Benefits Of Leg Workouts, Or Why You Shouldn’t Skip Your Leg Day

Leg days, some people love them and cannot wait to train this part of their body, while others cannot stand it – they would rather do anything than exercise their lower body. 

Whether you enjoy training legs or not, the undeniable truth is that exercising your lower body is an essential part of good health and a good workout routine. 

Read on to learn more about the benefits of leg workouts and why you should never skip leg day.

Why Is Working out the Legs so Important?

Whether you enjoy doing at-home leg workouts, going to the gym, or doing lower-body calisthenics outside, you must always include lower-body workouts in your routine at least once, maybe twice a week. Here are some reasons to show you the importance of leg workouts.

The Benefits of Leg Workouts for Your Body

• May Save You from Chronic Illnesses

Rarely do we ever make the connection between lower-body exercises and illnesses,  but research would say otherwise. According to a study published in The Journal of Nutrition, Health and Aging, one of the benefits of having strong legs is a decreased risk of chronic illnesses.

The review looked at studies from a 15-year period, all with subjects aged 50 years or above. In their findings, the researchers stated that the older adults who had more leg power had less association with chronic illnesses, namely osteoarthritis, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease (1).

While these studies may have been conducted on older adults, there is no reason to assume that younger people can’t attain the same benefit. After all, chronic illnesses don’t discriminate according to age.

• May Improve or Even Preserve Brain and Nervous System Health

In a study published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, scientists restricted the hind legs of mice for 28 days to see what would happen to them. Nothing about the mice’s routines or diet were changed. 

After the study period, researchers found the brains of the mice that had their hind legs restricted produced 70% fewer neural stem cells compared to the mice that weren’t restricted. They also found that neurons and oligodendrocytes – specialized cells that support and insulate nerve cells – didn’t fully mature when exercise was severely reduced.

From this, researchers concluded that using the legs, particularly in weight-bearing exercise, is good for the brain and nervous system as it allows for the production of essential healthy neural cells. Researchers also stated that this lack of activity or movement in the lower body could be a contributing factor to why patients with illnesses that restrict their movement often face a rapid decline in their health (2).

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• Can Help Increase Upper-Body Strength and Gains

This is perhaps one of the more attractive benefits of leg workouts for men than it is for women. It’s no secret that men with bigger upper bodies are considered more attractive and that men generally prefer upper-body exercises to lower-body ones – a fact that has been proven by science (3).

As a man, if you want to increase the strength and gains in your upper body – be it for aesthetic or functional purposes – you need to stop giving all your gym time to your arms, back, and shoulders, and dedicate some of that time to squats, deadlifts, and other leg workouts.

The results from a controlled trial published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that the routine that focused on muscle hypertrophy for the lower body and high-intensity protocol for the upper body stimulated greater strength and power gains in the upper body (4). 

These results were in comparison to a routine that only did high-intensity exercises for both the upper and lower body. This goes to show that directly targeting the legs to increase muscle can help with your upper-body gains.

• You Engage Your Major Muscle Groups and Get a Cardiovascular Load

Yes, workouts of this type mainly aim to sculpt your legs. However, the majority of the exercises engage several muscle groups. For example, when you perform your favorite squats, your glutes and quads work, in addition to your core muscles. Furthermore, such training sessions increase your heart rate and as a result, you combine strength and cardio exercises.

• Stronger Legs Can Improve Athletic Performance 

This is one of the benefits of leg workouts for women and men, particularly if they are athletes or people who enjoy engaging in various sporting activities as a hobby. Leg workouts aim to make your legs toned and strong. 

According to research, stronger legs will significantly improve your athletic performance. Training legs can help you jump, run, and throw better, which is beneficial for soccer/football players, runners, and more (5, 6, 7). If you don’t engage in athletics, training your legs can help you go up stairs faster, jog better, hike faster, be better at jumping rope, etc.

• Leg Workouts Contribute to Your Weight Loss

Leg muscles are the biggest muscle group in your body. Increasing muscle mass in the body helps boost your metabolism, specifically your resting metabolic rate. The higher your metabolism, the more calories you’ll burn. This simply means that the more you grow or strengthen your lower body, the better your metabolism works, the more calories you burn, and the potential to see better weight and fat loss results increases.

If you’ve been wondering whether leg workouts can also help burn belly fat in men, the answer is yes. To reduce belly fat, you must reduce fat all over your body (spot reduction is a myth) and as we’ve seen, leg workouts are great for this.

• Can Help With the Prevention and Management of Lower-Back Pain

Exercise, specifically workouts that combine muscular strength, flexibility, and aerobic fitness, have been shown to help with the management and rehabilitation of chronic lower-back pain (8).

Leg workouts specifically have also been shown to be beneficial for this. In one study published in the Journal of Musculoskeletal and Neuronal Interactions, researchers found that patients with lower-back pain had smaller lower limb muscles than their healthy counterparts (9).

In another study published in The Journal of Physical Therapy Science, researchers found that when patients engaged in glute strengthening exercises – all of which are leg workouts – they experienced a significant decrease in low back pain (10).

