4 Exercises for Legs you can’t miss

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When it comes to leg training it’s pretty straightforward. We can say it’s reasonably simple, but not easy by any means. The hardest compound movements will give you the biggest benefits so you should include some of these exercises in each leg workout.

Below you will find 4 exercises, which will help you improve your legs significantly, if you do them.

1) Squats

Shouldn’t be a surprise. Squats stimulate your full-body better than any other exercise. You can pack more muscles with squats and you can do it quicker. They also stimulate natural testosterone production in your body, which is beneficial for overall muscle growth. But squats should be deep – below parallel (unless you have problems with your knees) to have the best impact. Most people are afraid to get lower than parallel, and some don’t even go to parallel, which is just laughable. Don’t be afraid to squat really deep. Just start with lighter weights and then get a reliable spotter on your heavy sets. You will get accustomed with the new process quickly.

2) Leg Presses

Another gold exercise for leg development. Depending on your feet position (upper/lower) it overloads your quads, hamstrings and glutes nicely, and you don’t need hours and hours to learn the technique. In fact, anyone can do leg presses – it’s incredibly simple, and that’s fantastic. It’s also safe compared to free-weight movements like squats, lunges, etc. And you can (and should) use leg presses for drop-sets, slow and a controlled sets, forced reps, etc.

3) Frontal squats

Frontal squats are not that common for some reasons. People tend to avoid this wonderful exercise, mostly because it’s incredibly demanding (even more than traditional back squats) and it requires a great technique. In addition to “normal” back squat benefits, frontal squats will greatly increase your core strength, because your balance will be tested with every rep you make. Another good point is the fact that your lower back will be under less pressure.

There are 2 grip types you can use for this exercise: clean grip and cross-armed grip. You should try both and figure out what’s the best for you. Clean grip requires significant amount of flexibility and the only way to obtain it is to do a lot of frontal squats with very light weight (or just the bar, if you’re total beginner). Before doing front squats, make sure you watched some good tutorial videos on Youtube, because this exercise is not newbie-friendly at all.

4) Lunges

Whether you do this exercise with barbell or dumbells it’s great for targeting multiple muscle groups at once and providing you with additional flexibility and stretching. And it’s good for throwing it in leg supersets, as it’s not as demanding as squats/presses, but still gives you solid growth potential. Lunges are also used for improving your symmetry and diminishing imbalance, because exercise focuses on single leg movement.

As soon as you start to do your lunges you will begin to feel the benefit in your legs and the longer you do them the great the benefits. While it will obviously take time to build up your legs like the weight lifter in the picture you will be surprised how quickly your legs become toned and stronger. If you do this exercise in conjunction with other leg exercises this will ensure your legs will be as toned as possible. However, you must ensure that you do not over exercise which can be both dangerous and also potentially destroy all of benefits from your previous leg workouts.

That’s it! You don’t need any sophisticated machines for leg development – basic compound movements will always work better. Just include a couple of these exercises in your leg routine and you will be on your way to bigger, stronger and more defined legs!