10 Best Bodyweight Leg Exercises From a Trainer
By Marnie Kunz, CPT
The best bodyweight leg exercises will help you get stronger and faster and improve your fitness. These exercises will also boost your balance and stability, reducing your risk of injuries. Whether you’re a runner who wants to run faster or are searching for a strength training workout that you can do anywhere, these bodyweight leg exercises will help. You don’t need any equipment to do these exercises, making them perfect for home workouts and traveling.
If you want to add more intensity to your workout by using weights, check out our post on the 10 Best Leg Exercises with Dumbbells.
Benefits of Bodyweight Leg Strengthening Exercises
Bodyweight strength training exercises targeting your lower body have many benefits. Here are some of the most significant rewards:
Beginner-friendly. Bodyweight exercises are an excellent way to perfect your form before doing weighted exercises.
No equipment is needed. With bodyweight exercises, you don’t need any equipment, so you can do these workouts at home, in a hotel room, or outside on a track or at a park.
Less risk of injury. When you do bodyweight exercises, you risk getting injured less than more intense weight training.
Lowers your risk of disease. Bodyweight exercises lower your risk for heart disease, diabetes, obesity, multiple types of cancer, joint pain, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Improves your fitness. Bodyweight exercises will help you become stronger and have more muscular endurance, improving your athletic performance and overall fitness level.
10 Best Bodyweight Leg Exercises
These are my top picks as a trainer for the best bodyweight leg exercises. Some also target the glutes, which are the largest muscle in your body and have a major impact on your balance, stability, and athletic performance. I recommend adding at least four of these exercises to your lower body strength training program, with at least one squat, lunge, and lateral movement.
1. Squats
Squats are a primal movement we often use in daily life - by sitting, lifting things, and standing up. Squats are a compound exercise that is one of the best bodyweight leg exercises to target all your major lower body muscles.
Muscles Worked: Quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, and hip flexors.
Squats.
How To Do It:
Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and your chest up and core engaged.
Bending your knees, lowering your body, and driving your hips back as if you are going to sit in a chair.
Squeeze your glutes throughout the movement. Keep your heels and toes on the ground and your chest up and shoulders back.
Aim to lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor or as low as possible while maintaining good form.
Return to standing, straightening your knees and pressing your heels into the ground.
2. Back Lunges
Back lunges.
Back lunges - or reverse lunges - are among the best bodyweight leg exercises. Back lunges have the added benefit of placing less strain on the knees than front lunges.
Muscles Worked: Hamstrings, glutes, and quads.
How To Do It:
Stand with your feet together, chest up, and head and toes facing forward.
Step backward with your left foot.
Lower your hips and bend your knees so your front (right) thigh is parallel to the ground. Your back knee should be bent at about a 90-degree angle.
Pressing through the heel of your front leg, raise back up to a standing position.
Repeat on the other side.
3. Side Lunges
Side lunges are an essential lower body exercise that helps improve your balance and fitness. Since we usually do not move in many sideways movement patterns, this exercise is essential for building strength and stability.
Side lunges.
Muscles Worked: Quads, hamstrings, glutes, and hip abductors.
How To Do It:
Stand with your feet hip-width apart and your toes pointed forward.
Take a wide step to the side with your right leg, bending your right knee. Your body and toes should point forward, and your left leg should remain straight.
Push your hips back as you step onto your right leg.
Push off your right leg and return to a standing position.
Repeat on the other side.
4. Walking Lunges
Walking lunges are a functional exercise that improves your leg strength and balance. If you’re a beginner, you may want to start with standing forward lunges and then progress to walking lunges as your balance improves.
Walking lunges.
Muscles Worked: Glutes, hamstrings, quads, calves, and hips.
How To Do It:
Stand with your feet together and step forward with your right leg. Keep your core engaged throughout the exercise.
Bend your right knee and push through your heel to help balance. Your right thigh should be about parallel with the floor. Keep your chest up and head in a neutral position facing forward.
Push through your right heel and stand up, bringing your left leg forward into a lunge position until your left thigh parallels the floor.
Repeat to do 10 lunges on each side.
