Have a Better Leg Day with this Functional-Training Legs Workout

Your legs need to be strong and supple for the rest of your body to be healthy. As tempting as it might be to skip leg day, your legs are the foundation of your physique. Try this fitness circuit on your next leg day to give your thighs sleek power and strength. Refer to the video lower within this article. Also included is a printable list of exercises.

Get Stellar Legs! Avoid These Leg Day Blunders

Here are some typical blunders people make when trying to improve their physique:

• for Men, a common mistake is working out the upper body way more often than the lower body, either intentionally or unintentionally.
• for Women, a common mistake is doing mostly isolation exercises for the legs and forgetting to do enough compound movements.

Leg Day Compound Movements Provide A Better ROI for Your Legs

Compound movements are those exercises that use critical joints and utilize more than one muscle group at a time.

They are exercises that replicate primal movement patterns – our ancestors found it necessary to move often in these ways to survive and thrive. Leg day compound movements provide a better return on your time and energy investment for your legs.

Compound movements – such as squats or dumbbell deadlifts – stimulate your endocrine system in a positive way.

Resistance training can dramatically elevate positive hormonal responses, particularly those multi-joint, high-volume compound exercises executed with moderate-to-high intensity.

Hormones can increase protein synthesis and the body’s metabolic rate. These responses are pivotal in tissue healing, remodeling, and growth.

Make Leg Day More Fun and Effective

Do you want healthy, great-looking legs?

What follows is a complete legs workout for you to try on your next leg day – with exercises that sculpt, firm, and define your quads, hamstrings, adductors, abductors, buttocks, and calves.

All equipment is optional – the workout can be done without it. Options include a weighted medicine ball, kettlebell, bench, towel, dumbbells, speed ladder, hurdles, and ankle weights.

You can do this workout at home – balcony, driveway, backyard, rooftop patio, or living room.

Alternatively, you can try this routine out in the world – in the park, gym, or beach.

If you’re doing this workout at home, you will need about 11 feet of usable space.

This workout is for both men and women:

• Men can use weights as heavy as they can lift, as long as proper form is not compromised and the joints remain pain-free.
• Women can use lighter weights and concentrate on the range of motion and quality of contraction – this will help create tone and definition.

Circuit 1: the Warm-Up

Move through the exercises in a circuit consecutively without a break. Once you’ve finished a circuit, take a brief rest before repeating the circuit two more times. After that, move on to the next circuit:

• Beginning-level athletes take a 4-minute break.
• Intermediates take 3.
• Advanced athletes rest for 2 minutes only.

Use a timer on your watch or phone to gauge time correctly. Left to our own mental devices, we tend to underestimate the amount of time we rest.

Decline Crunch

Engaging the abdominal muscles during your leg day warm-up is a good idea. This will gradually raise your body temperature and – later – increase awareness and activation of your abdominals during critical compound exercises. Trust the process – you’ll need the buy-in of your abs on these big movements to prevent injury to your lower back.

• Set a bench at a slight decline. If your bench doesn’t have foot rollers, you can use dumbbells to help brace your feet.
• Do a crunch – from the bottom to halfway up.
• Exhale as you crunch, maintaining length in the spine as you draw your navel in tightly.
• 20 reps.

Overhead Ball Crunch

• Still on the decline bench, hold a weighted medicine ball over your chest with straight arms.
• Start halfway up and proceed to sit upright all the way.
• Initiate the movement from the power of your abdominals (as opposed to your neck or arms).
• 20 reps

Decline Russian Twist

The trick to doing Russian Twists effectively is to initiate the twist in your torso from your spine and oblique muscles, not from your arms or shoulders. If you do this, you will engage the abdominal muscles along the sides of your waist.

40 reps (20 each side).

1- Minute Light Run

Remember, this circuit serves as a warm-up for what’s to come later.

This light, one-minute run aims to circulate warm blood and oxygen into the quads, hamstrings, and calves so that they’re limber enough for when it’s time to add resistance.

