How to pump up your legs at home: leg exercises at home for men

The accumulation of subcutaneous fat (among other factors) is influenced by sex hormones - testosterone in men and estrogen in women. At the same time, high estrogen levels are most often associated with fat storage in the buttocks and thighs, while a lack of testosterone in men is associated with abdominal growth¹.

Although it is impossible to lose weight in a strictly defined area (for example, in the legs or thighs), and excess weight tends to be burned evenly from the entire body, you can try to understand what factors provoked the deposition of fat on the legs. Which, among other things, is influenced by a person’s age.

Why train your legs?

As we have already noted, a set of exercises for the legs is necessary to create a harmoniously developed silhouette. But external aesthetics are not the only advantage of such loads. Let's look at other advantages of lower body training for men:

The leg muscles are the largest in the human body. This means that by performing basic exercises (squats, lunges, etc.), a man stimulates the hormonal system. As a result, there is an increased production of growth hormones, which are responsible for building muscle throughout the body.
If a man is involved in running, martial arts or game disciplines (volleyball, basketball, etc.), leg exercises will allow him to further strengthen his hips and legs. As a result, he will be able to move more sharply, his jump height and movement speed will increase.
If you are overweight, working out your lower body will help combat this problem. Exercises for pumping up the legs involve several large muscle groups, which helps speed up metabolic processes, increase the consumption of calories and, as a result, effectively lose weight.
Let’s say right away that it is impossible to build powerful legs like bodybuilders at home. This requires serious weight loads. But creating a beautiful relief of the lower body and slightly increasing muscle volume is quite possible. Leg training at home is ideal for this.
Leg exercises done at home will help increase blood circulation in the lower body. This is beneficial for the cardiovascular system, as it creates a moderate load on the myocardium. In addition, such exercises will allow a man to maintain a healthy genitourinary system.

What equipment can you buy or make for home training?

If you are just starting to exercise, bodyweight exercises will be quite enough. But over time, you will have to perform more and more repetitions and sets to fatigue the muscles and force them to increase in size.

To keep progress going, increase the difficulty of the exercises with the following equipment.

Rubber expander bands

By stepping on a resistance band and placing the other end of the loop over your shoulders, you can make movements like squats, standing lunges, and Bulgarian split squats more challenging.

Photo: Yulia Obolenskaya

If you take a mini-elastic band or wrap the expander twice around your hips just above your knees, you can increase the load on the muscles in lateral steps and leg raises while lying on your side. And if you hook the elastic band to a stable support, you will be able to bend and straighten your knees.

Leg curls to pump the hamstrings

Since we're talking about training large, strong muscle groups, choose thicker resistance bands: they will provide more resistance and help pump your legs better.

Leg weights

Sand weights that are secured to the legs with straps will add resistance to any plyometric movements.

Bottles of water or sand in a backpack

This is the simplest exercise that will complicate your jumping movements, squats and lunges. Just fill a few bottles with water, put them in your backpack and put them on your back or chest, depending on the exercise. In a glute bridge, you can place a homemade apparatus on your hips.

Canister with sand

Another “vehicle” that will allow you to perform goblet squats is a variation of the exercise in which you hold a weight in front of your chest.

If the canister has a strong handle and a fairly wide handle, you can use it for single-leg Romanian deadlifts and flyovers, which are exercises that target the hamstrings and buttocks.

Recommendations for training

To pump up your legs at home, we recommend that men follow these tips:

Before each lesson, stretch your ankle, knee, and hip joints.
Avoid stretching your leg muscles before strength training, as this will reduce the effectiveness of the exercise.
Recommended training volume: 5-6 exercises of 3-4 sets of 8-12 repetitions (except for calf raises and “chairs”).
Recovery pause between approaches – 2 minutes, between exercises – depending on how you feel.
Do not exercise through pain (especially in joints). If you experience discomfort, it is better to postpone the lesson.
Try to choose the weight of the equipment so that the last 2 repetitions of the set are difficult.
Between sets, massage your thighs and calves to avoid clogging the muscles with blood.
Number of classes – 1 time per week (we recommend combining leg training with classes for the back, arms, abs, and chest).

Why do some men get fat in their thighs, legs and buttocks?

There are several options for the development of such events, for example:

genetics;
problems with hormones.

Genetics

Fat is usually stored where it is convenient for it. In men, this most often occurs in the abdomen and sides, but it can also occur in the thighs. It's all because of your genetics. Nature itself decides where your cookies and dumplings eaten before bed will go. It also depends on what genetics your ancestors had .

Perhaps you are a direct descendant of a centaur. That’s why you have such huge hips and such a toned torso (or not too toned, but at least not very fat).

But you can calm down a little, it’s not your fault, you can’t tell your body where and how much fat to store. Your only fault is that you were caught in random food relationships and ate your ass-blimp.

Problems with hormones

If it smells like a hormonal imbalance, then things are much worse. You could say that this glitch makes you a little bit of a woman. That is, you have problems in the balance of male and female hormones, androgens and estrogens.

You store fat according to the female type. And for women, such deposits are the norm, because they need massive thighs to bear children. But don’t panic too much, you’re unlikely to give birth to a baby, so you can relax your buns.

