6 Best Lower Body Barbell Exercises for Men

It’s important to work on your legs using lower body barbell exercises. The legs are an important muscle group and provide your physique a well-developed appearance.

If you don’t work on your legs, you’ll end up with a broad upper body and skinny legs, resulting in a popular phenomenon in the fitness industry known as 'chicken legs'.

It’s not a great appearance, and the upper body muscles put pressure on the lower body, especially the joints. Hence, it’s important to build a strong set of lower body muscles for the overall development of the physique and for greater strength.

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Best Lower Body Barbell Exercises for Men

The lower body has two primary muscle groups - lower back and legs. Usually, most back and leg exercises include the lower body. However, the legs have three major parts - quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves.

The following are six of the best lower body barbell exercises men should do if they want to develop their lower body:

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1) Barbell Squat

Barbell squats work on the quadriceps. You can do barbell squats with the barbell on your neck or on your shoulders (front squats).

When you’re doing barbell squats, begin with a weight that your lower body can handle. You don’t want to use a weight that completely exhausts your muscles. Instead, use a weight with which you can do at least three sets of ten reps each.

You can find a guide to doing barbell squats here.

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2) Good Morning

Good mornings are barbell exercises for the hamstrings. To do this exercise, put the barbell on your neck, and bend forward from the hips.

Keep bending till you can, and when you move back to the starting position, ensure you’re pushing with your hamstrings. It’s important to build a muscle-mind connection during this exercise, otherwise your lower back and hips would take over.

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3) Deadlift

Deadlifts are one of the top lower body barbell exercises. This exercise has variations and can work on the lower body, quadriceps, and hamstrings.

If you want to do deadlifts, you need to pick the correct variation, depending on what you want to work on. The most common ones are conventional deadlifts and stiff-legged deadlifts.

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4) Clean and Jerk

The clean and jerk focuses on the lower and upper body. It's a top lower body barbell exercise.

It’s a CrossFit movement that works on burning excessive calories because of the extra effort needed and helps with building strength. You can find the guide to doing the clean and jerk here.

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5) Front Squat

When you’re doing front squats, the barbell needs to rest on your shoulders. However, front squats are slightly more difficult to balance than standard squats.

The entire barbell rests on your shoulders, and you must maintain balance while lowering your body. To ensure you’re doing it right, try to keep your knees from crossing your toes.

Here’s a step-by-step instruction for front squats:

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6) Barbell Lunge

Barbell lunges work on the quadriceps and hamstrings and are a difficult lower body barbell exercise.

You need to place the barbell on your neck before proceeding to do lunges. It’s easier if you try this exercise using a Smith machine before moving to a power rack.

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Bottom Line

There are other barbell exercises too, but you need to focus on the basic movements that can help the muscles build foundation. Variations are used to tweak your workout routine when it gets too monotonous. Otherwise, stick to the basics for as long as possible.