Most at home leg workouts suck.
Without a lot of weight, it’s difficult to challenge your leg muscles. Most leg workouts meant to be done at home are far too easy and simply aren’t challenging enough.
Today, I’m going to fix that.
These leg workouts are anything but easy, and will leave you cursing my name, wondering how you’re going to walk up the stairs tomorrow.
Before we begin, I have a favor to ask of you.
Please don’t just skip to the end of the article for the workouts!
I want you to understand the why behind these workouts, and what makes them so effective.
So without any further ado, let’s build some legs at home.
The problem with leg workouts at home
Your leg muscles are the biggest and strongest muscles in your body.
Using heavy weights is a simple way to challenge your leg muscles, and force them to get stronger.
Because we’re not going to be using heavy weights, we need to figure out ways to make the exercises we choose harder.
We’re going to be using a few different techniques to make this happen.
These techniques are:
Slow eccentrics
The eccentric portion of an exercise is the part where you lower yourself down.
So if you think about an exercise like a goblet squat, the eccentric portion of the exercise is where you are squatting down to the bottom.
One of the ways we can make exercises more difficult is by slowing down this lowering part of the exercise.
A lot of exercises we’ll be using will have a slow eccentric component to make them more difficult without using weight.
Isometric pauses
The isometric portion of an exercise is when you’re at the bottom of an exercise and your muscles are stretched out.
In the example of the goblet squat, the isometric portion is when you’re at the bottom.
By spending more time in this stretched position, we can increase the difficulty of the exercise without using more weight.
1.5 reps
Adding a half of a repetition at the bottom of an exercise, where you have the most tension on your muscles, is a sickening way to make exercises more difficult.
If you’ve never tried these before, prepare yourself.
They are not fun.
We’ll be using 1.5 reps for a few different exercises to make our at home leg workouts more difficult.
Timed sets
Another method I really like for making exercises difficult is by doing something called timed sets.
These are sets where you’ll perform as many reps as you can in a given time period. You’ll rest as needed and add up how many total reps you get in that time period.
So let’s say you’re doing bodyweight lunges for 10 minutes.
You’d simply do as many lunges as you can in 10 minutes, resting when needed.
You would add up how many total reps you got, and try to increase that number each time you did the workout.
Total rep sets
These are sets where I’ll prescribe a total amount of reps, and you’ll try to reach that number in as few sets as possible.
Let’s use the example of 100 walking lunges again.
You might do 30 lunges on each leg, then rest a few minutes.
Then you might get 25 reps on each leg, and rest again.
You would keep going until you reached your total rep goal.
Muscles worked
Before we get to the best leg workouts to do at home, we need to know which muscles we’re working!
Your leg muscles are divided into groups, which include the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves.
Let’s go over them.
Quadriceps
Your quadriceps are four muscles on the front of your thigh. They are made up of the rectus femoris, the vastus lateralis, the vastus intermedius, and the vastus medialis.
The quadriceps mainly extend your leg at the knee joint (like during a leg extension or a barbell squat).
Hamstrings
The hamstrings are made up of the biceps femoris, the semitendinosus, and the semimembranosus.
They sit on the back of your leg and flex your thigh at the knee joint (like during a leg curl) and help to extend your hips (such as during a Romanian deadlift).
Glutes
The glute muscles primarily serve to extend your hips (like during a hip thrust) and abduction, or moving one leg away from your body (the same movement as a glute kickback).
Your glutes are made up of the gluteus maximus, the gluteus minimus, and the gluteus medius.
Calves
There are two primary muscles that make up your calves: the gastrocnemius and the soleus.
Both muscles work to do something called plantar flexion, which is where you flex your foot downwards (like during a calf raise).
What you’ll need
Since you’ll be doing these workouts at home, I kept the equipment you’ll need to the bare minimum.
Here’s what you’ll need:
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- You’re going to need a few light dumbbells for these workouts. You’re not going to sculpt legs fit for a Greek God (or Goddess) without a least a few weights!
- Resistance bands are going to be essential if you’re working out at home. There are hundreds of exercises you can do with resistance bands, so if you don’t have any, get some!
