6 Underrated Leg Day Exercises for Women

No matter how devoted the fitness enthusiast, lifters all around the world share a love-hate relationship with leg day. The volume and intensity necessary to promote lower body increases is exhausting and, at times, gut-wrenching.

However, the majority of people like toiling through challenging squat workouts to achieve greater strength, larger quadriceps, and improve their overall physique.

The finest leg day exercises involve motions that target all angles. Sometimes, the best exercises aren't the most well-liked ones. By exercising your legs, you can increase your calorie expenditure, T-levels, mobility, and, of course, strength, power, and mass.

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Best Leg Day Exercises that are Underrated

Making a decision on the best lower body exercises is not too tough. The best workouts challenge many leg muscles, while allowing you to raise relatively large weights.

Take a look at the six exercises outlined below that are the most effective for growing muscle:

1) Hip Thrust

Hip thrust is one of the most underrated leg day exercises that increases the mass and strength of your glutes. Even while back squats and deadlifts target the glutes, the hip thrust comes the closest to an isolation exercise for the glutes.

Here’s how you can do it:

• Sit on a bench with its edge parallel to you and your back up against it.
• Roll a weighted barbell into the groove of your hips while cushioning your pelvis.
• Drive your feet back towards the bench after the barbell is safely in place.
• You want your upper body, hips, and shoulder blades to be in a straight line with the bench.
• As you bring your hips down to the floor and when you stretch into a lockout, keep your upper body steady.

2) Seated dumbbell calf raises

Seated dumbbell calf raises must be included in your leg day exercises. The soleus is the only muscle under focus in the seated variant because the hamstrings are inactive. If you're using the treadmill for too long, strengthening your calves can help with shin splints.

Here’s how to do it:

• Sit on a bench with your toes on a weight plate that has been placed on the ground.
• Put a dumbbell on your knee and grip it with your right hand on the handle and your left hand on the top.
• Lift your toes as high as you can. After pausing, repeat by lowering the object back onto the weight.

3) Barbell side lunge

Best leg day exercises include side lunges, also referred to as lateral lunges. Side lunges exercise several lower body muscular groups, including your quadriceps, glutes, adductors, and hamstrings.

Here’s how to do it:

• Hold a barbell on your back while standing with your legs under your hips.
• Keep your left leg straight as you step your right leg out to the side and stoop down while bending your knee.
• Repeat on the opposite side, then drive yourself back up to the starting position.

4) Good morning

This leg day exercise works wonders for creating the strong foundations needed to big lift personal records. This is a fantastic posterior chain workout to tone the glutes and hamstrings while working the core.

Here’s how to do it:

• Behind your neck, cross your shoulders with a barbell.
• For the weight to come off the bar, make sure your shoulder blades are pushed back.
• Brace your core and lower your head towards the floor by softly bending at the hips.
• At the bottom, pause, then turn around.

5) Kettlebell pistol squat

This is a fantastic leg day exercise that challenges hip mobility and stability and directly contributes to improving, in equal parts, strength, agility, and balance, and allowing those who can execute it flawlessly, a free pass to brag.

Here’s how to do it:

• Just behind your chin, hold one kettlebell with both hands.
• Squat down while raising one leg off the ground.
• Don't let your leg touch the ground as you drive through the heel and raise yourself back to an upright posture. Repeat by going back down.

6) Bus driver squat hold

This is a super effective leg day exercise that works your quads hard but is also a great warm-up. It is incredibly beneficial for your rotator cuffs.

Here’s how to do it:

• Standing with your feet wider than your shoulders, hold a weight plate out in front of you with both hands.
• Bring your knees to your chest and crouch down by sticking out your behind.
• For 30 to 60 seconds, maintain this posture.

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Wrapping Up

These are some underrated leg day exercise suggestions that will change based on your goals and what works best for you because there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for strength training.

Since so many large muscle groups with high loading capacity are used in lower body exercise, it can be challenging. But if you have to use your lower body to support your upper body movements, it might seem quite fulfilling.