What is Leg Day?

What is leg day?

While many people are mixing it up doing Total Body Blast HIIT or Glute Building Circuits or other fitness trends. There is something to be said by grouping your workout routine by muscle group. It’s a technique that is popular with bodybuilders for many reasons.

The goal of a Body Builder is to build muscle and look symmetrical it’s more than just a muscle defined tanned physique. There is a purpose to the training. To target muscle groups and their weakness aesthetically is what the term Leg Day came from. In your workout routine on Leg Day you are focusing on just that the lower limbs of your body.

Leg Muscle Group

Usually broken up into several parts:

Quads
Hamstrings
Adductors
Abductors
Glutes
Calves

These are the focus on leg days. Depending on how your periodize your workout that can also be broken up into their separate days or groups. It is common to see Antagonist muscles (muscles that work opposite of each other) group together; such as Quads and Hamstrings. You also see Synergistic muscles too (muscles that work together) Such as Hamstrings and Glutes. It really depends on your goals and what you are trying to build aesthetically. Targeting these muscles on specific days allows people to track their progress and specifically train areas they feel weak.

Two Leg Day Workouts

Today I am sharing two of my favorite Leg Day Splits and a workout to target these muscles. Progressing your weight as your body adapts to the load and resistance will help you to gain muscles in these areas.

If you don’t challenge your body, you won’t change despite how often you hit each muscle. Your body needs to adapt to stress to change so make sure that you are challenging yourself a little further each workout either with reps, the speed of reps or the weight that you use to do the exercise.

How to build leg muscles?

There are various ways to cause Hypertrophy in muscles when I train my clients I prefer super and triple sets because you can get a lot done in little time.

Circuits are also a great way to challenge yourself these workouts can be done both ways a continual circuit where you are moving from one exercise to the next without rest until the end. Most people prefer circuits because it makes them feel like they are getting the workout they typically expect. Most people are looking for a heart pumping, sweat inducing, breathless panting and a circuit with high effort can achieve all of those things.

I also use supersets or triple sets where you group two or three workouts together with little rest in between exercise and a break between sets. You can get a lot done with Supersets and challenge yourself depending on how they are grouped.

Leg Day 1- Super Sets

Quads, Hamstrings, and Calves

Each Exercise 3 sets with 10-12 reps each exercise

Step Ups on Bench (Targets Quads, Hamstrings, and Calves)
Suitcase Squats (Targets Quads)
Deficit Curtsy Squat (Targets Quads and Hamstrings)
Barbell Split Squats (Targets Quads, Hamstrings, and Calves)
Box Jumps (Targets Quads and Calves)
Barbell Tippy Toe Walks (Targets Quads, Hamstrings, and Calves)

Leg Day 1 Circuit

Circuit for 30 seconds each exercise 10 sec rest in between 60-90 seconds between 2-3 sets

Leg Day 2- Super Set

Adductors, Abductors, and Glutes

Each Exercise 3 sets with 10-12 reps each exercise

Banded Crossover Donkey Kicks (Targets Adductors, Abductors, and Glutes)
Cable Kickbacks (Glutes)
Sumo Squat (Targets Adductors)
Pulse Tippy Toe Lifts (Targets Adductors, Abductors, Calves and Glutes)
Romanian Deadlifts (Targets Glutes and Hamstrings)
Barbell Banded Hip Thrusters (Targets Adductors, Abductors, and Glutes)

Leg Day 2- Circuit

Adductors, Abductors, and Glutes

Circuit for 30 seconds each exercise 10 sec rest in between 60-90 seconds between 2-3 sets

Banded Crossover Donkey Kicks
Cable Machine Kickbacks
Hip Abductors with Cables
Cable Hip Adductors
Deadlifts
Barbell Hip Thrusters

Working Leg Day into your Schedule

When targeting muscles, I prefer to begin my week with a Leg Day and finish it with a Leg Day!

You can add a third Leg Day in the routine but make sure if you are lifting heavy that you don’t hit the same muscle group day after day. You can cause muscle fatigue or overtrain which will cause other setbacks that will not help you reach your goal. I like to split my leg days up with Upper Body days in between for example;

A Sample Workout Schedule:

Monday- Leg Day 1

Tuesday Upper Body 1

Wednesday Leg Day 2, Conditioning or Rest Day

Thursday Upper Body 2

Friday Leg Day 2 or 3 (Depending on if you did conditioning)

Saturday Conditioning

Sunday Rest

It really is up to you and what your body can tolerate but make sure that you are working smarter and not harder so that you can get your desired lean legs quickly.

Do you work on just one muscle group at a time or do you like to mix it up?