Can I work out legs at home?
Do you want muscular, impressive looking legs but you can’t, or won’t, go to the gym? You know you can do push-ups, sit ups, and planks for your core and upper-body, but what can you do at home for legs?
You can definitely build very good legs at home using only bodyweight movement. Or, you add resistance in various ways without buying any gym equipment.
So you don’t have the time, or the will, to go to the gym. Maybe you don’t like the “bros”. Maybe you’re just in really bad shape and you’re embarrassed. Or maybe you just really can’t afford it. Whatever your reason for wanting to work out at home, you still want to get in better shape.
What are some exercises I can do at home?
- Squats:
- Variations on squats:
- Shoulder width stance
- Narrow stance
- Wide stance
- Sumo squats
- Pistol squats
- Sissy squats (yes this is another squat variation but it deserves a separate mention)
- Invisible deadlifts
- Toe touches
- Donkey calf raises
- Tibialis anterior variations (note: mention that sit-ups work this muscle too if feet are anchored).
- Side leg extensions
- Jumps
- Step-ups
Squats
The simplest and most important exercise for legs (and probably your whole body) is the squat. To perform, you simply squat down, bending at the knees, to as low a position as is comfortable. Then stand back up. You preferably need to go down to where your knees are bent at a 90 degree angle minimum. Keep your head up and you back straight. Your arms can be either at your sides, out in front, or clasped behind your head. Different arm positions will change the mechanics of the exercise to a small degree, so it’s good to switch them up. It will make you adjust your balance and will shift the emphasis around to slightly different areas in the quads.
You should do 100 total squats. I would suggest getting a clock or timer, and doing 10 squats per minute for 10 mins. As you progress, increase the number of squats per minute, or the number of total minutes (sets).
It’s also great to add a calf raise to each squat by simply going up to your tiptoes at the top of each squat. This is a great way to develop synergy between the muscle groups of the leg and will keep your calves pumped too.
Sissy Squats
Grab hold of something sturdy at about chest height or slightly lower, while standing perpendicular to it. This is for balance and support. Bend backwards at the knees, while keeping your thighs and torso straight. Go as far down as you can – up to where your knees are at a 90° angle. Straighten back up. Repeat!
This is a challenging exercise that will really wear your quads out and will strengthen your knees. Definitely do these after doing squats, when your knees are thoroughly warmed up.
Invisible deadlifts
This movement is very similar to squats except for that your hands will be in front of you as if holding an imaginary barbell. Touch your hands to your toes but keep upright and only bend at the knees.
Toe Touches
This exercise will work your hamstrings, glutes and lower back. Simply keep your legs almost straight and bend at the waist – still keeping your head up – until you can touch your toes (or as close as you can get), then straighten back up. Don’t go too fast! A good cadence is 1 second down, 1 second up, or slower.
Obviously this is a stretch too, but when you flex your upper body back up it works your hamstrings etc very well. You will be surprised at how sore you get from this exercise.
Donkey Calf Raise
For this exercise you will bend forward at the waist close to 90°. Hold on to a bench, or a counter, for balance and support. Extend onto your tiptoes, and flex your calves. It is good to have your toes on something slightly elevated such as a block of wood, or a phone book if you can find one. Something about 3” thick is perfect. This will increase the range of motion used. If you don’t have anything study, or safe enough on hand, you can just do it with your feet flat on the floor.
If possible, have someone sit on your back close to your hips. The calf muscles are very strong, and this will provide added resistance. Otherwise, using bodyweight only is fine, you will just need to do more repetitions.
For the Tibialis:
As I mentioned before the tibialis is the muscle which lifts the foot upward. To exercise this muscle you simply stand up, and lift the end of your foot as high as you can, while bearing the weight on your heels. If you can hold something heavy, or wear a loaded backpack, it will help add resistance.
This will also give the calves a deep stretch.
Side Leg Extensions
To strengthen your hip flexors and help stabilize and improve your hip joints, simply raise each leg out to the side, slowly, then bring it back down.
Jumps
Jumping exercises such as box jumps and burpees excellent for building explosive power and developing your legs BUT they are very high impact. If you are a little older, or heavier, or if you have any kind of knee, ankle or other joint problems I would exercise extreme caution. Or stay away from these completely. Either way, these types of exercises should be a complement to your workout, not the bulk of it.
If you decide that you are fine with jumping and the impact won’t bother you, start by simply jumping as high as you can from a standstill.
Start at a half squat position and jump as high as you can. Remember to bend at the knees when you land.
3 or 4 sets of 10 jumps will be plenty.
Step-Ups
You probably remember doing these in PE in elementary or middle school. Step up onto a step or beam about 1-1 1/2 feet high, both feet up, and back down. Remember to switch up which foot you lead off with at even intervals.
You can do these for time, e.g. 4-5 x 2-3 min sets, Or you can count reps and do sets of 50, 100, 200, whatever you feel is right for you.
