10 Best Bodyweight Leg Workouts for Strength & Endurance

You don’t need a squat rack or heavy barbells to build serious leg strength. With the right bodyweight exercises, you can effectively train your quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves, whether at home, on the road, or just looking for a low-equipment workout. From squats and lunges to explosive moves, bodyweight training can improve power, balance, and endurance while reducing the risk of injury. In this guide, we’ll cover 10 of the best bodyweight leg exercises, explain how to perform them correctly, and discuss why they belong in your leg routine.

Can You Build Muscle in Your Legs Without Weights?

Yes, you can build muscles with great leg strength training exercises that can be done with or without weights. 

Building your lower body at home using bodyweight exercises like squats, lunges, and other exercises is easy as long as you perform the moves correctly with sufficient intensity. They provide essential muscle stimulation and improve your functional strength, making them a great way to keep your workout routine going while traveling on the road or away from a gym. However, it should be noted that if your goal is to achieve significant muscle hypertrophy, bodyweight strength training followed by weight training will be the most effective. 

Types of Bodyweight Leg Exercises

Here are some basic bodyweight exercises to consider, including squats, lunges, and more, to help you build muscle from anywhere without the weights!  

10 Best Bodyweight Leg Exercises

1. Bulgarian Split Squats

The Bulgarian split squats are both loved and hated by many because they can be challenging to perform. However, the intensity and strength you gain from the lower-body burn, even without weights, is worth it. They are an extremely effective way to help you build your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. 

How To Do It:

1. Stand a few feet in front of a bench, facing away rather than towards the bench.

2. Raise one leg to rest on the bench behind you with your laces down, your feet in line with your hips, and ensure good contact with your foot. 

3. Sink your body down until the knee of your back leg almost touches the floor. 

4. The front knee should be at a right angle. 

5. Push up through your front foot on the floor to return to the starting position. 

6. You can also adjust your foot slightly away from the bench to target your glutes, or move it closer to target your quads more. 

7. Be careful not to round out the back as it puts unnecessary stress on your lower back and takes the focus off your quads and glutes. 

2. Pistol Squats

The pistol squat is a unilateral lower-body strength exercise focusing on a single limb to enhance strength and endurance. It’s also a very effective way to target a weaker side and help build a more balanced physique. Pistol squats target those glutes, quads, and hamstrings, while also testing ankle and hip mobility, making them a perfect bodyweight exercise that can be done without weights. 

How To Do It:

1. Stand with your feet under your hips.

2. Lift one leg off the floor with your foot flexed. 

3. Squat down with your weight on the supporting leg, shifting your torso to counterbalance the bodyweight. 

4. Keep your heel firmly planted on the floor as you lower your body as much as possible. 

5. Then, drive back upward through the supporting leg into the starting position. 

6. Perform 10-15 reps, switch legs, and repeat. 

3. Single-Leg Hip Thrusts

The single-leg hip thrust is a challenging bodyweight leg exercise that effectively targets and engages the glutes without needing weights, all while helping enhance your athletic performance. This exercise can also be performed on a cable machine like the Speediance Gym Monster 2 with a barbell for added resistance.

How To Do It:

1. Sit on a bench, supporting your upper back, and plant both feet on the floor. 

2. Your knees, hips, and shoulders should align with your heels, which should be placed directly under your knees. 

3. Keep your chin and ribs tucked down to avoid arching your back.

4. Begin your rep with one leg lifted.

5. Push through the supporting leg so your hips extend before slowly reversing the movement so your hips can sink close to the floor. 

6. Repeat 10-15 reps on, then switch sides.  

4. Bodyweight Leg Extension

The bodyweight leg extension is one that you can use with or without a cable resistance training machine to add variation and seamless resistance to your routine. Without a gym, it’s sometimes called the “Poor Man’s Leg Extension,” and it will still max out your quads and effectively build lower body muscles in an easy-to-advanced routine, depending on your quad and knee strength.  A word of caution: if you’re new to this move, start slowly to avoid knee strain and potential injury.

How To Do It:

1. Begin by kneeling on a mat with your core fully engaged and place your arms across your chest. 

2. Keep your body in a straight line from your knees to the top of your head, then slowly lean back until you can feel your quads working to keep you upright. 

3. Don’t break at the hips. Instead, squeeze the quads to return to the upright position.

4. Repeat for 12 to 15 reps. 

 

5. Heels-Raised Squat

The heels-raised squat is another great at-home leg workout. You place a wedge, plates, or sometimes a block under your heels, forcing your quads to work even harder than when doing traditional squats. 

How To Do It:

1. Raise your heels onto a weight plate or block, keeping them close together, within 6” of each other. 

2. Squat down until your thighs are parallel to the ground. 

3. Stand up explosively, stopping just short of locking your legs out to keep the tension on the quads. 

4. Repeat for 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps. 

5. You can also narrow your stance to work the quads a little harder.  

6. Paused Squats

Paused squats add a new layer of muscle training intensity by staying at the bottom of an isometric hold for 3 seconds. This is a simple way to improve strength and mobility and increase the difficulty level of your bodyweight leg training day. 