• Can Help with Your Testosterone Levels

Does training your legs increase testosterone levels? Research has shown that yes, it does. Exercise, specifically heavy resistance training, has been shown to improve testosterone levels in both young and older men (11). Research on leg workouts suggests that doing these workouts with free weights is better for your testosterone levels than doing them with gym machines (12).

• They Will Make Your Body Look Balanced and Symmetrical

Bulked-up upper body and thin waist but weak legs – you may have seen such pictures plenty of times. It happens when people pay all their attention to upper-body workouts but ignore leg day. Your body should look symmetrical as that is much more attractive. 

In addition, training the entire body is an effective way to avoid injuries. The point is that your body works like a unit, every exercise engages several muscle groups. That’s why there should be a balance for your muscles to function properly. Furthermore, your lower body faces high amounts of physical load, so if it’s undertrained, this may lead to several health issues. 

Read more: At-Home Calisthenics Workout: Transform Your Fitness Journey from Home

What Are the Best Workouts to Strengthen My Legs?

There’s an extremely wide range of exercises for every muscle group. You can find dozens of leg workouts that will help you achieve your fitness goal. However, some of them are more popular and highly effective. 

Below, you can see a list of the three most common and efficient exercises that will target your entire lower body:

Squats

This is a standard exercise for your lower body.  If you’re a beginner, you may need  no equipment, but feel free to try this with a little bit of weight once you get the proper form down. If you have some experience in working out, you can use a barbell or dumbbells for a better effect.

1. Start with your feet a little wider than hip-width. Turn your toes slightly outward and keep your hands by your sides. 
2. Keep your back straight. Engage your abs and core muscles to support your spine. 
3. Now lower your body, shifting your hips backward and bending your knees until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Make sure you don’t move your feet. 
4. Exhale and slowly return to the starting position. That’s one rep.  

Deadlifts

For this exercise, you’ll need a barbell. 

1. Stand in front of the barbell with your feet shoulder-width apart. Your toes should be slightly rotated out. Keep your back straight and slightly sit back into your hips. Your chest should be lifted slightly upward. 
2. Now you should bend forward to grip the barbell with both palms facing your body, but it can also be done with one palm facing you and the other facing the opposite direction to increase grip strength. You should then sink back onto the hips and press your feet into the floor. 
3. Push your hips forward while extending your knees to get to the standing position with your legs straight and your shoulders pulled back. Remember to keep your back flat. Slowly return to the starting position.  

It’s important to perform the move properly and make sure you engage your core, your glutes, and the back of your thighs instead of your back.

Lunges

This exercise has numerous variations, all of which are effective. You can choose the one you like the most. For example, a forward lunge. To perform this, you should: 

1. Start by standing with your feet together. Pull your shoulders back and down. Keep your abs and back engaged. 
2. Step forward with your right leg so your right thigh is parallel to the floor. Remember to keep your balance and avoid swaying your upper body. 
3. In this split stance, bend both knees and lower the center of your body toward the floor. Your left knee should come close to touching the ground at the bottom of this movement. 
4. Squeeze your glutes and quads to get back to the starting position. Repeat the same move for your left leg. 

When you have more experience in performing this type of exercise, you can use dumbbells to improve the effect of your training sessions.

Check out this article for the best calisthenic leg workout for women.

How Often Should I Do Leg Day?

You can exercise your legs up to twice a week, preferably on alternating days. Please note that there are no benefits to training your legs every day. Constantly exercising any muscle group without a break will only lead to overtraining. 

Not only will overtraining prevent any gains in muscle strength and mass, it can also negatively affect your mood, mental health, sleep pattern, immune system, and more (13).

Remember to always do leg stretches after a workout.

Read more: Do These Glute Isolation Exercises at Home and Fire up Your Glutes

What Happens If I Only Do Leg Workouts?

As previously mentioned, training your legs every day can lead to overtraining. Training legs alone – with ample rest – can also lead to an imbalanced physique. 

In the same way that a large upper body and weak thin legs aren’t particularly attractive, the same can be said of strong legs and a weak upper body.  

Regardless of whether you’re a man or a woman, a balanced physique is amazing for improved functional fitness and is typically considered to be more attractive.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is it good to train your legs daily?

No, it isn’t. As previously mentioned, training your legs daily – or any other muscle group for that matter – will only lead to overtraining syndrome, which sabotages your workout progress and overall health.

• Is it OK to never train your legs?

No, it’s not. As mentioned above, leg exercises have multiple health benefits. In addition, failure to train your legs gives you an unbalanced physique, which is rather unattractive.

• Why is leg day the hardest?

The legs have some of the largest muscles in the body, so training this area of the body can be rather demanding for both beginners and advanced exercisers. To mitigate the demand:

• Eat well before the workout so you can be strong 
• Take breaks – HIIT is great, but may not always be the best option
• Pace yourself
• Stay hydrated before, during, and after your workout

• Are 3 exercises enough for your legs?

Yes, they are, especially for beginners. You don’t need to overdo your workout. A routine that has 3 exercises is enough – simply do 3 sets of each workout with 8 to 12 reps per workout and you’re good to go. 

The Bottom Line

The benefits of leg workouts go beyond just aesthetics. While looking good is nothing to be looked down upon, training your legs also has health benefits that shouldn’t be ignored or taken lightly. If you’ve been skipping leg days, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and alter your routine to include them!