Leg day may not be everyone’s favorite, but these exercises should not be skipped. In addition to making you stronger, these moves can jumpstart your metabolism, engage your core, and provide health benefits like helping to manage diabetes and keeping joints strong and flexible, as stated by HuffPost.
There are tons of workouts that focus on strengthening the legs, and we will be listing out some of the best ones here. For whichever moves you do, remember these tips from Outside: Keep your core tight and engaged, and focus on your breathing. You should be exhaling when in the concentric muscle phase (when muscles contract under a load) and inhaling the eccentric phase (when muscles elongate).
Additionally, when working out, you should do 3–5 exercises that target the legs, as you begin with a squat movement, go to a hip-hinge movement, and move on to a single-leg movement. You should also be doing 3 sets of 8–12 reps of each exercise (via Healthline).
These moves strengthen your legs, whether you're working out at home or in the gym
First up in this roundup of the best leg-strength training exercises, there are good ol’ squats. These can be done with bodyweight, dumbbells, barbells, or machines, and there are numerous variations — including a barbell back squat and front squat, a split squat, and a hack squat, as demonstrated by bodybuilding.com.
In today’s day and age, many have traded in gym memberships for home gyms (or at least for a couple of dumbbells and a yoga mat in the living room). There are definitely some challenging moves that can be done at home, with a few simple pieces of equipment. For instance, with a stability ball, you can do a glute bridge, hip thrust, and hamstring curl, and with resistance bands, you can do a lateral walk and lateral step-out squat (via Women’s Health)
To further strengthen the quads, glutes, hamstrings, and beyond, there is a box jump, as seen on OutsideOnline.com, and there are lunges, which also help train balance.
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