Lower Body Workout: 3 Sessions for Your Weekly Split

What a lower body day includes

Your lower body is everything you move from the hips down: quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves. In an upper/lower routine it is one of the two types of day, and its partner is the upper body workout. Unlike a standalone leg workout, what matters here is how the two days split across the week, so each muscle gets its volume without repeating the same session.

A main knee-dominant lift. The back squat or the leg press. They mostly load your quads and go first on day A.
A main hip-dominant lift. The barbell Romanian deadlift or the barbell hip thrust. They load your hamstrings and glutes and go first on day B.
A leg curl. The lying hamstring curl or the seated leg curl completes your hamstring work, because it works from the knee instead of the hip.
An isolation exercise. The leg extension or machine abduction adds sets without loading your back.
Calves. The standing machine calf raise or the plate-loaded seated calf raise goes last, so it does not take energy from the main lifts.

For more options for one muscle, see the lists for quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves.

Where lower body day goes in your week

The classic version has 4 days, two upper and two lower, and each muscle is trained twice a week. That is what the ACSM suggests for intermediate lifters using a 4-day split (American College of Sports Medicine, 2009). Alternate upper and lower and leave a day off in the middle of the week. That way you never train the same half two days in a row, and each one rests about 72 hours before repeating.

How the week looks depending on how many days you train
Days per week	Split	Lower days
4 days	Monday upper, Tuesday lower, Thursday upper, Friday lower	2
5 days	Same as 4, plus a fifth session on Saturday for the half you want to improve	2 or 3
6 days	Monday to Saturday, alternating upper and lower	3

With 3 days, an upper/lower split ends up uneven, because one half gets trained twice and the other once. For 3 days, a full body routine or push pull legs fits better. With the same weekly volume, splitting your body or training it all at once gives similar strength and muscle results (Ramos-Campo et al., 2024).

Lower body at the gym: day A and day B

The two days do not have to be identical. Day A starts with the knee and day B with the hip. That way each main lift gets a session where it goes first, and the exercise done first gains the most strength (Nunes et al., 2021).

Lower body day A: 5 exercises and 16 sets. Each card shows sets × reps and rest.

Lower body day B: 5 exercises and 16 sets
Exercise	Sets × reps	Rest
Barbell Romanian deadlift	4 × 6-10	2-3 min
Leg press	3 × 10-12	2 min
Seated leg curl	3 × 10-15	90 s
Machine abduction	3 × 12-15	90 s
Plate-loaded seated calf raise	3 × 12-15	90 s

For building muscle, the order matters little, so change it if you prefer another one.

Dumbbell lower body workout

If you train at home or in a small gym, this session works for both days. You only need a bench. The reps on the step up are per leg.

On the second day of the week, start with the Romanian deadlift and swap the step up for the reverse dumbbell lunge, with the same sets. The two days add up to 14 sets for quads, 8 for hamstrings, 6 for glutes and 6 for calves. To reach 10 for hamstrings, add 2 sets of the dumbbell hamstring curl to the second day.

Lower body workout for beginners

If you are just starting, you do not need to go through full body first. In a trial with women with no experience, 4 upper/lower sessions and 2 full body sessions with the same weekly sets gave similar strength and muscle improvements (Pedersen et al., 2022). Machines let you focus on the range of motion, and the ACSM suggests moderate loads while you learn the technique (American College of Sports Medicine, 2009).

Do it twice a week. That adds up to 6 sets for quads, 6 for hamstrings, 4 for glutes and 4 for calves. It is fewer than 10 per muscle, but when you are starting out you can also build muscle with fewer sets (Currier et al., 2023). When it stops being hard, move to days A and B or see the beginner routines.

How many lower body sets to do per week

What counts is the total of the two days, not each session on its own. 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). With the gym days A and B, the count looks like this:

Direct sets per week with days A and B
Muscle	Day A	Day B	Week
Quads	7	3	10
Hamstrings	3	7	10
Glutes	3	3	6
Calves	3	3	6

Quads and hamstrings reach 10 without either day going past 16 sets. Glutes and calves stay at 6 direct sets, although your glutes also work during the squat and the Romanian deadlift. If you want more calf work, 2 extra sets per day takes them to 10. To raise overall volume, add 1 set at a time to the main lift of each day, without going past 20 per muscle.

With the same volume, training a muscle once or twice a week gives similar hypertrophy (Schoenfeld, Grgic and Krieger, 2019). Rep ranges and effort are covered in sets and reps.

Common lower body day mistakes

Making both days identical. The same main lift always goes first and the other one always arrives tired. Alternate the order with a day A and a day B.
Going to failure on the main lifts. 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). With a muscle that works again 72 hours later, you notice that.
Doing cardio before lifting. If you do both on the same day, lifting first was associated with more leg strength (Murlasits et al., 2018).
Changing the whole session every week. Repeating the same two days lets you compare and add weight. Rotating exercises at random or very often can hurt (Kassiano et al., 2022).

How to progress on your lower body days

Track each day separately. The same exercise does not perform the same going first or third, so compare day A with day A and day B with day B.
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).
Keep your range of motion. If going up means lowering less or cutting the movement short, it is not time yet.
Lower the volume if you stall. If your performance drops for several sessions in a row, check sleep and food before adding sets. If nothing changes, do one week with about half the sets at the same load. An expert consensus agrees that a deload lowers volume (Bell et al., 2023).

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

Questions

What is the difference between a lower body workout and a leg workout?

They work the same muscles. A lower body workout is one of the two fixed days of an upper/lower split, repeated twice a week. A leg workout can also be a standalone session inside another split.

How many times a week should I train lower body?

Twice is the classic setup with 4 days. With the same volume, once gives similar growth, but twice spreads your sets better and keeps sessions shorter.

Can I train lower body two days in a row?

Better not, because you work the same muscles without recovering. Alternate with the upper body workout, so each half rests about 72 hours before repeating.

What if I miss a day?

Do it the next day and keep the order, even if the week shifts. The ACSM considers adapting the program so you can actually do it more important than matching an ideal prescription (Currier et al., 2026).

How do I prioritize glutes on lower body day?

Start day B with the barbell hip thrust instead of the Romanian deadlift and add sets to it. For more direct work, the glute workout has full sessions.

Sources

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

Lower body workout: the leg and glute day of your week

Short answer