What are the leg muscle groups, and how they worked?
There are 4 areas on the legs that you want to train to get a complete workout:
- Quads (front of thing).
- Hamstrings (back of thigh).
- Glutes (buttocks).
- Lower legs (calves and tibialis).
The leg muscles work together in most movements and will be trained together. There are some isolation movements available, but obviously these different muscle groups usually work together for everyday activities like standing up, running, walking etc
Your quads will be worked during any movement in which you either stand up with your leg or extend your lower leg forward like when kicking a soccer ball. Straightening out the leg flexes the quads.
The hamstrings will be worked when you straighten up from a bent over position, or pull the lower leg up towards the thigh.
Your gluteus maximus, or glutes, are the muscles on your bottom. These pull the whole leg backward and involved in standing up, running, walking.
The lower leg has the calf muscles on the back, and the much smaller tibialis on the front. Calf muscles extend the foot downward, like when you go on your tiptoes.
The tibialis lifts the foot upward. This is a very small and often overlooked muscle, but training and stretching it can strengthen your ankles.
What Can I Use For Added Resistance?
Here you could really get creative. Here are some ideas:
- Your kids
- A training partner/spouse/gf/bf
- Other people’s kids (be careful)!
- Rolled up carpet
- Suitcases
- Backpacks
- Logs
- Buckets of water/rocks/sand etc.
- Boxes of books
- Stacks of newspaper
- Workout bands
One way I like to get in a good workout and have fun with my kids at the same time just to have them sit on my shoulders while I do squats. Just like in the old legend of Milo, when he carries the calf to maturity, as your kids get bigger you get… bigger! (And stronger)! I’ve heard that guy’s in prison sometimes do squats with each other on their shoulders.
Any Other Muscles in the Lower body?
There are other muscles involved in moving the legs. There are a number of smaller muscles around the hips, and the lower abdominals play a part too.
If you want to get a really thorough, complete workout, you can exercise some of these stabilizer muscles as well. Some exercises to include could be:
Leg raises
Kicks to the side, front, and back
Knee raises
Side bends
Abdominal exercises
Side Note:
When you do sit ups with your feet anchored under something heavy, like a sofa, you actually work your tibialis as well!
Kicks
When I say kicks, I really mean controlled raises in every direction you can think of. Raising your leg behind you, to the side, to the front, and to everywhere in between.
Actually kicking is also useful. You can try karate or soccer style kicks in the air, or you can kick a heavy bag. Be careful with the heavy bag and only use half of your full force. It is important to be mindful of impact, especially to the small bones of the foot, unless you really know what you’re doing or are under the guidance of a trained instructor. Nobody needs to get an unnecessary case of tendinitis in their foot. Take it from me, it hurts. A lot.
Sample workout
Beginner:
- Squats 5×10
- Invisible Deadlifts 3×10
- Toe Touches 5×10
- Donkey Calf Raises 5×10
- Leg raises 5×10
Advanced:
- Invisible deadlifts 5×20
- Squats 5×20
- Sissy squats 3×10
- Toe Touches 5×20
- Donkey calf raises 5×20
- Tibialis calf raise 5×10
- Side leg extensions 3×10 per leg
- Step-ups 5×1 min or 5×50 per leg
- Leg Raises 5×20
Perform these workouts a minimum of 3 times per week, more often if you like. I think 6 days a week is the maximum, you should probably get at least one day of rest a week.
Are there other activities which will help develop my legs?
Tons of other activities will help with your legs. Although these are not a substitute for actual direct training of the leg muscles.
Soccer/football
Swimming (particularly freestyle/crawl or backstroke)
Cycling – this is a big one.
Skateboarding or longboarding
Basketball, tennis, etc.. Any game that involves running.
It just takes a little common sense to figure out which exercises work your legs. If your legs get tired, or sore, you worked them.
If you can incorporate some of these activities into your cardio rather than just the treadmill or elliptical it would be beneficial.
The light leg work involved in these activities will pump blood through your legs and will help peed your muscle recovery.
Cycling is extremely good for building your legs up. If you can ride an hour a day, just this will help add some size to your thighs. Have you ever seen professional cyclist up close in person? Granted, those guys lift some serious weight in the gym, but they are freaks from the waist down!
Swimming actually gives a surprisingly good leg workout. Most of your forward-driving force comes from your arms when you swim. The legs are much more inefficient in the water, and therefore you have to work them harder to get any propulsion from them.
So to summarize…
Yes you can definitely get a good leg workout at home using no weight. Or you can use objects (or people) around you for resistance to kick it into overdrive.
There are a wide variety of exercises, with numerous variations that you can do – with virtually no equipment – to get a good pump and get great results.
Don’t be scared of volume and the high training frequency. Especially when only using bodyweight. You can do these workouts 3,4 even 6 times a week and continue to see results.