This hormonal imbalance is associated with your diet, bad habits, lifestyle, or taking any medications.

I advise you to go to the hospital with this question , because hormones are not to be trifled with. Today, female-type fat is deposited, and tomorrow you will start wearing women’s underwear. Joke. But go to the doctor anyway, and it’s better not to delay this issue.

But be that as it may, it was partly your disordered eating and sedentary lifestyle that led you to this appearance. I doubt that this article is being read by a person whose entire refrigerator is filled with vegetables and kefir. Most likely, my reader is a fan of eating dumplings with mayonnaise while watching a TV series.

Example training plan

Let's look at an example of a simple leg training program for beginners. There will be no complicated supersets here. Only basic exercises that build volume and develop leg strength.

Warm up on a jump rope (5-7 minutes) + warm up the joints.
Calf raises (4/15-20).
Squats (4/10-12).
Bulgarian lunges (3-4/10-12).
Deadlift (3-4/10-12).
Side lunges (3-4/10-12).
Ab crunches on the floor (3-4/15-20).

To finish your workout, massage your leg muscles and do some simple stretching. This will help you recover faster and avoid severe post-workout pain.

Where can I get ready-made training programs?

If you don’t want to create movements yourself, try ready-made complexes from popular trainers. We'll show you three options - choose what you like best, or try them all.

Circuit interval training for 20 minutes

This is a workout from bodybuilder, trainer and physical therapist Jeff Cavalier. You can do it without any equipment or add weights.

The complex is performed in an interval format and consists of four circles - 5 minutes each. You perform the first three movements of each circle one after another during certain intervals:

For beginners - 15 seconds of work, 15 seconds of rest.
For an average level of training - 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest.
For advanced athletes - 25 seconds of work, 5 seconds of rest.

So this part will take 90 seconds to complete. After this, you rest for 60 seconds and move on to corrective exercises to develop hip mobility. These movements are the same for all circuits of the workout - raising your legs while lying on your side and sliding into a side lunge to stretch the adductors.

You do each of these exercises for 30 seconds per leg. As a result, the corrective part takes 2 minutes, and the whole circle takes 4.5 minutes. After this, you can rest for 30 seconds and move on to the next circle.

Circle 1

Air squats or weighted goblet squats.
Glute bridge steps.
Swing with a dumbbell (canister of sand) or imitation without weight.

Circle 2

Reverse lunges.
Sprinter lunges.
Jump squats.

Circle 3

Squats without pausing at the top.
Romanian single leg deadlift.
Romanian deadlift with the leg pulled back and the knee brought forward.

Circle 4

Transition from lunges to squats without straightening.
Glute bridge with almost straight legs.
Sprinter's lunges without straightening.

If you feel that you have some strength left, you can repeat this workout from the beginning. Thus, you will spend 40 minutes working on your legs.

Workout with two supersets and a challenge

This is a small complex from the German trainer Alex Lorenz, founder of the Calimovement resource dedicated to calisthenics.

The workout includes four good leg exercises spread across two supersets. The complex ends with a three-minute challenge designed to finish off your muscles (and challenge your endurance).

Superset 1

Pistol squats - 4 reps.
Single leg glute bridge - 8 reps.

Perform both exercises on one leg, then rest for 60 seconds and repeat the same on the other. After this, take a break for 60 seconds and do the superset two more times.

Superset 2

Bulgarian split squats - 8 times.
Raising your toes - 12 times.

Perform both exercises on one leg without resting in between, then rest for 30 seconds and do the same on the other leg. Take a break again for 30 seconds and perform two more circles.

Finisher

Set a timer for three minutes and do as many jump squats as you can.

It is better not to jump immediately until you are completely tired, but to work calmly for all three minutes. To keep your strength, take breaks every 15-20 seconds. After a pause, don't stand for long - shake off your legs and continue.

Try to do more each time. If today you managed to complete 20 repetitions in three minutes, next time try to do 21.

A set of 10 exercises

This is "leg day" from THENX app with a calisthenics training program. In the video below it is demonstrated by athlete John Oslager.

In this workout, you do most of the exercises not by time, but by the number of times. Rest between movements for 15 seconds. If you feel that you can continue without rest, do so.

The workout consists of the following movements:

Alternate lunges and squats with jumps - 30 seconds.
Bulgarian split squats - 10 times per leg.
Lunges - 10 times per leg.
Jump squats - 14 times.
Jumping jets - 40 times.
Squats with hands behind head - 20 times.
Side lunges - 10 times per leg.
Walking sideways in a squat with your hands behind your head - 20 steps.
Raising on your toes - 15 times per leg.
Hold a static squat for 45 seconds.

When you finish one circuit, rest for a few minutes and start again. You need to do three circles in total.

Classes in the hall

The leg muscles include several dozen elements. Therefore, they are considered the most complex, interconnected muscle system in the human body. Even small calves have many small muscles located at different depths. Therefore, a well-designed workout includes a “mix” of exercises.

The anterior thigh muscles are easier to work with squats. The buttocks and hamstrings are swayed by swings and lunges. There are also external and internal parts of the thighs that can be worked during the extension and reduction of the legs.