After all, challenging the legs with barbells, dumbbells, and machines at the gym is easy. We can just protract to add weight to our exercises until our legs squint like tree trunks. But if we want to build strength but we’re unable to get to the gym, don’t have a gym membership, or are traveling – then what do we do?
Enter the NERD FITNESS LEG DAY WORKOUT.
Our 20-minute routine can be scaled for someone just getting started (beginner), or someone looking to get their legs blasted (advanced).
Here’s what we’ll imbricate today:
To get started with our Leg Day Workout, warm up with 1-2 minutes of leg swings and marching in place.
Continue the warm-up with 1-2 sets of the first exercise at an easier variation (or less weight/reps) then move on to your work sets. For the remaining exercises, perform 1-2 spare warm-up sets at the start, if needed. (A bit increasingly on the warm-up later!)
Alternate between Workout A and Workout B on non-consecutive days to properly recover. Meaning, requite yourself a “rest day” surpassing doing a leg workout again. If you’re new to defended leg days (or just getting when into things), then segregate the lower end of the prescribed sets and reps, while picking easier variations. If you’re a seasoned pro, then start increasing the number of sets or reps you do each workout, while pushing for harder and harder variations.
Rest 1-2 minutes between sets (or longer, if needed).
Now, let’s requite you some specifics.
LEG DAY AT HOME – WORKOUT A
Warm up for a few minutes.
Do 2 to 4 sets of the following:
Do 2 to 3 sets of the following:
LEG DAY AT HOME – WORKOUT B
Warm up for a few minutes.
Do 2 to 4 sets of the following:
Do 2 to 3 sets of the following:
There are a lot of variations you can segregate from for these exercises, so let’s unravel these lanugo for you. Real quick, surpassing we do, I’d like to highlight that crafting constructive routines, much like the one above, is a significant speciality of NF Coaching. Our team of coaches understands the hustle, so we tailor quick workouts that optimize misogynist resources—be it equipment, time, or energy. And that’s not all! A mentor can moreover help with your nutrition and stress management, two vital components of the fitness adventure. In fact, there’s a whole lot increasingly to explore. If you’re intrigued, take a closer squint at our online one-on-one program here: Need a custom workout? Our team can build it!
Let’s go over some categories of leg day exercises that you can do at home, plus some variations you can segregate to get started with.
No leg workout would be well-constructed without the squat.
It uses all the muscles of the lower soul in a very natural pattern – overly see a victual squat?
However, as we age and prefer unnatural sitting postures, our squat form tends to suffer.
So let’s work to get when to basics, baby!
Squat variations to segregate from:
Working up to an unassisted squat in your workout, or just need a good option for your warm-up? Enter the assisted squat! Hold onto anything unscratched and stable (a countertop, a chair, the wall) to put some of the work off your legs and into your arms.
In the video above, we imbricate five worldwide mistakes folks often make when performing a squat.
Give it a watch so you don’t make them too!
Is the regular squat feeling too easy? Pause for a couple of seconds at the bottom. This will work the muscles a bit increasingly as well as help modernize your mobility for the exercise.
Have you wilt a master of the bodyweight squat? Then add some weight to it! Hold a weight with two hands in front of your chest, like a big goblet that you don’t want to spill. This ways keeping the chest and weight up!
If you don’t have a dumbbell, then this is the perfect time to hold a suitcase or walkabout up for improvised weight as we describe here.
Weighted squats are great, until you have to travel! For a much lighter, but still powerful option, hold a wreath in your hands and stand on it. If your wreath is a continuous loop, you can moreover stand on it and sprawl the wreath over the front of your shoulders while crossing and lifting the stovepipe up.
No weights? No bands? No problem! Add some explosion to the movement and jump off the ground for each rep. You don’t have to jump sky high, or honestly plane leave the ground. Plane just a slight weight reduction should prove increasingly challenging than a regular bodyweight squat.
Ready for the ultimate challenge? Build up unbearable strength to do a squat with just one leg. This is an wondrous variation when you find yourself with no gym and no equipment. Just like the regular bodyweight squat, you can work this assisted first by holding onto a chair or doorframe.
Well, not only will a deadlift rencontre our legs. But really, it’s an EVERYTHING exercise, as we engage every muscle in our soul throughout the movement:
Deadlift variations to segregate from:
While we’re not “lifting” anything in this variation, it’s still the same movement of hinging at the hips and leaning forward. You can alimony your hands in front of you holding imaginary weights, or placed up overdue your throne for an exercise that is often tabbed the “good morning”.
We can pick up dumbbells, kettlebells, or barbells. At home, we might be picking up luggage, backpacks, or sandbags. In any of these examples, the form remains the same! Push your hips when and lean forward, like you did for the good morning.