The treadmill, vertical climber, or rower is fine if you’re at the gym. If you’re outdoors, to the end of the block and back.

Legs Circuit 2

The body adapts to movement patterns quickly, which means your legs eventually stop being as responsive to the same exercises at the same tempo.

This leg day circuit should surprise your thighs into responding again!

Kettlebell Front Squat

Time to loosen stiff hips with this first squat. Hold the kettlebell at your upper chest. If your knees are tender and you don’t want to squat below knee level, use a bench or box below your buttocks.

This fundamental exercise will wake up your quads and prepare them for what’s to come.

Keep your glutes and lower abdominals activated throughout the squat.

16 repetitions.

Side Step-Overs

Watch the video to see a visual explanation. You don’t need hurdles for this exercise, you can simply pretend they’re there.

Holding a kettlebell – step out, up, and over to the side, landing in a wide-stance squat.

Keep going in the same direction for 8 wide steps. Return, taking quicker side steps back to the starting position. Then, turn around and face the other direction – and repeat.

This movement sequence is highly effective for conditioning your abductor muscles – because a healthy, well-lived life requires outer thighs that are defined and athletic.

Pass-Under Forward Lunges

No leg day would be complete without lunges.

During these traveling lunges, you pass a kettlebell underneath your front thigh during each lunge.

This targets the quadriceps muscles in the front of your upper leg (For this particular type of lunge, you don’t step out very far).

Feeling challenged? Remember, leg day is possibly your most important workout of the week.

The primal, compound movements during leg day stimulate the muscles of your entire body. It’s as if your body gets the message, “Oh, we’re going to be asked to carry heavy objects for long distances. Better get ahead of this and make some physiological improvements now.”

The remaining leg day exercises within this workout will also condition your heart muscle and lung tissue, engage your core muscles, burn high-than-average amounts of calories, help protect you from future lower-back pain, improve your sports performance (or, for that matter, performance in daily life), and shrink adipose tissue.

Plus, let’s face it, this workout is simply going to help you appear more attractive.

Stay-Low Forward Jumps

Holding a kettlebell securely to your upper chest, jump forward 10 times, staying low the entire time. The speed ladder (the hopscotch ground apparatus pictured above) is not necessary.

Dumbbell Squat

Holding the dumbbells at your side, squat down. Try to keep your back tall and chest up, but it’s also okay to bring your torso forward a bit, as long as you keep your lower abdominals and glutes activated the entire time. (However, if you have lower back tenderness, try foam-rolling your outer thighs first to loosen your hips – or, do a yoga pigeon pose beforehand.)

Since this is a squat, try to drop your butt down to knee level or just below – if your bones will allow for it, it’s okay to let your knees come forward in front of your toes.

10 reps.

Dumbbell Deadlift

This time, you hold the dumbbells a bit in front of your shins. Since this is a deadlift, this time you want to prevent your knees from going in front of your toes. Imagine your shins pressing back.

Keep your scapula set (no hunching forward).

Feel the entire sole of your foot making contact with the ground. Don’t use your lower back to lift. Instead, initiate the movement from your hamstrings (refer to video below to see movement in action).

10 reps.

Farmer’s Carry for Legs

To create muscle tone, pick up heavy things and carry them.

Pick up two heavy dumbbells and walk them 30 paces, keeping your posture tall, your navel pulled in, and your knees slightly soft.

People underestimate the efficacy of this particular exercise. It brings results and should be done more often.

Leg Day Knee-Ups

40 knee-ups while traveling.

No hurdles required for this exercise. Start out in a run, then switch to 20 very fast knee-ups. Turn around and run the other direction and, again, 20 knee-ups as quickly as you can.

Leg Day Iron Cross

Kick your straight leg up in front of you above waist level, as you reach down with the opposite arm and touch your toes. Travel forward as you do so. Great for your abs, obliques, hip flexors, quads, and overall mobility.

