Leg day warm-up routine you must follow

Leg day warm-up is just as important as the exercises you do on leg day. While the latter helps you strengthen the leg muscles, leg day warm-up helps with protecting the muscles from injury and stress.

During each leg day warm-up, or any warm-up, the idea is to activate the muscle fibers before exposing them to heavy weight training during the session. That helps with better blood flow and stability, protection from injury, and other benefits.

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Why is warm-up important before working out?

Hamstring stretch (Photo via Unsplash/Michael DeMoya)

As mentioned earlier, you should warm-up before any exercise, and leg days are no exception. However, it’s beneficial to know more than just that you should warm up. You should know the benefits of warming up the muscles.

Here're some of the benefits of adding static stretches and a warm-up session to your leg day routine:

Preventing injury

Most of the exercises done during leg days are compound exercises. Hence, it’s important that the muscles, joints, and cardiovascular system are prepared for the session and can meet the demands of the workout.

Additionally, a proper leg day warm up session helps with identifying areas of discomfort and pain and helps with addressing them before they exacerbate.

Improving performance

Heavy exercise requires the muscles to work with more effort. Therefore, it’s important to have better oxygen, blood, and energy flow throughout the system. A proper warm-up can help with the same, along with improving flexibility, form, and coordination.

Preparing mentally

It’s important to mentally prepare for a workout session. Therefore, a leg day warm-up can allow you to boost focus, increase motivation, and reduce anxiety before a workout.

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What are leg day warm-up stretches?

Quad stretch (Photo via Unsplash/Josh Duke)

Talking about leg day warm-up, the movements are leg stretches that work on opening up and relieving the body of any tension and stress. A good leg day stretch is a great way to kickstart a leg day workout session.

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Hamstring stretch

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart.
• Keep one heel on a an elevated platform while the other foot is on the floor.
• Keep the elevated leg completely stretched.
• Maintaining your balance, bend forward from the hips.
• Try to touch the toe of the elevated leg. You should feel a stretch in your hamstring.
• Hold the position for a few seconds before relaxing.
• Repeat that multiple times before switching legs

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Quad stretch

• Stand with your legs hip-width apart.
• Put your left hand on a wall for support.
• Bring your right foot towards the glutes by bending from the knees,
• Use your right hand to hold your right ankle, and pull it closer to the glutes You will feel a stretch in your quads
• Hold it for a couple of seconds before relaxing.
• Repeat 4-5 times before switching your legs and hands.

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Butterfly stretch

• Sit on the floor. Touch the soles of your feet together
• Your knees will be flared outwards and bent. Press down on your knees with your elbows
• Hold for 30 seconds before relaxing. Sit with a forward bend.
• Sit on the floor. Keep your legs extended forward
• Bend forward from the hips, and try to touch your toes. You will feel a stretch in the hamstrings.
• Hold it for a few seconds before relaxing

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Hip flexor stretch

• Go down on one knee. Keep the other leg bent at 90 degrees in front of you
• Push forward with your hips till you feel a stretch in the hips
• Hold for 10-12 seconds before relaxing.

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Ankle rotation

• Stand with your legs hip-width apart. Put your hands on your waist.
• Lift one leg slightly off the floor, and balance yourself on the other
• Rotate the ankle of the lifted leg in both clockwise and anti-clockwise motion before switching legs

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Leg day warm-up is extremely important, but you shouldn’t overdo it. That's because when you’re focusing on a leg day warm up with the aforementioned stretches, the fibers are just starting to activate themselves. If you put excessive force on them, you could end up with an injury during the stretch itself.

It’s important to understand when to let go off a stretch before any injury occurs.