Ep 70 | 10 Best Exercises for Building Strong Legs: A Complete Guide from Beginner to Advanced
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, I'm sharing my 10 favorite exercises for building strong, powerful legs that will transform how you move in everyday life.
Your legs are literally the foundation of your body - they carry you everywhere you go. Whether you're climbing stairs, chasing after kids or pets, or carrying groceries, having strong legs makes all of these activities so much easier and helps prevent injury as you age.
I'll walk you through exercises ranging from beginner-friendly options like walking and machine-based movements, all the way up to advanced free weight exercises like squats, deadlifts, and lunges. You'll learn not just what exercises to do, but how to progress safely from one level to the next, and why each movement is so effective for building functional strength.
If you're ready to move better, feel stronger, and build a solid foundation for all your daily activities, this episode is packed with practical advice you can start using today. Let's dive in!
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Jayd (00:00):
If you want to be able to move better in your everyday life, you got to train your legs and if you enjoy doing sports or athletic activities, training your leg strength will also help you to move better, more powerfully, more quickly, and with more strength.
(00:24)
Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I've been a personal trainer for over 10 years and I've created this podcast to help you to get strong and get lean without shame and without burnout. In today's episode, I'm going to share with you 10 of my favorite exercises for building strong legs. Now, when you think about fitness goals, you may picture in your mind washboard abs or super lean physique or super low body fat percentage, but building strong legs is a really important aspect of improving and maintaining your fitness and health. Legs are the foundation of your body.
(01:03)
They carry you everywhere you go. And learning how to perform different leg based exercises can help you to move better and your everyday life and avoid injury activities like climbing stairs, carrying groceries, or running after your kids or pets are all so much easier when your legs are strong. So I'm going to share with you 10 of my favorite exercises to give my clients to strengthen their legs, starting from the easiest, beginner friendly exercises to the more advanced and technically difficult. Before we get into this episode, make sure that you like the video and subscribe to my channel if you're watching on YouTube. That way you always get the latest videos and episodes of the podcast. If you're listening to the podcast, make sure to follow the channel so you always get the latest episodes delivered right to your device. And also keep in mind that I have just opened up my 90 day fat loss transformation coaching program and I'm taking on a select number of clients now. So if you are ready to burn fat, get strong and achieve your fitness goals, apply to work with me in the link that is below this video or in the show notes. I would love to help you reach your goals by giving you a custom training program, meal plan and coaching for every step of the way. So if that sounds like something you'd like to do, check out the link. Without further ado, let's get into the episode.
(02:36)
If you want to improve your everyday movement or your athletic performance, it's so important to train your legs and get them strong. Your legs are what carry you around on a day-to-day basis, and the muscles in your legs are important for everyday activities like walking around, sitting down, standing up or running after your pets or your kids. Now as we get older and if we spend a lot of time sitting still, the muscles in our legs naturally get weak over time. We also tend to get really tight, but regularly exercising your legs and making them stronger can not only help to loosen up your back and your hips, but can also help you to reduce the risk of injury while doing everyday things like carrying in the groceries, picking things up from the floor, sitting down and standing up from the toilet. If you want to be able to move better in your everyday life, you got to train your legs.
(03:34)
And if you enjoy doing sports or athletic activities, training your leg strength will also help you to move better, more powerfully, more quickly and with more strength. So make sure that you're incorporating exercises that specifically target the legs. So let's take a look at some of the best exercises for strengthening all of these muscles. First off, we have walking and hiking. If you don't move a whole lot in your everyday life, you can actually build a lot of strength in your legs just by going on daily walks of between 10 and 45 minutes. One thing I need you to keep in mind is that when it comes to strengthening your muscles, the number one rule is to challenge your muscles to do more than what they're used to doing. So if you're not used to using these muscles very much at all, a simple activity like going on a walk and using your muscles to move your body forward without any other weight can be challenge enough to make the muscles stronger.
(04:35)
Now, walking on a flat surface like a track or on a treadmill is a great way to get started, but as your legs get stronger, if you want to challenge yourself a little bit more, you can begin to add in an incline. If you're on a treadmill, you can increase the incline of the treadmill, which will make your muscles have to work harder because you're pushing your body weight up against a slant. Similarly, if you go on a hike or you walk in a public park that has uneven terrain, your muscles are going to have to work harder to keep you walking forward. So if you're a beginner, that's where I would start. And then as you get stronger, consider adding in some incline by increasing the incline on your treadmill or going for hikes, but also you can begin to add in other types of cardio to challenge your legs once they're strong enough to be able to do walking on a flat terrain, which is using other cardio equipment like an elliptical or stair climber.
