provide any benefits in terms of reducing the risk of heart disease, many types of cancer, or type 2 diabetes. [52,53,54]

That being said, if you’re interested in boosting your training results with supplements, we recommend the following:

Peri-RX with Caffeine: Take our Peri-RX supplement before an exercise for a nice caffeine kick that will maximize your performance. Not good with caffeine? No problem. We’ve got decaf options, such as Peri-RX Watermelon, for those who have caffeine sensitivity.
Whey Protein Isolate—Vanilla: Among the varieties of protein supplements on the market, whey protein takes the cake for the fastest digestion. More of a chocolate person? Then you’ll be happy to know we’ve got a chocolate-flavored variation.

Tips & Guidance for Maximum Results

If you’re looking to maximize your results, there may be a few additional things you could focus on while working out your legs. If you’re a seasoned trainee, chances are you already know these, but there are a few factors that, if missed, could slow down your development.

So, we will now share some things to keep in mind on leg days, starting with the most essential component of any resistance training program—progressive loading.

Practice Progressive Loading.

The Progressive Overload Principle suggests that the body must be challenged by progressively greater training stimuli in order to generate fitness adaptations over time. Increasing training stimuli can be done by adding weight, performing additional repetitions, reducing rest period length, and so on. Regardless of what variable is changed, progressive overload is critical to providing the correct level of training for the individual as their fitness improves.

In other words, as the individual gets stronger, weight must be added to the bar to “keep up” with this improvement. Using tools during the workout that can reliably tell us whether the training is appropriate are likely to be useful.

We think the best tools currently available are Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) and Repetitions in Reserve (RIR), though barbell velocity (for barbell training), heart rate (for conditioning training), and/or combinations of these can also be used.

We recommend using RPE, RIR, and/or other tools to match the load selected for each workout to your performance potential on that day. Paying attention to your body during warm-ups and choosing the appropriate load is key. Fortunately, there’s a lot of wiggle room in load selection for strength and hypertrophy improvements. As long as you’re in the ballpark, you’re likely fine!

Go Through the Full Range of Motion

One of the ways in which we can boost our leg day results is to use the correct range of motion. The range of motion used in training influences the subsequent muscle adaptation. These adaptations include the way muscles generate force, the range of positions available for improved force production, joint stability, and the muscle architecture itself, among others.

We recommend training through a relatively large ROM, as it offers the most benefit for strength and hypertrophy. Relatively small increases or decreases in range of motion are not likely to produce significant differences in training outcomes.

How to Track Your Progress

So far, we’ve shared our favorite leg day workout routine, along with some dietary advice and tips on how to maximize results while training safely. Implementing these recommendations will surely help you progress, but how do you measure that progress? Our favorite method is fitness journaling.

Logging a trainee’s progress is common for personal trainers, as it gives them a clear view of current training results and what needs to be worked on. This usually includes keeping track of your weights lifted, completed reps, RPE, and conditioning.

You could do this too; in fact, you’d probably do a much better job of it since you’d be able to log additional information that your PT may not know.

Common Questions

To wrap up, we want to answer a couple of the most frequently asked leg-day questions.

How Many Leg Day Exercises Are Enough?

Frequency refers to how often a person exercises a particular muscle or muscle group in a given time frame. By convention, frequency is usually assessed per week. For example, a person doing one leg exercise per week has a training frequency of one for the leg muscles, whereas a person performing two leg exercises per week has a training frequency of two. The frequency goes higher and higher the more leg exercises someone does in a single session and/or the more often they exercise their leg in the course of the week. In general, as the frequency increases for a particular movement or muscle group, training volume typically—though not always—increases.

In general, we see a dose-dependent relationship between training volume and both strength and hypertrophy improvements. However, training frequency in and of itself does not seem to make a big difference.

A recent meta-analysis further backs up this fact. In this review, 22 studies on exercise frequency initially concluded that there is a dose-dependent relationship between training frequency and strength adaptations. This is a predictable result, but after equating the training volume between the programs, no significant differences were observed. [55]

Another study revealed similar results, as the selected exercises produced the same hypertrophy and strength results when trained once a week versus three times a week, provided that the total weekly training volume is the same. [56]

Practically speaking, having one or two leg days per week as a part of the PPL training split is likely to generate similar results to full-body or body-part-focused training splits.

How Long Will It Take To See Results?

This will also completely depend on the trainee’s fitness level, genetics, nutrition, and the training itself. It is widely accepted that resistance training ultimately results in strength and muscle mass gains, but the timeline is quite variable amongst individuals.

Studies looking into strength adaptations will first measure the test group’s average strength pre-training, and then compare every subject’s progress to the average. Most will point to an increase in average strength. However, on an individual basis, this increase is not uniform and will vary from person to person. Some subjects respond very well to the programs, while others don’t respond at all. The majority of subjects usually fall somewhere in between. Additionally, the rates of improvement will also depend on the individual.

That being said, a recent meta-analysis of 40 studies has given us a clearer look into the average timeline of strength adaptations. The average time to improvement was about 4 weeks, again with significant variation amongst individuals. [57] Hypertrophy results are likely to take longer to show up, about 4 to 6 weeks or longer depending on the individual and how muscle size is being measured. [58]

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