Great Leg Workouts

To build the muscles of the quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves you will need to do the best leg exercises during your workouts. Great leg workouts should be made up of exercises done with high intensity so you build muscle fast. You also need to get enough time between leg workouts to allow the muscles to recover - which is very important for muscle growth. Set your weight training routine up so you get 5 to 7 days rest between these workouts (this depends on your level of training intensity and the volume of work you do). Start off your workouts by training the quadriceps (which are the muscles on the fronts of the thighs), followed by the hamstrings (the muscles on the backs of the thighs), and finish off with calf, or lower leg, training.

Great leg workouts should be started with quadriceps training. The quadriceps are the large group of muscles on the fronts of the thighs. You need to do a variety of exercises to build all of the muscles of the quadriceps.

The best exercise for building the quads is the squat. It should be the first exercise done during your leg workout. It's very important that you learn proper form on the squat when you are first starting out. As you are learning proper squatting form you need to avoid going too heavy. If you have issues with free weight squats such as knee and lower back pain, you can opt to do one of the great squat alternatives. The best of these are Smith machine squats, hack squats, and leg presses.

After squatting, you can go to one the major exercises that emulate that exercise. The best of these exercises are the hack squat and the leg press. The hack squat is almost too much like the squat, so you may want to opt for the leg press. On the leg press, you can focus on just training the muscles of the quadriceps and hamstrings as you will be lying down and pushing the weight up.

You can follow up squats by doing some sets of hack squats or leg presses. Both of these exercises work the same muscles but are done in different ways. On either exercise, you can change your foot positions to work the muscles differently. This variety will keep your muscles from getting too used to your workouts, and they will keep growing.

Lunges are another excellent exercise for building the quadriceps. You can do them stepping forward with one leg before returning to the starting position or walking style - where you lunge forward one leg at a time. You can also do them with either a barbell on your back or with a dumbbell in each hand. The best form of this exercise is the walking lunge with a barbell on your back.

To isolate the quadriceps you should do leg extensions. They will train the teardrop muscle of the quads. Leg extensions are a great exercise for doing high rep sets and drop sets on to finish off a great leg workout.

The hamstrings are the muscles on the backs of the thighs. They should be trained after the quadriceps during great leg workouts. Since the hamstrings get work from most major quadriceps exercises, they will be warmed up so you won't have to do more than a couple of warm-up sets when you get to them. You also won't have to do a lot of training for these muscles with them getting some work from quadriceps workouts.

Deadlifts, particularly of the stiff-legged variety, are the best exercise to start a hamstrings workout with. This exercise will give your hamstrings a nice stretch at the bottom of each repetition. They done much like a regular deadlift, but you keep your legs almost straight throughout the entire rep. You don't necessarily have to lower the barbell all of the way to the floor when performing stiff-legged deadlifts, as you won't want to round your lower back - instead keeping an arch in it.

Leg curls are another excellent exercise for the hamstrings. You can do leg curls on machines specifically made for them. There are various types of leg curl machines that will allow you to work the hamstrings from different positions. The most common are lying leg curl machines, but you can find seated and standing versions in some gyms. It doesn't really matter which machine you use for leg curls, as they will all work the hamstrings muscles in the same way.

The calves are the muscles of the lower legs and should be the last muscle group to train during your leg workouts. The calf muscles get a ton of work just from walking around every day, so to get them to grow you need to train them real hard. The key to building the calves is to target both of the major muscles in them.

The best leg workouts should include both standing and seated calf raises to develop the muscles of the calves. Performing these exercises will hit both of the calf muscles. On these exercises, you will want to get a deep stretch at the bottom of each rep and strong contraction at the top. Once you get to the point where you can't do any more full reps, you should some cheat "bouncing" style reps to really burn the calves out. Since the calves need a lot of work to grow, you should do high reps on all of your sets of these exercises.

How you set up your leg workout routine is very important. While you want to focus on certain exercises to build the leg muscles, you also should make changes to your workouts to keep your body guessing so you don't hit a plateau. Switching exercises is a good idea, and you can do one exercise during one workout and do another exercise during the next workout. Another great idea is to change the amount of reps you do per set. To do this you can follow a routine where you do a leg workout with high reps (15-20) and lighter weights, then do the next with medium reps (10-15) and medium weights, and do the last with low reps (5-10) and heavy weights. After these three leg workouts you would repeat the cycle. This will allow your muscles to not get too used to always doing the same things. Keep these things in mind when if you follow this sample of a great leg workout.

Workout 1 - 15 to 20 reps per set
2 sets of squats
2 sets of hack squats or leg presses
1 set of walking lunges
1 higher rep set of leg extensions
2 sets of stiff-legged deadlifts
2 sets of leg curls (1 for high reps)
2 sets of standing calf raises
2 sets of seated calf raises
1 high rep set for the calves

Workout 2 - 10 to 15 reps per set
3 set of squats
2 sets of hack squats or leg presses
2 sets of walking lunges
1 high rep set of leg extensions
3 sets of stiff-legged deadlifts
2 sets of leg curls (1 high rep)
3 sets of standing calf raises
3 sets of seated calf raises (1 for higher reps)

Workout 3 - 5 to 10 reps per set
4 sets of squats
4 sets of hacks or leg presses
2 sets of leg extensions (1 high rep set)
4 sets of stiff-legged deadlifts
2 sets of leg curls (1 high rep)
4 sets of standing calf raises
3 sets of seated calf raises
1 high rep calf set

On the heavy day of this routine, you will want to focus more on the major compound exercises - which is why there are more sets of them. Make sure to do plenty of stretching for the muscles when you do these great leg workouts. You also need the muscles to be fully recovered before you do leg training again.

Most forms of cardiovascular exercise will also exercise the leg muscles. Walking, running, biking, and training on an elliptical machine will all work the leg muscles in a different way than weight training will, as they are endurance style exercises. If you are trying to build the legs through weight training you really don't want to overdo it with cardio. When you do endurance leg exercising you will want to the leg muscles to be fully recovered from intense weight lifting. You should also avoid doing an endurance workout and leg weight training on the same day.

One thing you can do while you do leg endurance training is to do some bursts of high intensity training. If you jog, you can do some sprints during your great leg workouts. If you bike, you can go for a short burst of max speed. This can help build the muscles and boost your metabolism.

These days, more and more would prefer to perform great leg workouts at home. As long as you have the extra space and budget for exercise equipment, you can set up your own home gym. If you do this you will want to be able to train the leg muscles and will need some of the best leg exercise equipment.

One great piece of weight training equipment for exercising the leg muscles is a squat rack. Squats are one of the best weight lifting exercises there is, and a squat rack makes doing them much easier and safer. A good squat rack will allow you to place the barbell in a perfect position to easily place it on your upper back and have stoppers that will stop the weight if you can't get it up. Squat racks will also aid you in performing many other great muscle building exercises.

Leg extension and leg curl machines are also among the best leg exercise equipment. Leg extensions are great for the quadriceps and leg curls will work the hamstrings. Usually, you can find machines that will allow you to perform both of these exercises on them. Sometimes you can find weight benches that will have a leg extension / curl attachment.

To perform great leg workouts at home, you will need some equipment to train the calves. It is possible to do standing and seated calf raises with just weights, but if you can afford them and have the space, a standing calf raise machine and a seated calf raise machine will be great additions to a home gym.