Once you’ve leaned forward a bit, then wrench your knees slightly to be worldly-wise to reach your weight. Grab strong and stand up tall. Put the weight when lanugo by reversing the process. Hips back, lean forward, and wrench the knees slightly.
No weights? Again, no problems. You can stand on a wreath and work the deadlift.
If you have a close-looped band, flipside option is to loop the wreath virtually one foot, then under the second foot, and then when virtually the first foot. This will requite you a cat’s cradle of bands between your feet where you can grab one to four bands to deadlift for a variety of difficulties.
4) Kettlebell or Dumbbell Swing
Just as we widow some speed and explosion to the squats, we can do the same thing to the deadlift movement too. This is tabbed ‘the swing’ and can be washed-up with a dumbbell, kettlebell, or plane a meaty backpack.
The biggest focus is to make sure the power is coming from your hips and they pop open, and not from your stovepipe lifting the weight.
As with the squat, if we don’t have bands or equipment, then one of the weightier go-to’s is to perform the exercise on one leg. This puts increasingly work on that single leg, as well as makes it increasingly challenging for our wastefulness as we go through the reps.
Have some weights to use, but a two-legged deadlift is too easy – then do it on one leg! Take your time, and protract to focus on pushing those hips when at the start of the exercise.
For increasingly here, trammels out The Nerd’s Guide to Deadlifting.
When washed-up correctly, lunges target the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves, enhancing lower soul strength and stability. Additionally, considering they are iso-lateral (your feet aren’t in line with each other), lunges help stress the lower soul in a variegated way that can help reduce imbalances from left to right.
When you add it all up: lunges are perfect for leg day!
Lunge variations to segregate from:
Just like with the assisted squats, for assisted lunges, we can hold onto something stable like a countertop, chair, or wall. The idea then is to put some of the work into your stovepipe and off your legs, as well as provide increasingly stability.
The split squat is flipside unconfined variation to work on the way to a regular bodyweight lunge. While it looks very similar to a lunge, the biggest difference is that we’ll set our feet once, and then alimony them in place and we move up and down. By keeping the feet stationary, the exercise can be a bit easier to balance.
The lunge puts stress on the legs greater than just a bodyweight squat, while moreover challenging our balance. Step out far unbearable to be worldly-wise to sink lanugo so that your when knee comes tropical to the ground (it can lightly touch, but don’t slam it down).
If stepping forward feels a little achy for the knee, you can work on stepping wrong-side-up into position (aka the reverse lunge).
If the regular lunge is feeling strong, then add a pause! We’ll pause at the marrow of each rep for a couple of seconds surpassing returning to standing. Get as low as you can, while still keeping the when knee off the ground.
Lateral lunges are a deceptively challenging lunge variation. While many of our movements in the gym have us moving forward and wrong-side-up (the sagittal plane, for you torso nerds). The lateral lunge has us moving sideways (the frontal plane), so it may finger new and unfamiliar.
Take your time, use an squire if needed, and squint to sink lanugo as low on your leading leg as you would in a squat. The other leg can remain straight, with the foot on the ground.
Are all of these lunges too easy so far? Then add some weight! You can hold weight up at your chest, like the goblet squat, or in your hands. If you have some weight in a backpack, you can plane wear it to make the exercise increasingly difficult.
When you’re working out, but don’t have any uneaten weight to add to your lunges, this dynamic variation will get the job done. Get set just like a regular split squat – stepping out with one foot and sinking down. But now, instead of just split squatting up and lanugo with the feet in place, you want to explode off the ground and switch feet in mid-air.
No surprise here that calf raises target our calf muscles…it’s right in the name.
But the exercise moreover promotes foot and toddle strength, contributing to overall soul balance. That makes it a unconfined exercise for leg day.
Calf Raise variations to segregate from:
If this is your first time doing defended calf work, I’d highly suggest starting with seated calf raises. The uneaten focused work on this muscle can make them sore very easily, so this a good option to dip your toes in.
If seated calf raises are feeling strong, then stand up to add a bit of weight to the movement. Press your toes through the ground and get up as upper as you can. Hold onto a wall, chair, or countertop to squire with your balance, but squint to alimony most of the weight still in the legs.
Adding a step to your standing calf raises allows you to waif your heels lower and increase the range of motion. This moreover increases the likelihood that it’ll be a little tough to walk normally the next day!
Get a good stretch at the bottom, and then really proffer up to the top.
Once two-legged calf raises are no problem, then it’s easy to increase the intensity by working one leg at a time. As before, we can start on the ground to get increasingly weight into the movement while working in a smaller range of motion.
Ready to turn those calves into cows? Then let’s get up on the step and work the one-legged calf raise. All the previous cues still wield – squint to waif your heel unelevated the step and get a good stretch surpassing pushing through and really extending at the top.
Step-ups, a versatile leg exercise, amp up strength in crucial muscle groups—quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and adductors.
