Legs exercises with instructions

Legs is the largest group in the library and the one with the most individual muscles: quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, adductors and abductors.

The quads extend the knee. They carry squats, leg presses, lunges and leg extensions. The hamstrings bend the knee and help extend the hip; they come in on Romanian deadlifts and leg curls. The glutes extend the hip and are the strongest muscle in the body — they work in any movement where the hip comes forward out of a bent position. The calves lift the heel. Adductors and abductors pull the leg toward the midline and away from it.

The most important distinction in leg training: knee bend or hip hinge. In a squat the knee travels forward and the quads work. In a hinge the knee stays nearly straight, the hips travel back, and glutes and hamstrings work. A plan needs both. Squat only and you have a strong front and a weak back.

What matters in execution. In a squat the knee tracks the direction of the foot and does not collapse inward. Depth decides more than the weight — half a squat trains half a range. On anything driven by the hips the spine keeps its natural shape, and the movement ends when the back of the leg stops giving.

How much per week. Roughly 10 to 20 sets per muscle group. For legs it is worth splitting those sets between knee work and hip work instead of adding them up: fifteen sets of squats is not leg training, it is quad training.

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