50 Best Leg Exercises and Workouts of All Time

When you think of leg exercises, odds are high your mind goes straight to squats, deadlifts, and variations thereof. However, lower-body moves enlist more than just your quads and hamstrings. With these leg workouts, you’re not just hitting the major muscles. You also work your core, improve your balance, and hone things like grip strength, which pays dividends in the long run.

strong lower body is crucial to performance—whether you’re looking to improve sport-specific skills, gym work, or just daily functional fitness. Yes, you heard that right, we said “strong lower body.” You’re gonna be hitting your posterior chain: calves, hamstrings, glutes, lats, and muscles along the spine, as well as the quads on leg day here on out.

For the sake of your physique and training results, here are 50 strength-building leg exercises to ensure you’re building three-dimensional muscle.

Working out at home? Many exercises can be done with standard home gym equipment like dumbbells and kettlebells (e.g. single leg deadlift, goblet squat, walking lunges, single leg Romanian deadlift, and calf raises).

Choose a handful of moves to create a lower body-centric routine. Not sure how many reps to go with? Use our rep range guide. We highlight the benefits and arguments for using high reps (15+), low reps (5 or less), and moderate reps (8-12) depending on your goals.

Want to incorporate more body-part exercises? Check out:

1. Front Squat

How to do it:

  1. Set a barbell on a power rack at about shoulder height.
  2. Grab the power with an overhand grip at shoulder width and raise your elbows until your upper arms are parallel to the floor.
  3. Take the bar out of the rack and let it rest on your fingertips.
  4. Your elbows should be all the way up throughout the movement.
  5. Step back and set your feet at shoulder width with toes turned out slightly.
  6. Squat as low as you can without losing the arch in your lower back.