20 reps (10 reps each side).

2-Forward, 1-Back Jumps

Sometimes, life requires us to be spry.

Take a large jump forward and a small step quickly back.

10 reps.

Leg Day Sprint

Pretend you’re The Flash and run as fast as you can for 40 yards.

As you sprint, keep your chin down a bit. You want to be aerodynamic as you cut through the air.

When you’re finished with your sprint, be certain to decelerate gradually so that you don’t trip over your own feet.

Leg Day Circuit 3

As you begin the third circuit, you should be feeling your leg muscles and your lungs.

Listen to the unique needs of your body. Are your knees and ankles in good shape? Is your head clear?

• If you feel light-headed, dial down the intensity a bit.
• If you feel easy-breezy and you’re not sweating, dial the intensity up a bit.

Prone Lifts for Legs

Show gravity who’s boss – everyone deserves to have well-sculpted buttocks!

Facedown on your hands and knees, lift one leg up above hip level as you contract your glute muscle of the lifting leg, moving the leg in slightly and out slightly with each rep.

Want to make this exercise more difficult? Use ankle weights.

• Keep your neck a natural extension of your spine.
• Keep your elbows slightly soft.
• Keep your abdominals pulled up tightly.
• Keep your hips facing down evenly.
• You’ll be tempted to bend the lifting leg at the knee – don’t.
• Exhale with each lift.

40 reps (20 each side).

The Leg Day Overhead Squat

Lift a medicine ball, dumbbell, kettlebell, or barbell over your head. Keep your arm straight and your scapula set (shoulder blades pulling back actively). Maintain that position as you squat 20 times.

To protect your lower back, keep your glute and abdominal muscles activated the entire time. To prevent your lower back from swaying, keep your top rib pressed down-and-in.

You might be tempted to hold your breath on this one, so remember to let the air move freely in and out of your lungs.

The overhead squat is another powerful movement that people don’t do often enough. It works absolutely everything – including upper body, quads, hamstrings, booty, and even your calves.

12 reps.

Leg-Overs for Healthier Legs

Keep those inner thighs muscles firm and strong!

See the video to get a firm understanding of this leg exercise. It’s a speed drill that will engage your adductor muscle as it develops your agility, balance, and sports performance.

40 reps (20 each leg).

Leg Day Leap Frog

Nature’s perfect plyometric exercise is simply to jump as high and as far as you can, repeatedly. It’s also a lot of fun.

10 reps.

The Leg Day Quick-Step

See the video. This one is a great finisher – it really burns the calories as it strengthens your heart and lungs. Plus, whatever juice you have left in your leg muscles will be squeezed-out after this!

Cooling Down the Legs on Leg Day

Upon completing this leg day circuit workout, take a few minutes to gently stretch.

Functional fitness training utilizes exercises that shift focus to more practical workouts that engage muscles similar to how your body would use them in everyday ancestral living.

Functional programming emphasizes mobility, balance, speed, agility, and strength – including heart and lung strength.

This leg day workout is aimed at not only packing your thighs with power but also boosting your overall health and general well-being.

Do this workout once a week, and see if you don’t notice a visual improvement in your core, glutes, quads, hamstrings, abductors, adductors, and calves.

If you want to see extra improvements – including the visible definition of your abdominal muscles – combine this weekly workout with an anti-inflammatory diet.

As always, consult with your medical doctor before beginning a new exercise program or making significant changes to your lifestyle habits.

Additional Sources for Legs on Leg Day Training:

Why You Should Almost Never Skip Legs – https://www.runtastic.com/blog/en/benefits-of-leg-workouts/

Hormones Respond to Compound Movements for Legs – https://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/hormoneResUNM.html

Benefits of Leg Day Compound Exercises – https://www.verywellfit.com/which-is-better-compound-or-isolation-exercises-3120718

Considerations of Functional Training on Leg Day – https://www.orbitfitness.com.au/blog/functional-training-definitive-guide