Yes, fitness friends, to grow your legs you don’t have to go to the gym or crush yourself with heavy barbell squats or kilos and more kilos on the press. With your body weight and a varied but very functional exercise routine, you can grow your quadriceps and even calves muscles. Without leaving home and with the right material you can take advantage of those days when you have little time or you simply don’t feel like going out to play sports.
How effective are squats and lunges? Does it make sense to train legs with body weight only? “Squats and lunges are extremely efficient since the vast majority of the functional movements of our daily life in sport are born from those movements,” our expert personal trainer Aldo Cornejo and trainer of the month in Men’s Health aka @aldokine on Instagram tells us. “Of course it makes sense to train only with body weight since the vast majority of our movements are without an external load. What you have to manage are the progressions; for example, going from two feet to one, or the speed, from doing it very slow to explosive, even with jumping.”
Here we have also turned to personal trainer Alex Crockford, an expert in lower body routines, to design a personalized plan to gain muscle in our legs and it is as follows… Take good note!
Use your body weight to grow your legs
1- Walking strides
12 repetitions with each leg, 3 sets and half a minute rest between sets. Try to keep your back straight at all times and touch the floor with your knee if possible.
2- Air squats
12 repetitions, 3 sets without rest. Take note here of how to do squats well and the types that exist. Go down as deep as you can without locking your knees and with your back straight at all times.
3- Jump squats
12 repetitions, 3 sets and 30 seconds of rest between sets. To jump Try to maintain good balance to avoid knee injuries. And, if possible, go as deep as you can on each rep.
4- One-leg squat with or without dumbbells
12 repetitions per leg, 3 sets and half a minute rest between sets. Straight back and firm core for better coordination during exercise. In CrossFit this exercise is known as pistols.
5- Stair climbs to box
12 repetitions per leg, 3 sets without rest. Maintaining a constant rhythm is essential to execute this exercise. Be careful because In the last repetitions, due to fatigue, you can end up hitting your shin against the box.
6- One-leg bridge
12 repetitions per leg, 3 sets and 30 seconds rest. A classic to activate the entire gluteal area well.
7- Lunges with jumping in place
One minute and one series. Jump as high as you can without losing your balance.
8- More air squats
One minute and one series, without stopping, maximum number of repetitions. Remember that, With squats, you activate both the quadriceps, the femoral muscles, the glutes and the calves.
9- Isometric squats
You can complete this routine with one more exercise, isometric squats against the wall, as a finisher. And if you are looking for more exercises for your lower body, try doing hip thrusts with any weight you have on hand above your hips, Bulgarian squats, also without weight or with it, as you prefer, forward jumps falling in a squat position, pistols typical of CrossFit with care not to injure yourself or simply skipping the site.
10- One-leg squat balance
It is a perfect exercise to also activate the core. While supporting yourself with one leg, keep the other in line with your body horizontal to the ground.
11- Hill sprints
Try sprinting in areas with a significant inclination. One of the best exercises for legs and glutes. For this exercise to be as effective as possible, first get the keys to start racing. You will improve your performance.
12- Exercises on stairs
This is a workout for the lower body, but in which You will also work the core and upper body very intensely. Combine strength with cardio work.
13- Pistols: One leg squats
In single-leg squats you must be careful when lowering so as not to damage your knees.
14- One-leg bridge
Here we also train the core. Lying face up, we raise our hips first by raising one leg and then the other. We propose 3 sets of 12 repetitions with each leg, and 30 seconds of rest between sets.
Circuit to train your legs and abs without weights
Marcos Lorente, personal trainer at Team Fit Madrid, recommends six more exercises, quite basic, with possible variants to add to them a little more difficult, to work the glutes at home but also the biceps femoris, abdomen, quadriceps and lumbar:
15- Abdominal plank
“We will support ourselves on both elbows and feet, we will squeeze the abdomen inward and also the buttocks, being aware of breathing at all times. To complicate it a little, we slightly raise one leg (three supports).” How to do an abdominal plank well.
16- Quadruped
“With the knees bent 90 degrees, we place them below the hips, with hands under the shoulders and elbows extended. We raise our knees slightly off the ground, with four supports (feet and hands). We will make it a little more difficult by bringing our feet together and raising one slightly.”
17- Squats
“Feet shoulder-width apart with a slight outward opening of the tips of the feet, without lifting the heels off the ground when going down and bringing the knees out towards the toes. We stick out our chest and to make it more complicated, a small jump.”
18- Hip Thrust (hip extensions)
“Lying face up with arms crossed over the shoulders or extended along the body (simpler). Knees bent, and toes slightly open for greater gluteal action. We raise the hips by squeezing the gluteus and abdomen inward at the top and lower ourselves slowly. We can complicate it by performing the movement on one leg, placing the scapular area high or bringing the soles of the feet together.”
19- Scissors back
“We take a step back that is not too long, The main idea is to bend the knee of the leg that is moving behind, bringing it closer to the ground, being careful not to lift the heel of the leg that is in front. More difficult, the Bulgarian squat, placing the foot of the leg that would make the stride back in height and performing the knee flexion movement, bringing it closer to the ground and raising it with a straight back.”
20- Isometric squat
“Leaning our back on the wall and bending our knees at 90 degrees, we held on in that position. More complicated if we press towards the wall or put some weight on our legs.”
We propose these 6 circuit exercises, with the repetitions or time that you think is appropriate, and half a minute rest between one exercise and another. Minimum 3 rounds!
Good purchases of the month
Garmin Smart Watch
INBIKE Cycling jersey and bib shorts
Helly Hansen Sports bag
Skechers Sneakers
Now 28% discount
Ed Cooper is the former Deputy Digital Editor at Men’s Health UK, writing and editing about anything you want to know about — from tech to fitness, mental health to style, food and so much more. Ed has run the MH gauntlet, including transformations, marathons and website re-designs. He’s awful at pub sports, though. Follow him: @EA_Cooper