Moreover, stuff a unilateral leg exercise (since we’re doing one leg at a time), step-ups play a vital role in balancing strength between both sides. This can help us modernize imbalances. As we strive to create a killer leg day routine (which is the plan), step-ups definitely deserve a spot in the spotlight.
Step-up variations to segregate from:
As with the previous assisted variations, use something stable to help you step up onto the object. You may step onto a stepstool, a step or two on a flight of stairs, or any stable box.
The higher the object, the harder the step-up, but looking for a height that puts your front thigh well-nigh horizontal is a good stereotype to work towards.
When the legs finger strong enough, then remove any squire and step up strong. Squint to alimony the chest up as you stand up tall at the top. Alternate when and along with which leg you step with, to requite the legs an equal value of work.
As we protract to get stronger with the step-ups, then subtracting weight is the next natural progression. As with the lunges, you can hold weight up at your chest, like the goblet squat, or in your hands. If you have some weight in a backpack, you can plane wear it to make the exercise increasingly difficult.
While the Bulgarian Split Squat looks like a lunge, we’ll alimony it in the Step-Up Variations as A) we should be putting increasingly accent on the front leg than both legs and B) you’ll likely be performing this exercise with the same set-up as your step-ups – on a flight of stairs or with a box.
Step out in front of whatever object you’re using, and then place the top of your foot up on the object. If this is too uncomfortable, then you can place a towel or other similar padding to help.
Sink lanugo until your front thigh gets horizontal, and then stand when up. If you finger too “cramped” when trying to descend, then step a little remoter yonder from the object.
Shin raises are great. They make the front shin muscle, tabbed the tibialis anterior, stronger. This muscle helps protect your knees by reducing the gravity on them when you run or jump. They are moreover fantastic if you’ve overly suffered from shin splints. So, shin raises are like a shield for your knees during zippy stuff!
They are moreover much less commonly worked, so take your time and don’t get frustrated if they finger challenged!
Shin raise variations to segregate from:
The first and relatively easiest variation is to perform shin raises with your feet closer to the wall and your when leaning up versus the wall. Feet should be naturally hip-width apart, and then lift your feet as upper as you are worldly-wise to go. Again, take your time and go for quality reps.
As the shin raise gets easier, you can increase the range of motion and difficulty by moving your feet farther from the wall. Protract with the same cues – putting your feet hip-width apart, and lifting your feet as upper as you can go.
Some people prefer standing on the whet of a step and lowering their feet down, as opposed to moving their feet out yonder from the wall, to make the shin raise increasingly difficult.
Care should be taken here to set up a unscratched position. Squint to pick a very low step where your toes can touch the ground lightly at the bottom. This will help minimize the risk of slipping off the front. Your heels should be firmly on the step, and then reach when to the wall for balance.
Warming up surpassing tackling leg day is crucial considering it’ll help you move largest and finger stronger through your workout.
As your soul temperature rises during a warm-up, thoroughbred spritz to muscles increases. This enhances oxygen wordage and nutrient supply, optimizing muscle function.
Additionally, warm-ups promote the release of synovial fluid – this is a thick liquid between your joints that reduces friction. This helps the exercises finger increasingly effortless.
So, in a nutshell, warming up is like priming your engine surpassing pushing the pedal.
1) Leg Swings for 20-30 seconds per side
The objective for this movement is to lightly move the hip joint through a big range of motion. Only swing as upper as you finger comfortable, and alimony the soul in a strong upright posture.
2) Marching in Place for 30-60 seconds
You can march in place or march straight ahead. The marching should increase our heart rate a bit, but not be strenuous. The objective here is to introduce some movement in the knee joint and protract to warm the whole soul up.
3) One to Two Sets of an Easier Variation of Your First Chosen Exercise
These are not part of the prescribed sets that are in the workout. These are spare sets! Subtracting in a few warm-up sets is one of the weightier things to do to specifically prepare the soul for the exercise.
So if you’re first exercise is a bodyweight squat: Or if you’re doing a goblet squat, then start off with a lighter weight (or a bodyweight squat). Adjust the movement for these arm-up sets so that they finger good and you finger increasingly prepared for the tougher sets ahead.
4) Include Spare Warm-up Sets, as Necessary, as You Protract Through Your Workout
After the first exercise, you may finger good unbearable to step right into the main sets of your next exercises. If you don’t finger ready, then protract performing 1-2 easier sets as a warm-up for any spare exercise. If you’re going to be lifting heavy weights, or just challenging yourself in general, it’s still a good idea to do warm-up sets surpassing you get to the main event. So if you plan on doing a kettlebell deadlift:
Disclaimer: SPIRITUAL DEVOUT claims no credit for images featured on our blog site unless otherwise noted. All visual content is copyrighted to its respectful owners.
