We get it, summer is around the corner and you want to build that perfect summer body. You might have a ripped upper body but the summer look is incomplete without some funky shorts. But to wear shorts and kill that look you need to have strong legs. You could even wear shorts with those chicken legs but won’t be able to carry this style with confidence. You wouldn’t want to go on the beach wearing jeans or lose trousers to hide your legs. That’s why we have brought you this best leg work out for men so you can look great in shorts.
Table of Contents
- 1 What Do Men Want from Their Leg Workout?
- 1.1 Goal 1: Increase in Leg Mass
- 1.2 Goal 2: Getting defined legs
- 1.3 Goal 3: Building Endurance
- 1.4 How To Achieve These Goals
- 2 Leg Day Workout for Men
- 2.1 Warmup Notes
- 2.2 The Barbell Squats
- 2.3 Barbell Hip Thrust
- 2.4 Quads Superset
- 2.5 Leg Extension
- 2.6 Hamstrings Exercise: Romanian Deadlift
- 2.7 Seated Calf Raise
- 3 Takeaway
What Do Men Want from Their Leg Workout?
There might be only a little difference between leg workouts for men and women because both of them perform almost the same exercises. But how men want to build their legs may vary from what women want from their leg day. For men, it’s all about being ripped and massive. You would have always wished for growing those big thighs with veins popping out from your quads. If you want to build those dream legs then you can’t just hit the gym and start doing leg presses or heavy squats, you need to plan a strategy in the first place.
Goal 1: Increase in Leg Mass
The first goal of every man who has slim legs is to increase their muscle mass. Most bodybuilders face the problem that their legs don’t compliment their upper body. The reason behind this problem is that most people are more likely to skip a leg day because of the prolonged recovery period after training their legs.
Legs are the biggest muscles of your body to increase their muscle mass, you must be able to train them till they are fully exhausted. To exhaust your legs, you will have to push some serious weights. As the leg muscles are the biggest so they can’t be stimulated effectively if you are lifting light or medium weights then it won’t be beneficial.
Goal 2: Getting defined legs
You wouldn’t want to have massive fat legs with no muscular definition. Your legs lack muscular definition when there are a large number of fat cells stored in them. The major reason for not getting defined legs is that you are not sticking to a clean diet. When you eat more than your maintenance calories then it is stored in your body as fat. So, the first thing you should change for getting those defined legs is your diet so you cut down your overall body fat percentage.
The next big thing that you should be toning your legs is hitting your thigh from different angles. Hitting from different angles means that you are engaging all the muscle groups of your legs in your workout.
Goal 3: Building Endurance
Legs are the wheels for your body, they carry the weight of your whole body so you can imagine the importance of endurance for legs. You can build endurance in the legs just by regular strength training but, to get maximum benefits you need to incorporate running and cycling in your training regimen.
As endurance is your muscles’ ability to repeatedly perform a task, you can increase reps to add volume to your training. It will help you to build endurance in the long run. Doing circuit training can also be beneficial for building endurance as switching continuously from one exercise to the next causes your muscles to work on repeat.
How To Achieve These Goals
As we have discussed what goals men want to achieve from their leg workouts, the next point is to know how these goals can be achieved. For this, we have designed an effective leg workout plan to help you get those shredded legs.
Here are some of the best workout shorts for men based on the above features:
Leg Day Workout for Men
Start With Compound Movements
Compound movements are those exercises that engage multiple muscle groups at one time. It is always recommended to start with compound movements whenever you train major muscle groups. The reason behind this is that you can lift heavy at the start of exercise so it’s easy to engage the major muscle groups in your body through lifting heavy.
Warmup Notes:
- Never use heavy weights for warmup.
- Don’t train your muscles till failure by doing more reps than needed.
- Use bodyweight for warming up.
- Use stretching exercises in warmup.
1. The Barbell Squats
How To Do It
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Grab the barbell behind your shoulders and stand hip-width apart.
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Your elbows should be tucked in.
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Bend your knees to bring down your body.
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The barbell should come down in a straight line and should be in your control.
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Lift yourself back into the standing position.
Sets: 4
Reps: 12RM-10RM-8RM-8RM (Increase weight on each set, if you have a spotter then do 2 forced reps at the end)
2. Barbell Hip Thrust
How To Do It
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Put weights on a barbell and place it in front of a bench.
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Lay the barbell on your quads.
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Rest your upper body on the bench.
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Now, press your legs and glutes upwards until they are in a straight line with your core.
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Keep this position for a moment, keep squeezing your glutes.
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Lower your body and repeat this exercise.
Sets: 4
Reps: 12RM-12 RM-10 RM-10 RM (increase weight after each set)
3. Quads Superset
Quads have a major role in developing that ripped look for your legs. These muscles are the first to be noticed by anyone while you are wearing shorts.
Strong quads have a major role in creating an aesthetic front look of your body. Moreover, quads are one of those muscles which are used highly engaged throughout the day.
Weak quads could cause a wide range of injuries. They can also make daily activities such as standing up, walking, climbing stairs more difficult.
Leg Extensions and Box Jumps
We will be doing a superset of leg extension and box jump. When these exercises are combined, they can offer one of the best leg workouts for men.
3.1 Leg Extension
How To Do It
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Sit on the lever machine placing your feet behind the bar.
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Push to the padded bar to lift your legs.
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Now, lower the bar and repeat the exercise.
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When you lift the bar to the top position, your knees should not be locked.
Reps: 12RM-12 RM-10 RM-10 RM (increase weight after each set)
As you complete one set, don’t take a rest and head onto the box jumps.
3.2 Box Jumps
How To Do It
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Stand in front of the box, your feet should be hip-width apart.
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Bend your knees, lift your chest and push your hips back.
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Jump through the balls of your feet, swing your arms in front of you.
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As you are about to land on the box. Bend your knees and hips.
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As you land on the box, your feet should be hip-width apart.
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Step down from the box, don’t jump to come down.
Reps: 15RM-15 RM-15 RM-15 RM
Total Sets: 4
4. Hamstrings Exercise: Romanian Deadlift
Just as quads, hamstrings are another major muscle group of your legs. They have an important role in stabilizing the knee joint and maintaining posture. Their key role is the hip extension and knee flexion due to these reasons, they enable us to run fast. The Romanian Deadlift (RDL) can effectively increase hypertrophy, which benefits in increasing muscle mass.
How To Do It
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Stand in front of a barbell with your feet hip-width apart, your knees should be slightly bent.
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Bend forward while sticking your hips out, keep your spine straight and grab the barbell.
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Engage the muscles of your hamstrings, glutes, and core. Now, stand up while lifting the barbell up to your thighs.
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Lower the barbell and lift again to repeat the movement.
Total Sets: 3
Reps: 12RM-12 RM-10 RM (increase weight after each set)
5. Seated Calf Raise
Your calves are a small muscle group as compared to other leg muscles but they have great importance.
They help in stabilizing your knee and ankle. Calves play a major role in improving your jumping efficiency and have a lot of other benefits.
The seated calf raises are easy yet very beneficial for increasing the strength of your calves, that’s why they come in our list of best leg workouts for men.
How To Do It
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Sit on a bench with two heavy dumbbells in your hands.
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Place them on your quads.
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Pace an iron weight plate beneath your feet.
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Your heels should be at the edge of the weight plate.
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Lift your heels as high as possible.
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Lower your heels to starting position and repeat the exercise.
Takeaway
A strong and developed lower body is not only needed to compliment your aesthetic look, but it is also necessary for the overall strength of your body.
Try this leg workout for men and get ready to hit the beach this summer. We have specially designed this workout to effectively pack size and strength on your leg muscles.
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