Leg Workout Without Squats (Exercises for Killer Legs)

In my experience, the leg press is a safe and excellent machine variation for building bigger legs without doing squats.

Here's how to perform them with good technique:

1. Sit on a leg press machine and put your legs on the platform before you. Your legs should be spaced around a foot to approximately two feet apart.
2. Remove the safety bars that are keeping the platform in position. Without locking your knees, push the platform up until your legs are completely stretched. This is your starting point.
3. Slowly drop the platform as you inhale until the upper and lower legs create a 90-degree angle.
4. Return to the beginning position by pushing with your heels and using your quads. Exhale while doing so.
5. Repeat for the desired number of reps.

3. Dumbbell Lunge

Dumbbell lunges are a powerhouse in any leg workout, especially when squats are off the table. As a fitness trainer, I've seen how they effectively target the entire lower body, offering a dynamic challenge that boosts both strength and stability.

Here’s how you do them with good form:

1. Begin with your feet hip-width apart, holding a dumbbell in each hand by your sides.
2. Step forward with one leg, lowering your hips until both knees are bent at about a 90-degree angle. Make sure your front knee is directly above your ankle and your other knee doesn't touch the floor.
3. Keep the weight in your heels as you push back up to the starting position.
4. Repeat the movement, alternating legs for each rep.

From incorporating dumbbell swings into my own workouts, I've learned they're a dynamic hip hinge activity that really engages the lower body.

Instead of squatting as the dumbbell swings between my legs, I focus on hinging my hips backward. It's the powerful contraction of the glutes and the snap of the hips that truly drive the dumbbell upward and forward in an arc, a technique I've refined over time for maximum efficiency.

Here's how to perform a dumbbell swing:

1. Hold a dumbbell in the center with one hand in front of the other. Make sure your feet are shoulder-width apart.
2. Push your hips back and swing the load between your legs without curving your lower back and with your knees slightly bent.
3. When you have the weight behind you, engage your glutes and propel your hips forward to swing the weight to your chest level.
4. At the apex of the exercise, compress your quads, core, and glutes as firmly as you can. Assume you're in the vertical plank posture.
5.  Then, swing the weight back between the feet and repeat.

5. Romanian Deadlift

From my earliest days of lifting, I've consistently relied on the Romanian deadlift (RDL) as a top-tier exercise for targeting the glutes and hamstrings. It's been instrumental in my journey towards gaining muscle mass and sculpting beefy hamstrings.

“The Romanian deadlift is beneficial for back leg strength. Consider the weighted lunges: you wouldn't perform it with 400 pounds, but you could execute a Romanian deadlift using that weight.”
- David Kingsbury, Founder & Head Trainer at Opus Fitness

How you do RDLs:

1. Hold the load (barbell or dumbbells) in front of the thighs and drop to the ground by pulling your hips back.
2. With a slight knee flexion, lower the weight, keeping your shoulder blades pushed together and the chest open and broad.
3. Return to the starting position by thrusting your hips forward when the load is below your knees.
4. Repeat for reps.

I've seen many beginners trying to go heavy on leg lifts when they should be focusing on their range of motion.

Research from the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports found that full ROM resistance training produced better muscle hypertrophy effects than partial ROM [1].

By exercising through the whole range of motion, you avoid using as much weight as you would if you were doing partial repetitions, which may help you avoid undue structural stress on connective tissue and the knee joint.

2. Work Through a Variety of Rep Ranges

Because you're not doing the basic squat movement, you'll want to make sure you're taxing your body as much as possible by going through many rep ranges.

When most individuals squat, they either perform extremely low reps with heavy weight to maximize strength or ratchet up the rep range, reducing the weight and ensuring growth while invoking metabolic benefits [2].

Use the same method for your other complex lifts.

Pick one compound exercise to go heavy and one to concentrate on higher rep ranges.

This will require you to work throughout all reps and metabolic spectrums, resulting in outstanding results.

I've found that altering your leg position on certain lifts is another wonderful way to build muscular legs without squats.

Take, for example, the leg press.

Leg press may be performed with various foot placements that target the quadriceps at slightly varying angles.

Turn the feet out to engage the inner thighs more directly.

Turn them in, and you'll feel the fire in the quadriceps sweep.

Use a broader leg position higher on the platform to engage your glutes.

You may also get tremendous outer quad stimulation by bringing your feet together.

While you should not complete all these in a single session, employing these alternatives weekly will ensure thorough leg work.

4. Stick to Compound Lifts

Can't squat? No sweat! You can still rock other compound lifts.

These exercises work multiple joints and muscle groups simultaneously, letting you lift heavier and boost muscle growth and strength [3].

Romanian deadlifts, lunges, and dumbbell swings, for example, work more than one leg muscle group.

Incorporating them into your routine gives you more bang for your buck on leg day.