How To Do It:

1. Descend into a traditional squat using bodyweight alone, or add barbells or dumbbells if you want to add additional weight. 

2. Your elbows should come between your knees as you reach the bottom. 

3. Pause at the bottom of the squat for three full seconds while keeping your core tight to avoid rounding the back.

4. Drive back upward explosively, tensing your glutes at the top of the range of motion.

5. Repeat for 12 to 15 reps.  

7. Walking Lunges

Walking lunges are an excellent exercise for improving balance and coordination while getting in a good cardio workout. If you perform high reps, you’ll reach muscle fatigue in your lower body, which is great for mass-building.

How To Do It:

1. Stand tall with your chest lifted high. 

2. Take a long step forward with one leg, bending your front knee until your back knee almost touches the ground. 

3. Push through that front heel as you move forward onto the next step. 

4. The back leg keeps pushing you forward into that next rep. 

5. Repeat for a set number of reps or laps around a gym or workout area.  

8. Jump Lunges

Jump lunges have become a popular part of living room HIIT workouts because they can pack a lot of intensity into a small space by combining strength, balance, and explosive power in a single, powerful movement. They effectively recruit fast-twitch muscle fibers, those responsible for explosive movements. These fibers target muscle growth in your glutes, quads, and hamstrings, with the added benefit of cardiovascular endurance. The higher you can jump while landing in a controlled motion, the greater the challenge to your lower body muscles.  

How To Do It:

1. Step one foot backward and sink your body into a deep lunge until your rear knee gently touches the floor. 

2. Explosively push yourself upward, jumping to switch your legs mid-air to land in a lunge position again, but with the opposite starting leg forward. 

3. Repeat, alternating legs after each rep. 

4. While some recommend getting as much airtime as possible, this could cause injuries if done incorrectly. Instead, focus first on controlled landings, then add height as your strength and balance improve.

9. Box Jump

The box jump is another staple of many at-home HIIT workouts and CrossFit moves. Try to avoid falling into the trap of programming high reps; instead, focus on keeping the reps low and moving as explosively and as high as possible in a controlled manner. 

How To Do It:

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart in front of a box. 

2. Explosively jump on top of the box, landing with both feet as softly as possible and bending your knees slightly to absorb the impact. 

3. Stand up fully at the top by extending your knees and hips. 

4. Step backward off the box, one foot at a time, and repeat.

5. Be sure to allow ample recovery time between sets. 

10. Step-ups

Step-ups are a simple but effective unilateral lower-body pushing exercise that targets single-leg strength for a more balanced physique. They are also part of an excellent complete lower-body workout that targets the glutes, quads, and hamstrings. 

How To Do It:

1. Stand in front of a box or stair with your feet firmly on the floor, feet hip-width apart. 

2. Step up on one foot on top of the box and drive your foot into the box.

3. Lean forward slightly to maintain your balance, but keep your torso upright and avoid rounding your back. 

4. Once at the top, stand up fully by extending your knees and hips. 

5. Slowly step backward off the box and repeat with the opposite leg. 

6. Focus on slow, controlled execution while resisting the pull of gravity to maximize the full potential. 

What Are the Benefits of Bodyweight Leg Workouts?

Bodyweight leg exercises help you build a strong lower-body foundation, bringing the following benefits:

• Accessible and convenient because they can be done anywhere without equipment, making them great for use at work or on the road. 

• Reduced risk of injury compared to using weights, especially for beginners. 

• Increased lower-body functional strength and muscular endurance in your quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves. 

• Improves balance, coordination, and stability.

• Allows you to perform everyday tasks more easily, such as climbing stairs. 

• Benefits people of all fitness levels, helping you build muscle and lose fat by making your muscles work harder and increasing your metabolism.

• Engaging your large leg muscles and promoting proper body movement benefits the cardiovascular and respiratory systems and lowers the risk of injury. 

• They help build base strength and endurance for those looking for more advanced weighted lifting.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Bodyweight Squats Do Anything?

Yes, bodyweight squats are an effective exercise for improving overall fitness and muscle functional strength. They also offer a versatile movement for those on the go or with limited access to equipment, allowing them to continue building muscle on lower-body workout days. 

What Is the Most Effective Bodyweight Leg Exercise?

There is no single most effective bodyweight leg exercise. Still, a combination of squat-based exercises, such as Bulgarian split squats and pistol squats, various lunges, and glute bridges, along with standing and seated calf raises, will help you better target all the lower body muscle groups.  

Bodyweight Exercises Strengthen Quads, Glutes, and Hamstrings

Bodyweight leg workouts prove you don’t need a gym membership or heavy weights to challenge your lower body. With moves like Bulgarian split squats, pistol squats, and jump lunges, you can build strength, improve endurance, and enhance balance from anywhere. Still, for even more progression and muscle-building burns, consider adding versatile equipment like the Speediance Gym Monster 2, which lets you combine bodyweight training with advanced resistance workouts. With consistency, variation, and proper form, you’ll see noticeable gains in strength and stability that carry over into every aspect of your daily life.