Single Leg Workouts

Leg training is critical to your overall physical and athletic performance. A good foundation is built from the ground up, and your legs provide the foundation for the rest of your body. When your legs are strong that strength will carry over into your other muscle groups as well. Making you bigger and stronger all over.

A big mistake that a lot of newbie lifters make is that they only focus on the “Show Off Muscles” of the chest, arms, and abs. The main muscles you see when you take your shirt off and look in the mirror. Have you ever done this before?

I admit that as a teenager my early workouts consisted of nothing more than push ups and curls. I can remember curling those plastic cement filled York Dumbbells in my bedroom before school each morning. Hoping and praying that I would be huge and jacked by the end of the school year. Those were the good ole’ days before the Internet when life seemed so much simpler 😉

I sincerely hope that you have advanced beyond the stage of simply doing a chest and arm workout, and instead view your body as a whole unit that needs to be worked from top to bottom. If not, then now would be a good time to start training legs!

Developing Symmetry With Single Limb Training…

Symmetry From Left To Right The first step to a great physique is simply training all your major muscle groups equally and developing proportion from top to bottom, like we just mentioned. But beyond that you can step things up and strive to develop symmetry from left to right.

When it comes to upper body exercises most people do this to a certain degree without even consciously thinking about it. Whenever you grab a pair of dumbbells for an exercise you are working each side equally. Dumbbells automatically force each arm to handle an equal workload. But with barbells and machines it’s not always the case, a lot of the time you’ll unconsciously lift more of the load with your dominant side. For example, have you ever noticed when doing a max effort barbell bench press that one side sometimes locks out before the other?

With the majority of leg training workouts people tend to use barbells (i.e. squats & deadlifts) and machines (i.e. leg extension, leg curl, leg press, etc.) and this often leads to one leg getting more developed than the other without you even realizing it.

However, once you start to incorporate single leg training in your workouts this will create a whole new awareness of muscle activity in your lower body. Not only will you feel your legs working like they have never worked before. But you’ll probably also discover some imbalances between your leg and right legs that you never knew existed.

In the videos below you’ll get some good single leg exercises that you can start incorporating into your own leg workouts to help develop balance and proportion between your left and right legs.


Click PLAY To Watch The Video:

Note: if you are on an iPad and can’t watch the embedded video clip above,
you can watch it right on my YouTube Channel by Clicking Here

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Note: if you are on an iPad and can’t watch the embedded video clip above,
you can watch it right on my YouTube Channel by Clicking Here

Give these single leg training tips a try in your next leg workout. And if you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them below and I’ll chat with you in the comments section.

About The Author

leehayward

Lee Hayward is a former competitive bodybuilder and muscle building coach who has been online coaching people since 1997. His work has been featured in several international magazines such as: FLEX, Muscle Insider, Muscle Mag International, Testosterone, Ironmag, and Forbes. Lee's main focus right now is with helping men over 40 - who don't want to be fat anymore - lose the gut, build muscle, and get back in shape. If you're ready to "Start Again" for the last time and finally build a lean healthy body that you can be proud of, just e-mail Lee to discuss a realistic action plan that's right for you... lee@leehayward.com

6 Comments

  • Keith

    Hi Lee,

    I think we all do more than one or two leg exercises on leg day. Please keep them coming so we can put together a full leg workout. You are doing a great job!

    Keith

    PS. I tried the calf workout Thursday and it does feel very different, not at all easy. I was afraid I was going to be walking like peg leg the next day but all was well. Did a lot of streching after. Just a bit stiff using a little less than 1/2 the weight I normally do.

  • Emmanuel

    HI Lee,
    I wanted to do work outs but work stops me,,can u give me a suggestion wat 2 do ,,becoz previous i use to do workouts..but after joining jod im not able to do it…

  • Keith,

    You can click on the “Leg Workouts” category that’s in the side menu bar to see more leg exercises that you can include in your workouts.

  • Emmanuel,

    This is mostly a time management issue on your part. Pretty much everyone who goes to the gym also has other responsibilities besides working out. Most of them have jobs, families, etc. but still find a way to fit working out in their busy schedule.

  • Eliakim

    Emmanuel,

    You should adapt your goal(s) for your body with regards to working out to the resources you have. You can do short burst workouts or circuits. Although it is different from weight lifting it has its advantages.

  • Bill

    Hey Lee, great article,
    I’ve been doing back squats for a while; apart from strong thighs my ankles have become bigger. I know this is medically possible but is this a typical sort of gain?