- A stability ball is another staple if you’re working out at home. The stability ball is going to be one of the main ways you’re going to work your hamstrings at home!
- Ankle cuffs aren’t needed for these workouts, but they make a few of the exercises much more comfortable, so I included them on the list. I got mine HERE.
The workouts
Now, let’s get to the workouts!
You can modify the exercises as you see fit. For example, you can use a couch or chair for the Bulgarian split squats and single leg hip thrusts.
Make sure you are using good technique on each exercise! Click on each exercise to watch the technique videos and pay close attention to the notes for each exercise.
Good luck 😉
“Living room leg day”
1) 1.5 rep Bulgarian split squats
3 sets of 8-10 reps each leg.. good luck hahaha!
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
50 reps each leg in as few sets as possible
*Rest as needed
3 sets of 10, 10, 10+ (on the last set, perform as many reps as possible!)
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
3 sets of 10 reps on each leg w/ a 2 second pause at the bottom
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
“Bedroom booty burn”
3 sets of 8-10 reps each leg (elevate front leg if possible!)
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
2) Dumbbell 1.5 rep goblet squats
3 sets of 8-10 reps each leg
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
3) Dumbbell single leg Romanian deadlifts
3 sets of 8-10 reps each leg
*Rest 2-3 minutes between sets
3 sets of 15-20 reps
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
“Hallway hamstrings”
50 total reps each leg in as few sets as possible!
*Rest as needed
2) Dumbbell single leg Romanian deadlifts
3 sets of 8-10 reps each leg
*Rest 2-3 minutes between sets
3) Dumbbell straight leg deadlifts
3 sets of 8-10 reps with a 4 seconds eccentric lowering
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
“Laundry room lift”
3 sets of 8-10 reps each leg with a 2 second pause at the bottom
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
Perform as many reps as possible in 10 minutes!
*Rest as needed
3) Dumbbell Romanian deadlifts
3 sets of 8-10 reps each leg with a 4 second eccentric lowering
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
3 sets of 30 seconds
4B) Side plank + row
3 sets of 10 reps each side
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
“Garage gainz”
3 sets of 8-10 reps each leg
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
3 sets of 15-20 each leg with a 2 second pause at the top!
*Rest as needed
3) Dumbbell straight leg deadlifts
3 sets of 8-10 reps with a 4 seconds eccentric lowering
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
Perform a total of 3 minutes on each leg in as few sets as possible!
*Rest as needed
“Backyard booty blast”
Perform as many reps as possible in 10 minutes!
*Rest as needed
2) Dumbbell Romanian deadlifts
3 sets of 8-10 reps with a 4 second eccentric lowering
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
3) Walking lunges (bodyweight ONLY!)
Perform as many lunges as possible in 10 minutes!
*Rest as needed
3 sets of 15-20 reps
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
“Driveway drop sets”
1) Dumbbell 1.5 rep goblet squats
3 sets of 8-10 reps followed by a drop set if you dare.. Drop the weight by 10-20 pounds and do another 8-10 reps without resting!
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
3 sets of 8-10 reps each leg
*Rest as needed
3) Dumbbell straight leg deadlifts
3 sets of 10-12 reps with a 4 second eccentric lowering on each rep!
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
3 sets of 30 seconds each side (walk the length of your driveway back and forth for 30 seconds)
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
“Basement burn”
50 total reps in as few sets as possible!
*Rest as needed
3 sets of 8-10 reps each leg with a 2 second pause at the bottom
*Rest as needed
3) Dumbbell single leg Romanian deadlifts
3 sets of 10-12 reps each leg
*Rest 1-2 minutes between sets
4) Single leg calf raises (bodyweight ONLY!)
Perform 50 reps on each leg in as few sets as possible!
*Rest as needed
Want 50 more free workouts?
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Wrapping up your at-home leg workout plan
Just because you’re working out from home doesn’t mean you have to skip leg day!
Give these workouts a try and I guarantee you’ll be on your way to building stronger and more muscular legs.
If you need more help with home workouts but don’t know where to start, you can apply for coaching to see if we’d be a good fit for each other. I’ll take all the guesswork out of your fitness and design workouts for you based on the equipment you have.
If you have any questions, leave them below.
Now go build some legs!