Looking for New Ways to Strengthen Your Legs? We’ve Got You Covered
The time has rolled around for another cross-training session: leg day. What are you doing? The answer is probably lots and lots of squats.
There’s nothing wrong with that, at least to start. Squats are the meat and potatoes of a lower body workout for a reason, after all—you’ll hit your quads, hamstrings, and more, and even just holding the position can work wonders for your posture.
But if all you’re doing is squatting, you’re missing out on potential gains and possibly building up imbalances by working in just one plane of movement.
“When it comes to bodyweight training, sometimes you need the help of a trainer to give you variations that aren’t just squats or lunges,” says trainer Charlee Atkins, C.S.C.S. She advocates for home leg day sessions that are more than just squat-athons.
“For lower body training, keep in mind we need to be doing knee-dominant and hip- dominant exercises to keep us balanced,” she continues. “Knee-dominant usually means quads, while hip-dominant often means glutes and hamstrings.”
Atkins also mentions that you shouldn’t neglect your glutes and hamstrings if you’re doing a ton of bodyweight squats.
“When it comes to bodyweight workouts, we tend to put ourselves in hip flexion a lot,” she says. “Make sure you’re balancing out your exercise routines with hip-dominant exercises: hamstring walkouts, good mornings, and hip raises.”
You can make your no-equipment home workouts harder by switching to one side at a time.
“Do the unilateral version,” she says. “For example, squats become split squats, while deadlifts or good mornings become single leg deadlifts.”
Try this quick bodyweight leg day series that puts all of Atkin’s principles into practice.
Perform each exercise for 45 seconds, then rest for 15 seconds.
Good Morning
Lateral Squat
Alternating Reverse Lunge
Sumo Squat
Hamstring Walkout
[The Beginner’s Guide to Strength Training will teach you all the fundamentals to get the most out of your weight session.]
Repeat the series for 3 rounds for a 15 minute workout. To really break the plane, Atkins suggests taking some of the exercises at a different angle.
“That means get out of the frontal [side-to-side movement] and sagittal planes [straight up-and-down or front-to-back movement] and add some rotation,” she says. Try this for lateral squats, lateral lunges, and sumo squats.
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