When put up against any body part, it is no surprise that legs are the most important and anyone who works out on a regular basis should definitely have the right exercises implemented into their workout routine. Thing is, there are a ton of leg exercises to choose from, but what leg exercises work out to be the best for you? To answer this question, you must first look at your ultimate goals and what you are trying to achieve when it comes to working out your legs. Are you after more size? Are you currently involved in sports and need to get faster? Do you need more power or flexibility?

Whatever your goal is, that will point you in the right direction of the proper leg exercises that you need to implement into your workout routine to make the most progress. There are exercises that are suited for each goal that we have described and now, we’ll cover one of each.

Barbell Back Squat For Power

If you take a look at any football team, you will see that barbell back squat is one of the staple, leg exercises that they do on a consistent basis. Why? It delivers the most strength and power when compared to any of the other leg exercises. There isn’t any part of the lower body that isn’t worked in this movement. Hams, glutes, calves, quads, everything including your groin are worked to deliver the most amount of power and strength that each individual is capable of.

Lunges For Flexibility

Lunges are one of the best leg exercises for flexibility simply because of the depth that you hit when you are at the bottom of the position. It involves stepping forward and squatting with your legs split apart. This is mostly a stretch, but it can very easily be turned into a more intense, weight lifting workout if you were to hold dumbbells while you were to hit the depths in your lunges.

Sled Push/Sprint For Speed

The sled push/sprint is one of the closely guarded, secret leg exercises that a lot of top athletes use to really increase their agility and speed. In a nutshell, you either push a sled that has weighted plates on it, or you tie a rope to a waist belt and you pull the sled when you do your sprints. Doing this consistently will program your body to get used to pulling heavy weight. That way, when you are without weight, you will move that much faster.

Barbell Squat For Hypertrophy

Yes – the barbell squat made the list twice. Turns out that the barbell squat is not only one of the best leg exercises for strength and power, but it also checks out to be one of the best for hypertrophy and building muscle mass. As we explained earlier, the barbell squat is working all of the muscles in the lower body. This triggers a great, hormonal response within the body and it stimulates the growth factor within the muscle tissue. This is why those who do this exercise regularly put on mass on their entire body including their legs.

Conclusion: The Best Leg Exercises To Add To Your Workout Routine

To sum everything up, the best leg exercises to add to your workout routine are completely based on the goals that you have for your legs. Simply find out exactly what you want to accomplish, and then find the leg exercises that will bring about that result. You have three different leg exercises to work with here and while they are only a few, there are many more that we haven’t covered, but these are very effective.