Intense Leg Workout For Size And Strength

Developing proper symmetry with your physique is highly crucial toward evening out areas and making your body look proportional all around.

You may have seen your fair share of leg day memes across the internet but in all seriousness, leg day can be very enjoyable and is highly necessary toward maintaining the right proportions.

After all, you don’t want to be included in one of these memes with the tagline, ‘Every day is arm day’, right?

A solid leg day split can vary depending on if you would like to take on all groups at one time or spread them out over the week. This workout will consist of a full blast program dedicated to building quad size, developing hamstring growth, and increasing calf definition.

Since this specific workout plan is hypertrophy based, make sure to fuel up and stay recovered during your workout with EAA+ Hydration.
An incredible pump and possible fatigue (or soreness) are likely to occur due to the intensity of this workout.

One important reminder is to pick a weight that is comfortable for you but heavy enough to force a struggle with all exercises listed as you will need to maintain this consistency throughout your workout to ignite the muscle fibers and really experience the maximum amount of tension.

Related - S.A.I.S. Mass Building Routine.

First Group - Quad Focused

For the start of the routine, make sure to stretch out as much as possible to avoid any lingering issues and do a couple of warm-up sets with low weight before you start to dive in.

This first exercise will begin with heavy and high rep leg extensions on the machine to focus on quad-dominant growth. Pick your weight conservatively as you will need to go heavy but be able to grind out 15 reps for 4 sets.

After completing these sets, drop the weight to something comfortable but will force a struggle as the next exercise will be an alternating leg extension (one leg at a time) for a burnout set.

Without stopping, perform 12 reps alternating leg extensions and then finish out with both legs once again for 12 reps as well. Complete this for 3 sets and give yourself some additional rest between each set. As the lactic acid starts to build up, you should be noticing an intense feeling and the weight should start to feel much heavier once you get to around the 8-rep mark.

The standard leg press is a standard and will be utilized to the fullest during this workout. Starting with proper low feet placement, make sure to really focus on the contraction during leg press and make every rep count. Going relatively heavy with this exercise, maximize 3 sets of 12-15 reps while keeping your form down properly. Do not extend your legs out completely straight (lockout) on the way up as this can cause unnecessary tension to build up and can cause an injury.

Next up are low box squats with a moderately heavyweight as well. Low box squats are great for focusing on quad growth and can really add some serious size so that all your jeans will become a whole lot tighter (in a good way). Keep your stance wide and feet pointed out to put the majority of the pressure on your quadriceps. Concentrate on a slow squat with a pause on the comedown and then use full explosiveness on the way up. 3 sets of 12-15 reps will be utilized once more and a greater rest period between sets is very important.

Second Group – Hamstring and Glutes Focused

After annihilating your quads, a nice change of pace will move toward the hamstrings and glutes. The first exercise will be most important for focusing on proper form as there can be some negative effects if you do not know this exercise well.

Barbell good mornings will be the first exercise and a moderate weight will be needed to complete 3 sets of 15 reps for maximum hypertrophy. Focusing strictly on hamstring tension, try to keep your knees slightly bent and focus on the contractions.

If you have a lower back extension machine, this can be utilized nicely to incorporate a great glute exercise for a better butt. Instead of keeping your feet straight and at a shoulder-width stance, go for a narrower approach and feet facing outwards just a bit. From there, a slow movement on the way down and up with a focus on contracting your glutes at the top will be best for this exercise. This is a pure bodyweight exercise, so no additional weight is needed unless you choose to do so.

Moving back to the leg press, you will need to re-adjust your stance to a much higher placement for hamstring and glute dominance. For this exercise, slow and concentrated movement is necessary to focus on the contractions and stretch as you perform each rep. You will want to add a moderately heavy weight that you feel comfortable doing 12 reps with.

Bulgarian split squats are the final exercise for this routine that focuses hard on multiple different muscle groups and comes down to proper form concentration. This specific movement also requires the alternation of both legs and can be combined into a full session with no rest period in between or you can split this up into 3 sets.

Third Group - Calf Focused

The final area of focus for this leg workout is as simple as it gets but is often overlooked by most. Calf raises, that’s it. This movement is praised for being one of the most substantial for building your calves (waiting for a joke about genetics and small calves) and improving definition in this area. There are many ways to perform this exercise but if your gym has a hack squat, this is preferred without having to do any adapting and improvisation.

Finish out strong with a compilation of sets that totals out to 100 reps as the final tally. Shoot for a moderate weight and go for failure on each set until you hit the total you need.

Cardio is a bonus for this day as the Stairmaster is a great option to hit at the end of your workout to not only incorporate your cardio but also to work out the legs as well.

So, if your legs aren’t the most dominant muscle group and your symmetry is lacking because you haven’t been working on legs as much, try this workout on your next leg day and experience a skin splitting pump to help grow your legs and add definition that is lacking.

Because after all, a solid upper body with chicken legs is not something you should strive to have. Reverse that and get the leg size and definition you’ve always wanted.