3 Safe Leg Exercises You Can Do At Home

Training your legs at home without safety equipment can be a challenge, because you need to use bigger weights without endangering yourself. Try these three exercises.

The Step-Up

Once upon a time the humble step-up held as much favor among weightlifters as the squat, but these days has gone a bit out of style.

Unwarranted in my opinion, because it actually trains more muscles, while the target is still the quadriceps (the big muscle on the front of your thighs).

Through the height of the object you step on you can also adjust how much stress you want to put on the knees.

Dumbbell Lunges

Most people do this one for targeting the quadriceps, but that’s not all it can do. If you want more training effect on your buttocks (the gluteus maximus) you can get it: the longer you make the lunge, the more you emphasize it.

Hamstring Curls

Both these exercises mainly train the quadriceps, yet on the back of our legs is another large muscle that needs some love: the hamstrings. Muscular imbalances between them and the quadriceps can influence knee mechanics and in the long this can result in a lot of ouch.

The hamstring curl rectifies that. In the video I do them with the help of the books and board, but you can also do them on the floor. Just keep in mind that it will limit the range of motion a good bit.

So What About Squats And Deadlifts?

Both the squat and the deadlift are great exercises, no doubt about it. But until I can come up with a safe way for doing them at home without supervision and a rack, I rather have you stick to these three.