The 23 Best Lower Body Exercises for Serious Leg Strength
When it comes to building power in your lower body, we can’t do the work for you, but we can put the best leg workouts for running in one easy-to-find place. These resistance exercises will help you maintain essential lean muscle and improve both your leg strength and efficiency, so you can do more work with less effort, improve your endurance, and pump power into every step you take.
The following are the best exercises to get the job done. Each exercise targets at least one of your major lower-body muscles from every angle. Runners benefit from doing single-leg moves as well to build balanced strength.
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How to use this list: Rotate through these circuits below, performed two to three days a week, to keep your muscles guessing and prevent boredom or burnout. Each move is demonstrated by Meghan Hayden, certified personal trainer at Performix House in New York City so you can master the proper form.
Pro tips:
• Lift to momentary fatigue—the point at which you can’t perform another rep with proper form.
• Start exercises shown with dumbbells with just your body weight first to perfect your form. Then add weights and slowly progress.
•Some days, go heavy enough you can only eke out 6 to 8 reps. Other days, lighten up and perform higher reps (12 to 15) to fatigue. For jumps, go by feel.
• Plan your strength sessions on the same days as interval workouts or hard rides. Yes, that makes those hard days even harder—but it allows for proper rest and recovery on easy days.
• Lift seasonally. Carve out a 12- to 16-week period during which to build strength, and transition into an easy maintenance phase after that with workouts once or twice a week. Skip the weights during taper weeks if you’re training to race.
Build strength, stability, and efficiency with these moves to pump power into every step.