5. Bulgarian Split Squat
Bulgarian split squats.
Bulgarian split squats are one of the best glute strengthening exercises.
Muscles Worked: Glutes, quads, hamstrings, and core muscles.
How to Do Them:
Use a step, bench, or sturdy chair and stand facing away, about half a stride length from it.
Place your left foot behind you on the bench with the top of your foot resting on the bench.
With your body upright and your front foot facing forward, bend your front (right) knee and lower back in a squat-like position.
Push back up through your front foot and glutes and return to the starting position.
Repeat on the other side.
6. Glute Bridges
Glute bridges are a beginner-friendly exercise that strengthens your glutes, which can help improve your running and sports performance, speed, and power. These are also excellent for activating your glutes after long periods of sitting.
Muscles Worked: Glutes, core muscles.
Glute bridges.
How To Do It:
Lie on your back with your knees bent, your feet flat on the ground, and your arms resting by your sides. Point your toes forward with your feet planted about hip-width apart.
Squeeze your abs and glutes and lift your hips up toward the ceiling.
Raise your glutes as high as possible without arching your back so your body is straight from your knees to your shoulders.
Hold for 3 seconds and squeeze your glutes in the raised position.
Lower your body to the floor slowly to return to the starting position.
7. Step-Ups
Step-ups.
Step-ups are one of the best bodyweight leg exercises to target all your major muscle groups in the lower body. You need a stable bench, step, or platform to do step-ups.
Muscles Worked: Quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes, and hip flexors.
How To Do It:
Begin from a standing position with your arms resting by your sides, facing the step or bench.
Place your right foot on the elevated platform and push up through your heel.
Step up onto the platform with your left foot so you are standing on the platform.
Step down with your left foot and then your right foot to return to the starting position.
Repeat on the other side.
8. Squat Jumps
Squat jumps.
Squat jumps are a strengthening and plyometric exercise that improves power and speed. If you have a history of knee injuries, ask your doctor or physical therapist before doing any jumping exercises.
Muscles Worked: Glutes, hamstrings, calves, quads, and core muscles.
How To Do It:
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart with your knees slightly bent.
Lower your body, bending at the knees and keeping your chest up. Bend your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor to go into a full squat position.
Jump up into the air, straightening your legs and using your glutes and leg muscles to push your body straight up, with your feet coming off the ground.
Land with your knees slightly bent. Repeat.
Related: 10 Plyometric Exercises for Speed
9. Lunge Jumps
Lunge jumps are an explosive movement that will strengthen your legs and glutes and improve your balance and power.
Lunge jumps.
Muscles Worked: Calves, glutes, hip flexors, hamstrings, and quads.
How To Do It:
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
Bend both knees and go into a lunge position with your right front knee above your ankle and your back leg bent.
Keep your core muscles engaged throughout the movement.
Jump into the air and switch your legs to bring the back leg forward and the front leg backward.
Land with your knees slightly bent, sinking into a deep lunge position with your left leg forward and right leg back. Use your core muscles and arms to help you balance throughout the exercise.
10. Curtsy Lunge
Curtsy lunge.
The curtsy lunge targets multiple lower body muscles, and offers added balance and lateral movement.
Muscles Worked: Quads, glutes, and hips.
How to Do Them:
Begin from a standing position with your feet shoulder-width apart. Hold a dumbbell in each hand with your arms hanging by your sides and your chest up.
Tighten your core muscles and keep your chest up. Put your weight into your right foot and step back and around with your left foot — as if you’re curtsying.
When your right thigh is parallel to the floor, push through your heel and return your left foot to the starting position.
Repeat on the other side.
How Many Reps To Do
When doing these lower body exercises, start with two reps of 10. As your body adapts to the movement, you can add more reps to do three sets of 10. If you need a customized strength training plan, head to our Training Center, and I will be happy to help you.
Happy sweating to you!
Related Posts: 10 Best Leg Exercises with Dumbbells, 10 Best Bodyweight Arm Exercises
Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified trainer and USATF- and RRCA-certified running coach, a dog lover, an Akita mom, and the founder of Runstreet. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.