(05:32)
Rowing machines are also good for this as well when it comes to using a cardio machine like ellipticals or stair climbers. This has a similar effect to when you're going on an incline for your walks, it's going to make your muscles have to work harder because you're going to be pushing your body up against gravity. And when you first start incorporating these other pieces of cardio equipment into strengthening your legs, remember that a little bit goes a long way. You don't need to push yourself to the point where you feel like you're going to die or that you're going to throw up. Okay? Remember, when it comes to strengthening your muscles, you just have to give them a little bit more than what they're used to doing. So you can begin with something as simple as just five to 10 minutes on the elliptical, or you could start with the treadmill.
(06:16)
Do that for 10 to 15 minutes and then use the elliptical or the stair climber or the rowing machine as a finisher to really challenge your muscles in the last five minutes of your training session. Usually these machines allow you to adjust the level of resistance that you get while doing the exercise. So as you get stronger, you can also increase the resistance to make your muscles have to work a little bit harder. Over time, you can extend that period that you're on the more difficult cardio machine for a little bit longer to give yourself more challenge, but just make sure that you're keeping it gradual and not overdoing it. Now of course, some of the best exercises for helping to strengthen your legs are actual resistance training exercises, which are the type of exercises that make up the rest of the list. Now, if you're a complete beginner, I would recommend starting with machines.
(07:06)
Machines are a great way to challenge your muscles with a little bit less risk of injury versus using free weights to perform exercises like squats and deadlifts and lunges. Machines keep your body in a fixed position while you train the target muscle group, which means that if you don't have a lot of coordination yet because you're just starting out on your fitness journey, then you're less likely to hurt yourself while training. But I do recommend that you work yourself up to the point of being able to do free weight exercises because you should be able to hold your body in good position while doing different movements. But you can work up to that by starting with machines. So the first machine that I recommend using to strengthen your legs is the leg press. The leg press is a machine that has you in a seated position with your feet on a platform.
(07:55)
You begin in a knee bent position, you push the platform away by extending your legs and then bending your knees to bring the platform back to the starting position. There are a lot of different types of leg press machines. One of my favorite local gyms has five different types of leg press machines, and I do like to use all of them. They work the muscles in slightly different ways and your body from a slightly different angle, but all of them entail some kind of extension of the legs using a platform from a seated position. Depending on the machine, it can also be a pretty beginner friendly place to start. But keep in mind that some leg press machines, even without any added weight, are pretty heavy, specifically the ones that you tend to load up with barbell plates, they tend to have pretty heavy platforms.
(08:45)
So if you're a beginner or you don't have a whole lot of strength, I would look for a cable-based leg press machine. This is usually going to allow you to work at a much lighter weight and then the angled leg press machines or the ones where you load them up with barbell plates for when you're much stronger. Number four, another machine that I really like for strengthening the legs is the leg extension machine. Now, this is a machine that works you from a seated position where you practice extending your leg from the knee against resistance. This exercise challenges the quadriceps in isolation, and you can usually start with pretty lightweight here. Most gyms have pretty lightweights to start with their leg extension machines. You can do both legs going at the same time. Or if you find that you have one leg that is weaker than the other, you can try single leg extensions, starting with your weaker leg and performing the exercise towards muscle failure and then doing the same number of repetitions with the same weight on the other leg.
(09:44)
This can help catch up the weaker leg to the stronger leg. And number five, another machine that I really like for strengthening the legs is the leg curl machine. The leg curl machine targets the hamstrings in the back of your thighs, and the main challenge of this machine is for you to bend your knee against resistance. Sometimes these machines will have you do the exercise from a seated position and other machines have you perform this exercise from a laying face down position. Doing leg extensions and leg curls is a great way to strengthen your knees. Now, as a beginner, you really don't need much more than these first five exercises, and you can build a lot of strength using them. Now while you're doing these first five exercises, but walking, using cardio machines and then the resistance training machines, what you want to do is really pay attention to your muscles while you're performing the exercise and practice naming the muscles as well.
(10:38)
So while you're performing a set of an exercise, I usually recommend starting for 10 to 15 reps. As you're approaching the end of your set, I want you to really focus on feeling the muscle that you're targeting working. And sometimes people will say it feels like it's burning as it gets tired because this is going to one help to strengthen them. We're causing a little bit of damage to the muscle in a controlled way so that later on once you finish the workout, you eat a good meal and then you go to sleep, your body is going to repair that damaged tissue and make the muscle stronger. So we want to cause the muscle to get really tired here. So you want to use a level of resistance or a weight that gets your muscles burning between 10 and 15 reps. Now, when it comes to doing free weight exercises, like the exercises and the rest of the list, it's important for you to be able to connect your brain to those muscles to make sure that you're doing the free weight exercises correctly.
