My Tried & True Leg Workout

Alright today I’m taking a big step towards incorporating fitness into this blog. Today I’m bringing to you my tried and true leg workout! Ahhh I KNOW! Now, I am not a personal trainer or any certified form of fitness instructor. I’m just a girl who’s figured out what works for her, and that’s why I’m sharing it with you! I was debating whether or not to post this, so I hit up my blogging BFF and fellow fitness lover Caitlyn from over at College With Caitlyn and she was all for it.

For me, I want my leg workouts to be hard. I want my legs to burn, I want my heart rate to soar, and I want my butt to shake when I lean over to brush my teeth that night. Trust me, that last one is true, and it’s real haha. This leg workout can easily be adapted for beginners who maybe don’t have the stamina for a full on hour death session or are a little uncertain about what to do when at the gym.

I hit legs twice a week, and I hit them hard both times. Yeah so that may not be ideal, but those two leg workout also count for two of my cardio sessions for the week so I get in what I can. If I cut my rest periods short, I can manage to finish this in about 50 minutes, but ideally it’s accomplishable in an hour to no more than an hour and a half. In case you are a beginner or you haven’t heard of some of these movements, I’ve linked the bodybuilding.com instructions for each!

Warm-up:
5-10 minute walk either on the treadmill or my walk to the gym
– this is not a cardio session, just a decent paced walk to get blood flowing to the muscles

3 x 20 bodyweight squats
– focus on form and really thinking about your muscles contracting. mind muscle connection is everything

4 x 12-15 weighted dumbbell squats
– slow and steady wins the race
– focus on form and contraction in the glute and hamstrings when you return to starting position

Superset:
4 x 10 standing to touching bench squat
4 x 10 seated to 3/4 squat
Whitney Simmons introduced me to the two movements above. You can check out her demonstration here.
4 x 8 wide to narrow jumping pulse squats

5 x 8-12 barbell hip thrusts
– really focus on glute contraction
– go heavy enough that it’s challenging but not too heavy to where you’re going to injure your lower back

4 x 12 barbell or dumbbell Romanian deadlifts

4 x 30 bodyweight walking lunges
– focus on form: knees over toes, wavering in the knee, using front leg to stand
– starts out easy, but you’ll be dead by the end

Accessory work:
3 x 10 inner thigh abductor machine
3 x 10 leg extensions
3 x 8 lying hamstring curls

Optional:
3 x 8 (each leg) split squats

If at any time you feel pain, stop the exercise. Pain is different from burning. Burning = good. Pain = bad.

I love this workout, and I do it twice a week like I said before. I always seem to end up sore in different ways after this workout, and that butt shake afterwards is typically a thing. So, mission accomplished, haha. What do you think of this kind of post? Should I keep doing them or is this one workout post enough? Let me know in the comments below, pretty please!

What’s your favorite muscle group to work? Do you like seeing my workouts?

~abigail gray