Leg Workout: 3 Routines, Best Exercises, Sets and Reps

The best leg exercises

Your legs are several muscles with different jobs, and a complete workout splits them across three types of exercise. Knee-dominant lifts, like the squat, bend and straighten the knee and mostly load your quads. Hip-dominant lifts, like the Romanian deadlift, tip your torso forward with the knee almost still and load your hamstrings and glutes. Your calves move the ankle and get little work from the other two, so they need their own exercise.

Squat. The main knee-dominant lift for moving more weight and tracking your progress. See how to do the back squat.
Leg press. It loads your quads without asking for balance or putting a bar on your back. The leg press works well after the squat, or instead of it if squats bother you.
Bulgarian split squat. The dumbbell Bulgarian split squat works one leg at a time. It helps you notice if one side falls behind, and it is demanding even with little weight.
Romanian deadlift. The main hip-dominant lift. The barbell Romanian deadlift loads your hamstrings and glutes with your knees only slightly bent.
Leg curl. Your hamstrings extend the hip and also bend the knee. The Romanian deadlift covers the first job, and the seated leg curl or the lying hamstring curl covers the second.
Calf raises. With a straight knee, as in the standing machine calf raise, the gastrocnemius does more. With a bent knee, as in the plate-loaded seated calf raise, the soleus underneath does more. If you can, do both during the week.

To pick others, see the full lists for quads, hamstrings and calves, each exercise with a photo and step-by-step instructions. If your priority is the hips, see the glute workout.

Leg workout at the gym

Start with the exercise you most want to improve, because the one done first gains the most strength (Nunes et al., 2021). Here that is the squat. Then alternate hip and knee work, and leave the leg extension and calves for the end.

Full leg workout: 6 exercises and 18 sets. Each card shows sets × reps and rest.

That is 9 sets for quads, 6 for hamstrings and 3 for calves, so it suits a day dedicated to legs. If you train legs twice a week, repeat the session with one set less on each exercise, without going below 2, and start the second day with the Romanian deadlift. The week then adds up to 16 sets for quads, 10 for hamstrings and 5 for calves.

Dumbbell leg workout

With dumbbells, the limit is usually the weight you own, not your legs. That is why the session starts with the Bulgarian split squat: each leg works alone, so the same weight demands much more. You only need a bench. The reps on the split squat are per leg.

If calf raises get easy with two dumbbells, move to the single leg standing calf raise, which loads each leg much more with the same weight. On everything else, when your dumbbells stop being enough, add reps or lower more slowly before changing the weight.

Leg workout at home, without machines

You can build muscle without weights if each set ends close to failure. Muscle grows similarly with light or heavy loads when the sets are hard (Schoenfeld et al., 2017). That is why the rep ranges are higher here. Hamstrings are the hardest muscle to load at home, so the session uses a resistance band for the Romanian deadlift. The reps on the lunge and the bridge are per leg.

Leg workout at home: 5 exercises and 16 sets.

Is the air squat getting easy? Move to the Bulgarian split squat, with your back foot on a sturdy chair, or to the pistol squat if your balance is good. If you have somewhere to anchor your feet, the Nordic curl is a very demanding way to load your hamstrings without weights.

How many leg sets to do per week

For legs, sets are counted per muscle, not per session. To build muscle, what matters most is how many hard sets each muscle does per week (Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger, 2017). The ACSM links the greatest hypertrophy to 10 or more sets per muscle per week and sees gains level off around 18 to 20 (Currier et al., 2026). For quads, a review of trained young men found no differences between 12 to 20 sets and more than 20 (Baz-Valle et al., 2022). When you are starting out you do not need to reach 10: you can also build muscle with fewer sets (Currier et al., 2023).

Direct sets per muscle per week by level
Level	Sets per muscle	Leg sessions	How to split them
Beginner	Fewer than 10	1 or 2	One knee-dominant lift, one hip-dominant lift and calves
Intermediate	10 to 16	2	5 to 8 sets per muscle in each session
Advanced	Up to 20	2 or 3	More than 2 sessions if they do not fit with good form

Reaching 10 sets for quads, hamstrings and calves means 30 per week, too many for a single day. That is why two sessions usually fit better, even though with the same volume training a muscle once or twice gives similar hypertrophy (Schoenfeld, Grgic and Krieger, 2019). The table counts the sets where each muscle is the main one. Compound lifts also add work for other muscles, like the squat for your glutes.

If you already follow a push pull legs routine or an upper/lower routine, your legs already have their day. The lower body workout explains how to fit it into your week.

Common leg training mistakes

Only doing knee-dominant lifts. Squats, leg presses and extensions leave your hamstrings with little work. Every session needs at least one hip-dominant lift or a leg curl.
Leaving calves for when you have time. They are usually the first thing to get skipped. If you want to improve them, train them in every leg session, through the full range and without bouncing at the bottom.
Only going halfway down. The ACSM includes full range of motion among the things that improve strength (Currier et al., 2026). Going to the same depth every time is also the only way to compare one session with another.
Going to failure on every set. Reaching failure does not build more muscle than stopping close to it (Refalo et al., 2023), and in one study it delayed recovery by up to 24 to 48 hours (Morán-Navarro et al., 2017). Leave 1 to 3 reps in reserve on most sets.
Resting too little. To build muscle, resting more than 60 seconds has a small benefit, and beyond 90 it barely changes (Singer et al., 2024). On heavy squats, if you want strength, more than 2 minutes works better in trained people (Grgic et al., 2018).
Changing exercises every week. Rotating at random or very often can hurt (Kassiano et al., 2022).

How to progress on your leg workout

Log every set. Weight and reps for each exercise. Without that number you do not know what to beat next session.
Add reps first. When you reach the top of the range on every set, raise the weight by the smallest step you can. Adding reps and adding weight both work in trained people (Plotkin et al., 2022).
Use a simple rule for the weight. The ACSM suggests raising the load by 2 to 10 % when you do 1 or 2 reps more than your target in two sessions in a row (American College of Sports Medicine, 2009).
Keep your depth. If going up means squatting less deep or lifting your heels, it is not time yet.
Check the big picture. If you stall for several sessions in a row, look at sleep and food before adding sets.

The full rule is in the progressive overload guide, and you can estimate your squat max with the 1RM calculator.

Questions

How many leg exercises should I do per session?

4 to 6 is enough: one or two knee-dominant lifts, one hip-dominant lift, a leg curl and calves. If you are short on time, a squat or leg press, a Romanian deadlift and calves cover the essentials.

How many times a week should I train legs?

Once or twice. With the same weekly volume the results are similar, but two sessions make it easier to reach 10 sets for each muscle without an endless day.

Do I need to do barbell squats?

No. In the ACSM analysis, the type of equipment did not change results consistently (Currier et al., 2026). The leg press and the dumbbell Bulgarian split squat also load your quads well. Pick the one you can do with good form and keep progressing on.

Can you train legs without weights?

Yes. Squats and lunges work if each set ends close to failure and you keep making them harder. Hamstrings are the hardest to load, and that is where a resistance band helps.

Can I do cardio on leg day?

Yes. In a meta-analysis of 43 studies, adding aerobic exercise did not hold back muscle or maximal strength (Schumann et al., 2022). If you do both on the same day, lifting first was associated with more leg strength (Murlasits et al., 2018).

Sources

This guide is for information only and does not replace advice from a health professional.

Leg workout: the best exercises, sets and reps

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