(11:34)
When we're doing exercises like squats, deadlifts, step ups, split squats and lunges, you want to be able to be aware of your muscles as they're engaging, which will help you to perform the exercises with good technique and in a safe way that minimizes your risk of injury. So let's take a look at some of the freeway exercises that you can perform to strengthen your legs. Number six is squats. Squats are the basic movement pattern of sitting down and standing up. It involves movement in your hips, knees and ankles, bending at the same time to lower your body down towards the floor and then standing up. And what makes the squats such a great exercise for challenging the legs is that it challenges all of the muscles in your legs. As you lower down into the squat, your quadriceps and your glutes extend while your hamstrings engage to bend your knees, the muscles along the front of your shins, the tibia anterior tib ant have to contract to stabilize your ankles.
(12:35)
And then when you stand up from the squat, your glutes engage, your quadriceps engage, and the calves also have to engage to help keep you balanced. Now while you're performing the squat, it's really important that you keep your back in alignment. We don't want any movement in the torso as you're performing your basic squat. This helps to protect your back by keeping it solid. So before performing squats, you do want to make sure that you have a solid foundation level of core strength. So make sure that you take some time to strengthen your core before trying any kind of free weight exercises like squats. Now, when you're a beginner, performing squats with no additional resistance is usually going to be enough to trigger muscle building in your legs. But as you get stronger over time, you'll need to add more resistance to challenge the muscles as you perform the squats.
(13:28)
So for this, I usually recommend beginning with holding a single dumbbell or a kettlebell at your chest for a goblet squat, and then continuing to increase that weight over time to the point where your arms have trouble holding that weight up. And from that point, I usually recommend people switch to a sumo squat where you're holding the weight down low. Once you get to the point where you can squat with 45 to 50 pounds or more, then you can try the barbell back squat or barbell front squat, a standard Olympic bar is 45 pounds. So with these, you're going to be holding that 45 pound bar on your back or on your shoulders. There are other ways to add resistance to your squats, but these are the most basic foundational ways that most people practice squats to strengthen the muscles in their legs. Now, number seven, another freeway exercise that's really great for strengthening the legs are deadlifts.
(14:19)
Now, there are lots of different styles of deadlifts depending on how wide your feet are from each other, whether your toes are turned out in the placement of your hands and where you're holding the weight. But the very basic deadlift that I usually teach my clients is the Romanian deadlift or RDL. This is a hip hinge based movement that focuses on pushing your hips back from a standing position to the point where your hamstrings are stretched out and your glutes are stretched out, and then using your gluteus maximus and engaging your hamstrings to return your hips back to the starting position. Just like with the squats, it's really important to keep your spine in alignment and prevent any movement in the torso while you're performing this movement. So again, you want to make sure that you have a good foundational level of core strength before practicing any kind of deadlift.
(15:12)
Now, I usually start my clients practicing this movement as a good morning with a band around their shoulders. This helps them to engage the muscles in their back, which helps to keep their spine in alignment while they perform the hip hinge. But as you get stronger with this movement, you can begin to add more resistance by holding weights in your hands. If you're doing this exercise right, you should feel a big stretch in your hamstrings at the back of the movement as you push your hips back. This move is particularly going to target your hamstrings and your glutes. A great exercise to follow up your Romanian deadlifts is number eight step-ups. Step-ups involve stepping up onto a sturdy, elevated surface, like a box or an actual step. This movement involves all of the major muscles in the legs, the glutes, the hamstrings, the quads, and the calves.
(16:03)
One of the benefits of performing step-ups with resistance is that it helps to strengthen your legs for everyday activities like going upstairs. It also can help improve your balance because it is a single leg or unilateral movement. Single leg or unilateral exercises are also a great way to activate your adductors and your inner thighs, as well as your abductors or gluteus medias muscles in the outside of your hips. These are stabilizers that help you to stay balanced. And number nine, another great exercise for strengthening your legs are split squats. These are also sometimes called stationary lunches. Now, split squats can be performed either flat on the ground like a stationary lunche, or you can practice elevating either your front foot or your back foot. Just like with step-ups, you'll practice with one leg forward on one side, and then do another set with the other leg forward on the other side.
