7 Best Barbell Leg Exercises: Strengthen Quads, Glutes & Hamstrings

Best Barbell Leg Workout Routine 

Our barbell exercises for legs workout contains four key compound functional leg movements: the traditional squat, deadlift, front squat, and hip thrust. Alongside this, we’ve included some isolation leg machine workouts at the end using a superset. This ensures sufficient training volume for muscle hypertrophy.

We’ve put together barbell quad exercises that efficiently work the main leg muscles. Our barbell squat variations include the traditional squat and barbell front squat. The latter places more focus on the quadriceps and requires higher core engagement while using the hypertrophy loading recommendations.

Our barbell glute and hamstring exercises include the barbell Romanian deadlift and the barbell hip thrust. These use the suggested strength loading recommendations.

The squat and deadlift movements work each of the big muscle groups, while the hip thrust directly targets the glutes. The Romanian deadlift can also be included in a stand-alone barbell hamstring workout. The machine-based superset is a high-volume finisher for the quads and the hamstring muscles.

Our main compound movements utilize a percentage of your one repetition max to gauge training intensity. This is a measure of how much weight you can lift for one repetition with good form. Work this out using our one rep max calculator or with the help of a qualified professional. 

These exercises can be integrated into a leg workout at home, provided you have the right equipment and suitable space. You can add them to a dumbbell leg workout if you want to combine different training types. 

Anatomy Of The Legs

The legs play crucial roles in nearly every movement we make. Understanding their anatomy helps improve training by giving us the why behind what we’re doing.

Quadriceps 

The quadriceps are a powerful group of four muscles at the front of the thigh. 

• Rectus Femoris — This is a superficial muscle at the center of the thigh, meaning it’s most easily seen. It performs knee extension and hip flexion.
• Vastus Lateralis — The vastus lateralis is the largest quad muscles, located on the outer part of the thigh. It extends and stabilizes the knees, especially from the outside.
• Vastus Medialis — This muscle is on the inner part of the thigh, creating the teardrop shape just above the knee. It extends and stabilizes the knees, especially on the inside.
• Vastus Intermedius — This is located deeper, underneath the rectus femoris muscle. It originates from the thigh bone and inserts into the knee. It extends the knee.

Hamstrings

The hamstrings are a group of three muscles at the back of the thighs, opposite the quadriceps. Each plays an important role in walking, running, jumping, and lifting from the floor.

• Semitendinosus — This muscle is on the inner part of the thigh. It originates from the base of the pelvis and inserts into the shin bone. It functions to bend the knees and extend the hips. 
• Semimembranosus — The semimembranosus is underneath the semitendinosus. It originates from the pelvis and inserts into the shin bone near the knee joint. It also bends the knees, extends the hips, and rotates the lower leg inwards.
• Biceps Femoris — This muscle is on the outside of the back of the thigh and can be split into two parts: the short head and long head. Both bend the knees.

The long head also extends the the hips, helping you to push off when running and stand up. Because of this, it’s important for fast and powerful movements. 

Glutes

The gluteal muscles, or glutes, are made up of three main muscle groups. 

• Gluteus Maximus — This is the largest and most superficial of the three glute muscles, meaning it’s closest to the surface of the skin. It originates from the back of the pelvis and inserts into the thigh bone. 

It brings the hips back and plays a vital role in movement and power generation. The squat and hip thrust use the glutes to perform hip extension. Research shows that these exercises activate the glute max at 53% and 75% of a muscle contraction, respectively.

Gluteus Medius — The gluteus medius originates from the hip and inserts into the thigh bone. It performs hip abduction (bringing the legs away from the midline) and rotation. During movement, the gluteus medius prevents the hips from dipping to one side.

• Gluteus Minimus — This is the deepest and smallest of the three glute muscles, sitting underneath the gluteus medius. It originates from the hip bone and inserts into the thigh bone. It abducts the hips and rotates them inwards.

Calves

The calf muscles are at the back of the lower leg. They are important for walking, running, jumping, and maintaining balance. 

