Legs
70 pieces
- Exercise31 October 2026Loop hip abductionA short loop above your knees, pushed out wide while you sit. It works the outside of your hips and some of your glutes, and the kit fits in a pocket. Treat it as a useful extra beside your main glute work, not in place of it.
- Exercise28 October 2026Reverse hyperextensionThe back extension turned around. Your chest stays still on the pad and your legs swing up behind you. In one study it drew more glute, hamstring and lower back activity than the regular hyperextension[1], and it trains those muscles without a weight pressing down through your spine[2].
- Exercise28 October 202690 degree back extensionThe back extension done flat. You lie face down on a glute ham developer with your hips on the pad and your feet locked in, lower your chest toward the floor, then lift back up until you are level. The flatter the bench, the harder the lower back works[1], so this is where you go once the 45 degree bench is easy.
- Exercise19 October 2026Standing cable leg curlA hamstring curl on a low pulley, standing on one leg with a strap around the other ankle. It gives a gym with cables but no leg curl machine a way to train knee flexion. The thigh stays still and only the lower leg moves.
- Exercise19 October 2026Standing cable hip abductionA side leg raise on a low pulley with an ankle strap. You stand side on to the machine and lift the outside leg out and away. It trains the glutes at the side and top of the hip, the part a squat or a hip thrust reaches least.
- Exercise19 October 2026Smith machine hip thrustThe hip thrust with the bar on rails. Your upper back rests on a bench, the bar sits across your hips, and you drive your hips up until your body is straight from knees to shoulders. The rails take balancing the bar out, so you can set up fast and press hard.
- Exercise19 October 2026Smith machine calf raiseA standing calf raise with the Smith bar across your upper back and the balls of your feet on a step. Standing with straight knees trains the whole calf, and in a twelve week trial standing calf raises grew the calves more than seated ones[1].
- Exercise19 October 2026Sissy squatA bodyweight quad exercise where you rise onto your toes, keep your hips straight, and lean back as your knees travel forward. It loads the front of the thigh hard with no machine, which makes it the leg extension for a gym that has none.
- Exercise19 October 2026Single-leg leg pressThe leg press one leg at a time. One foot in the middle of the platform, the other off it, and the same rule as the two leg version: lower until right before your hips lift off the pad. It shows you quickly if one leg is doing more of the work.
- Exercise19 October 2026Single-leg balance holdStand on one foot and hold still. Your ankle and hip make small corrections the whole time to keep you upright, and that work is the exercise. Start next to a wall, and make it harder once standing still is easy.
- Exercise19 October 2026Pogo hopSmall, quick hops in place, off the balls of your feet with your knees nearly straight. The ankles do the work, and each landing turns straight into the next hop. Think quiet and quick, not high.
- Exercise19 October 2026Pendulum squatA squat machine where the pad swings on an arc instead of sliding on rails. Your back stays on the pad and you can sink very deep with the load where your legs can take it. It is a quad builder, and the cue is sink deep, drive up.
- Exercise19 October 2026Kettlebell swingA hinge you do fast. You hike the bell back, stand up hard, and your hips throw it forward to chest height. It is a hip exercise with the glutes working harder than the low back[2], not a squat and not a front raise.
- Exercise19 October 2026Hack squatA squat on rails with your back on a pad. The machine balances the load and holds your trunk, so what is left is your legs. That is the point of it, and it is why the number runs higher than your back squat[2].
- Exercise19 October 2026Glute ham raiseA hamstring curl where your body is the weight. You lock your feet into the glute ham bench, keep your hips straight, lower your torso forward, then curl yourself back up from the knees. It is hard, and it is one of the few ways to load the hamstrings heavily with no plates.
- Exercise19 October 2026Broad jumpA standing jump forward as far as is comfortable. Swing your arms, drive from your hips, and land softly on both feet. Each jump is a single effort, so reset before the next one rather than bouncing into it.
- Exercise19 October 2026Box jump and step downJump up onto a box, land soft, stand up, and step back down. The step down is part of the exercise and part of its name: you never jump back off. Pick a box you land on easily, not one you scrape.
- Exercise19 October 2026Belt squatA squat with the load hanging from a belt around your hips instead of a bar on your back. Your legs still do the squat, and your spine is not holding the weight. In one study it worked the front of the thighs much like a back squat, with a little less glute[1].
- Exercise13 October 2026Machine glute kickbackBrace on the pads, push the plate back through your heel and let the glute do the pushing. It loads hip extension one leg at a time, without a bar on your back and without a bench under your shoulders. It is a useful addition, and a review of glute training does not make it the foundation[2].
- Exercise9 September 2026Stiff-leg deadliftA hinge with the knees held close to straight, so the range comes from the hamstrings lengthening rather than from the knees bending out of the way. It is the longest hamstring stretch in the library, and it is the lift people are quickest to add weight to and slowest to earn it on.
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