(16:53)
So it's a unilateral exercise that you do have to do two sets for each full set as a unilateral exercise. It's also really good for challenging your balance and your core strength, and it will also hit those stabilizing muscles like your adductors and your gluteus medias. Split squats are a pretty advanced exercise, so make sure that you have really good technique on your regular squats before trying these. And last you have lunges. Lunges are very similar to split squats. They just involve actually moving from a standing position into your split squat position. So whereas with split squats, you generally are going to keep your feet planted in whatever the starting position is. With lunges, you'll usually start standing with your feet together, and then you'll step into the split squat by either stepping back for a reverse lunge or stepping forward for a forward lunge.
(17:48)
Some people even walking lunges where you alternate between stepping forward and then stepping your opposite leg back to move your body forward in space. These are very challenging and they're a great way to work on your balance and dynamically challenge your leg strength. So there you have it, 10 different exercises that you can incorporate into your workout routine to strengthen your legs. And when you first start practicing these exercises, remember a little bit goes a long way so you don't have to do all of them at once. Just start by incorporating one or two of the exercises from this list into your routine. Over time, you can add in another set or add in another exercise, but just make sure that you're listening to your body and gradually increasing the challenge. If you are interested in learning more about how to exercise and how to get in shape, I am currently taking on clients for my Fat Loss Transformation coaching program.
(18:47)
In this program, I will teach you how to exercise and give you a customized workout program for you to follow Along with this includes exercise tutorial videos where I break down how to do different exercises, and then I will personally guide you to progressing through the exercises as you get stronger. At the same time, we'll talk about how to effectively get your body burning fat by managing what you eat with a customized meal plan and nutrition tips. You'll find information on my coaching program in the link below this video if you're watching on YouTube or in the show notes.
(19:30)
Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of the Coaching Corner podcast. Again, I'm Jayd Harrison. I hope that you found this episode helpful. Please leave a comment or any questions you might have in the comments below this video on YouTube. If you're listening to the episode, you can go to the show notes for the link to the video for the episode. I will see you next time. In the meantime, make sure that you drink some water, eat your veggies, eat some protein, and take care of yourself, and I will see you soon.
When most people think about fitness goals, they picture washboard abs or a lean physique. But here's the truth: building strong legs is one of the most important aspects of improving and maintaining your overall fitness and health.
Your legs are literally the foundation of your body. They carry you everywhere you go, and learning how to strengthen them properly can transform how you move in everyday life while significantly reducing your risk of injury.
Why Leg Strength Matters More Than You Think
Think about your daily activities: climbing stairs, carrying groceries, sitting down and standing up, running after your kids or pets. All of these become so much easier when your legs are strong.
As we age and spend more time sitting, the muscles in our legs naturally weaken over time. We also tend to get tight in our hips and back. But here's the good news: regularly exercising your legs and making them stronger can help loosen up your back and hips while reducing your risk of injury during everyday activities.
If you enjoy sports or athletic activities, leg strength training will help you move more powerfully, quickly, and with greater overall strength. The benefits extend far beyond the gym.
The Progressive Approach to Leg Training
The key to building stronger legs is progressive overload - challenging your muscles to do more than what they're currently used to doing. If you're not very active, even simple activities like walking can be enough stimulus to build strength initially.
I've organized these 10 exercises from easiest and most beginner-friendly to more advanced and technically demanding. This allows you to start where you are and progress safely over time.
The 10 Best Leg Strengthening Exercises
1. Walking and Hiking
If you don't move much in your everyday life, you can build significant leg strength just by going on daily walks of 10-45 minutes. Walking on flat surfaces like tracks or treadmills is perfect for beginners.
Progression tip: As you get stronger, add incline by increasing treadmill incline or choosing hilly hiking trails. The uneven terrain and elevation changes force your muscles to work harder against gravity.
2. Cardio Machines (Elliptical, Stair Climber, Rowing Machine)
Once you've mastered flat walking, cardio machines provide the next level of challenge. These machines make your muscles work harder because you're pushing your body up against gravity.
How to start: Begin with just 5-10 minutes on these machines. You can use them as "finishers" after 10-15 minutes on the treadmill. Most machines allow you to adjust resistance levels, so you can increase difficulty as you get stronger.
Remember: You don't need to push to the point of exhaustion. A little more challenge than you're used to is all you need to trigger strength gains.
3. Leg Press Machine
The leg press is an excellent machine-based exercise that challenges your legs from a seated position. You place your feet on a platform, start with knees bent, push the platform away by extending your legs, then return to the starting position.
Beginner tip: Look for cable-based leg press machines rather than the heavy plate-loaded versions. Cable machines allow you to work with much lighter weights initially.
4. Leg Extension Machine
This seated machine isolates your quadriceps (front thigh muscles) by having you extend your leg from the knee against resistance. Most gyms have light starting weights on these machines, making them very beginner-friendly.
