It’s difficult to train your legs. In comparison to arm training, it takes a lot more energy. This means that compared to regular upper-body workouts, leg exercises actually raise your heart rate and put more stress on your body. Due to this, many people avoid working their legs and instead focus on activities that involve their upper bodies, which they find more pleasant.
Leg days are basic workouts that emphasize or incorporate lower body strengthening activities. It consists of movements that work your quadriceps (the front of your legs), hamstrings (the back of your thighs), glutes (the butt/hip muscles), and calves, such as squats, lunges, and deadlifts. So many people I see (especially guys) skip leg day and lower body exercises, and I’ve never come to understand why. The issue is that, by avoiding these exercises, you’re leaving serious results and improvements to your health on the table. So here are some of my favorite leg day exercises I like to hit!
“Leg day is my favorite day. You can’t have a thorough leg workout without feeling completely spent. It’s a challenge, but the benefits of maintain muscle mass on my legs is important because, as the biggest muscle group in the body, it also helps me keep the proper body composition in terms of fat to muscle ratio.” –Ian Ziering
Romanian Deadlift (RDL)
The Romanian deadlift (RDL) is an effective exercise for building muscle in your back and lower body. The primary muscles worked in the Romanian deadlift are your lower back, glutes, and hamstrings.
Barbell Hip thrust
The glutes and hamstrings benefit greatly from the hip thrust workout. One of the top complex workouts for strengthening your posterior chain is this one. Increased glute strength, enhanced core stability, faster running and jumping, and injury prevention are just a few advantages of the hip thrust.
Barbell Squats
Squatting helps shape up your legs and glutes since it targets the glute and inner thigh muscles. As your glutes become firm, your posture and balance might improve. Squats not only tone your glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps, but they also improve balance, mobility, and strength.
Leg Press
The leg press machine encourages the growth of the lower body by working the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteal muscles, and calves, among other important lower body muscles. The calf muscles get stronger because they are so important for supporting these muscles. Before progressing to more difficult leg exercises, novices may find that the leg press provides a solid basis for strengthening their lower body. Your hamstring muscles are shaped and strengthened, and your flexibility and endurance are increased.
Bulgarian Split Squats
The Bulgarian split squat is one of the best workouts for strengthening your quadriceps, hip flexors, and posterior chain is the Bulgarian split squat (hamstrings, glutes, and back).It tones the muscles in the legs, particularly the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves, as a lower body workout. Additionally, because it’s a one-leg exercise, your core has to work extremely hard to keep you balanced.
The best feeling when working out, for me, is when you really develop the mind-muscle connection on the muscle being worked. There is no better mind-muscle connection I get than when I’m doing rdls, leg presses, hip thrusts, leg presses, etc. It feels amazing to feel the majority of the muscles in my leg being worked, including my glutes, hamstrings, and quads. That is why I personally love leg days, it’s my favorite part of my body to hit whenever I go to the gym. Balance is maintained by having strong leg muscles, which is impossible if you only concentrate on your upper body. Exercises like deadlifts, squats, and lunges, which target your glutes, quadriceps, and hamstrings, help to maximize and improve athletic performance. So here some of my favorite leg day exercises I like to hit!