• Gastrocnemius — This is the larger, more visible calf muscle that is responsible for the rounded calf shape. It originates from the thigh bone and inserts into the heel bone. It points the toes down and helps to bend the knee as it also crosses the knee joint.
• Soleus — The soleus is a flat, broad muscle that sits deep underneath the gastrocnemius. It originates from the shin bone and inserts into the heel. It performs plantarflexion, but doesn’t assist with knee flexion as it doesn’t cross the knee joint.

Benefits Of Leg Barbell Exercises

Performing a heavy barbell leg day routine has several benefits that you should be aware of. Below are the three main ones. 

Enhanced Strength And Power 

Strength is the ability of the muscles to generate force, while power is the ability to produce force quickly. Both are crucial for explosive movements such as jumping, lifting, and sprinting. 

Some of the best barbell leg exercises for strength, like squats and deadlifts, allow for heavy progressive loading. With the right resistance training intensity, which is an important training variable, they’re ideal for building strength and power. 

Unlike machines, barbell leg exercises require more core and stabilizer muscle activation. While it increases the exercise difficulty, it enables you to lift more weight using these functional movement patterns. 

Improved Muscular Hypertrophy 

Muscular hypertrophy, also known as muscle growth, refers to an increase in the size of muscle fibres. For this adaptive response to occur, the muscles need a sufficient resistance training stimulus. This can be achieved with enough mechanical tension and metabolic stress (a build-up of metabolic byproducts).

Barbell exercises for leg hypertrophy require multiple large muscle groups for correct performance. This provides enough training volume so that the progressive overload principle can occur. It’s easier to add more weight or increase the amount of work over time, ensuring a key driver of hypertrophy.

Furthermore, a barbell leg workout for mass engages several supporting muscle groups, resulting in balanced development and symmetry. Programming them to form the foundation of your leg training ensures a well-rounded leg workout.

Better Functional Movement And Stability

Functional movement is the ability of the body to perform everyday activities efficiently and safely. Stability involves maintaining control of your body position when stationary and during movement.

Barbell exercises train the body using multi-joint movement patterns that closely mimic real-world activities. A squat represents sitting down and getting up. A deadlift is similar to picking something up off the floor, such as your children or your shopping bags.

As barbell leg movements are commonly performed without fixed support, they require the body to stabilize itself under load. This requires added core and stabilizer muscle engagement, improving the body’s stabilization abilities. 

If you want to perform more functional movement, we’ve also designed a calisthenics leg workout. Some of these use different squat variations and dynamic exercises that improve your movement.

Expert Training Tips 

Follow our expert training tips to get the most out of these barbell leg exercises. These can also be applied to a normal leg workout or other training routines. 

• Focus On Proper Technique — Correct exercise technique ensures you work target muscles efficiently and reduces potential injury risk. Start with lighter weights and practice your technique in the mirror or with the help of a partner.
• Control Your Lifting Tempo — Each of these barbell leg exercises should be performed using a controlled lifting tempo. Combine a slower eccentric (downward) movement with a faster concentric (upward) movement. This improves muscle activation and prevents momentum from being used.
• Engage Your Core — Brace your abdominal muscles before lifting and maintain the brace throughout your full repetition. This provides enough pressure around your torso and spine to keep a stable lifting position. 
• Use Full Range Of Motion — Performing each barbell leg exercise through their full range of motion ensures complete development for the key leg muscles. Allow your quads to come at least parallel to the floor when squatting. Perform a hip hinge until you feel a stretch when carrying out Romanian deadlifts.
• Warm-Up And Cool-Down — A proper warm-up ensures that your muscles and joints are ready for the upcoming task. This should consist of light cardio exercise, dynamic stretches, and warm-up sets. A cool-down should be performed following your session to reduce the chance of delayed onset muscle soreness.
• Take Enough Recovery — Get at least 48 hours of recovery between sessions to allow your muscles to recover properly and for your energy levels to replenish. Use active rest days when needed and ensure you get at least seven hours of sleep per night.

Conclusion

Barbell leg exercises are an excellent training method for developing strength and power, building bigger legs, and improving functional movement. They allow progressive heavy loading and mimic many functional movement patterns used in activities of daily living.

Try our best barbell exercises to build a pair of legs that you’ve always dreamed of. Follow our expert tips and you’ll be on the right path in no time.