Unilateral training: If one leg is weaker than the other, try single-leg extensions. Start with your weaker leg, perform to muscle failure, then match that number of reps with your stronger leg.
5. Leg Curl Machine
The leg curl targets your hamstrings (back of thighs) by having you bend your knee against resistance. Some machines position you seated, others have you lying face down.
Why it matters: Combining leg extensions and leg curls is fantastic for strengthening your knees and creating balanced leg strength.
Machine Exercise Key Points
As a beginner, these first five exercises provide an excellent foundation. While performing these exercises, focus on:
Really feeling the target muscles working
Using 10-15 repetitions per set
Choosing a weight that creates a "burning" sensation in the target muscle by the end of your set
Learning to name and connect with the muscles you're working
This mind-muscle connection is crucial for when you progress to free weight exercises.
6. Squats
Squats are the fundamental movement pattern of sitting down and standing up. They involve simultaneous movement at your hips, knees, and ankles, challenging all the major muscles in your legs.
What makes squats special: As you lower down, your quadriceps and glutes lengthen while your hamstrings engage to bend your knees. Your shins (tibialis anterior) contract to stabilize your ankles. When you stand up, your glutes, quadriceps, and calves all work together.
Progression path:
Start with bodyweight squats
Progress to goblet squats (holding a dumbbell or kettlebell at chest)
Advance to sumo squats (holding weight down low)
Eventually progress to barbell back squats or front squats (45+ pounds)
Critical note: Maintain perfect spinal alignment throughout the movement. Build solid core strength before attempting any squat variations.
7. Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs)
The Romanian deadlift is a hip-hinge movement that focuses on pushing your hips back from standing until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings and glutes, then using those muscles to return to the starting position.
What you'll feel: When performed correctly, you should feel a significant stretch in your hamstrings at the bottom of the movement. This exercise particularly targets your hamstrings and glutes.
Learning progression: Start with "good mornings" using a resistance band around your shoulders. This teaches the hip-hinge pattern while helping you engage your back muscles to maintain spinal alignment.
Important: Just like squats, maintain spine alignment and ensure you have good core strength before adding significant weight.
8. Step-Ups
Step-ups involve stepping up onto a sturdy elevated surface like a box or step. This movement engages all major leg muscles: glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves.
Real-world benefits: Step-ups directly translate to activities like climbing stairs, making your daily life easier.
Balance and stability: As a unilateral (single-leg) exercise, step-ups improve balance and activate stabilizing muscles like your adductors (inner thighs) and gluteus medius (outer hips).
9. Split Squats (Stationary Lunges)
Split squats can be performed flat on the ground or with either your front or back foot elevated. Like step-ups, you'll work one leg at a time, requiring two sets to complete the exercise.
Advanced challenge: Split squats are quite technical and demanding. Master regular squats with perfect form before attempting these.
Stability benefits: As another unilateral exercise, split squats challenge your balance, core strength, and those important stabilizing muscles.
10. Lunges
Lunges are similar to split squats but involve dynamic movement. You start standing with feet together, then step into the split squat position - either stepping back (reverse lunge) or forward (forward lunge).
Dynamic challenge: Some people even do walking lunges, alternating legs while moving forward through space. These are extremely challenging and excellent for dynamic balance and leg strength.
Progression note: Lunges are the most advanced exercise on this list due to their dynamic nature and high balance demands.
How to Implement These Exercises
Start small: Don't try to do all 10 exercises at once. Begin by incorporating 1-2 exercises from this list into your routine.
Listen to your body: Gradually increase the challenge over time. Add another set, another exercise, or more resistance, but do so progressively.
Focus on form: Quality always trumps quantity. Perfect your technique before adding weight or complexity.
Build your foundation: Develop good core strength before attempting free weight exercises like squats and deadlifts.
Mind-muscle connection: As you perform each exercise, really focus on feeling the target muscles working. This awareness will help you perform exercises safely and effectively.
The Bottom Line
Strong legs aren't just about looking good - they're about moving better, feeling stronger, and maintaining independence as you age. These 10 exercises provide a complete progression from absolute beginner to advanced athlete.
Remember, the goal isn't to rush through these progressions. Take your time, master each level, and enjoy the process of getting stronger. Your future self will thank you for the investment you make in your leg strength today.
Whether you're just starting your fitness journey or looking to add some new challenges to your routine, these exercises will help you build the strong, functional legs that serve as the foundation for everything else you do.
Want personalized guidance on your fitness journey? Learn more about custom training programs and one-on-one coaching that can help you safely progress through these exercises while reaching your specific goals.
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