Leg’s burn the legs for this gym session. My leg days are not fixed. When I’m in a hypertrophy(muscle building) cycle, it’s in the gym using the weights and machines.
There is always a compound exercise to anchor the session, then I pick two or three isolation moves to hang off it. This week the picks were extensions, calves and glutes. Next leg day will likely have leg curls and a different set of isolations.
This WOD finishes on tuck jumps. No weight, no machine, just bodyweight. That is deliberate. After four machines the legs are already cooked, and bodyweight is the lowest risk way to empty whatever is left. The finisher is the part of this session I would keep if I had to drop everything else.
The Workout at a Glance
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
|---|---|---|
| Horizontal Leg Press | 1 warm-up + 3 | 20, then 15 / 12 / 10 |
| Seated Leg Extension | 3 | 15 / 12 / 10 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 3 | 20 / 15 / 10 |
| Glute Kickback | 3 | 15 / 12 / 10 |
| Tuck Jumps | 3 | 10 |
Every machine is a descending ladder. Reps come down. Weight goes up. You get your volume early and your load late, on the sets where you have the least left to give.
Rest scales with the set in front of you. The more reps you are about to do, the longer you rest before it. A set of 20 needs more in the tank than a set of 10 does, so give it more time. The tuck jumps break that rule on purpose and run on minimal rest.
How I Pick the Isolations
The compound is the part that does not change. Whether it’s a leg press, hack squat or some other variation – the leg days start with multi joint movements. Everything after it rotates.
Pick two or three isolation moves and let them decide what the session actually trains. Extensions, calves and glutes make this a quad and lower leg day with some posterior work included. Swap in leg curls and hamstring work and the same compound suddenly anchors a completely different session.
That is how you cover the whole leg across a month without doing the same workout four times. My other gym leg workout is the hamstring version of this idea, built on leg curls instead of extensions.
This is also the argument for training legs at a gym rather than at home. A gym session is more time efficient and more hypertrophy efficient, assuming the place is not heaving and you are not queuing for every machine. A kettlebell in the garage lets you improvise, and I like that about it. But the gym is where real progressive overload happens, because you can actually add weight next week.
1. Horizontal Leg Press
The horizontal leg press is its own machine. It is not the 45 degree sled with a different paint job. The angle of the load changes, the seat position changes, and where your feet want to sit on the platform changes with them.
So I went lighter than I would on a normal leg press. Not because the legs could not handle it, but because the feel is different enough that the first job is learning the machine. Chasing your usual number on unfamiliar equipment is how foot position goes wrong and how something gets tweaked.
First set is 20 reps to get warm. The compound is the warm up for the whole session, so it earns a high rep set before anything heavy happens. Then the ladder starts.
Sets: 1 warm-up + 3 | Reps: 20, then 15 / 12 / 10
Footwear does more here than people expect. A flat sole puts your whole foot flat on the platform and keeps the pressure where you placed it. A thick cushioned running shoe compresses under load, and your foot position drifts through the set without you noticing.
WHITIN Men’s Cross-Trainer
These are my preferred training shoes for the gym. Zero drop, wide toe box, under $60.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission.2. Seated Leg Extension
This is the quad isolation. The leg press already hit them, but it shared the work with the glutes and the whole posterior chain. The extension gives you a movement where the quad has nowhere to hide.
I get more out of this machine with a lower weight and a longer lockout than with a heavier stack and a short one. Straighten all the way, hold the contraction at the top, and let time under tension do the work. The weight on the pin is the least interesting thing about this exercise.
Set the back pad as far back as it goes. Sitting further back takes the tension off your hip flexors, which stops them creeping into a movement that is supposed to be all quad. Most people leave that pad wherever the last person had it and never notice what it costs them.
Lower under control instead of letting the stack drop you back down.
Sets: 3 | Reps: 15 / 12 / 10
3. Standing Calf Raise
Same movement I did in my home workout, but this is a better tool for it. In the garage I stand on a garden stone, which works and costs nothing. A proper platform with pads and a stable base lets you load heavier and stay in control through the whole range, which the stone does not.
If you only train at home, the improvised version still does the job. I wrote up how I set it up in the garage kettlebell workout.
Reps go for 20, 15, then 10. Use the lower weight sets to play with tempo. Pause at the bottom in the stretch. Pause at the top on your toes. Slow the whole thing down. Twenty bouncy reps and twenty controlled ones are not the same exercise.
Sets: 3 | Reps: 20 / 15 / 10
4. Glute Kickback
This one is in almost every leg day I do, and the reason is my lower back. I have an injury there. The kickback lets me load the glutes directly with my torso supported against the pad, so the glutes work without my lower back taking the strain.
Strong glutes are part of how a bad back stays manageable. A machine that isolates them without putting pressure on the spine is worth keeping in the rotation permanently.
Brace against the pad and drive the leg back from the hip. Do not arch your back to get more range. If your lower back is doing the work, the weight is too heavy.
Sets: 3 | Reps: 15 / 12 / 10 each leg
Leg day is also where silkies earn their keep. Nothing bunching at the hip on the press, nothing gripping the quad when you fold into a kickback. Papi does not train legs in anything else.
Soffe Original Ranger Panty (Silkies)
5. Tuck Jumps (Finisher)
Four machines in, the legs are already on their last leg (lol). This is where a lot of people would add one more loaded movement. I would rather take the weight off entirely.
Tuck jumps finish the legs with nothing but bodyweight, which makes them the lowest injury risk way to empty the tank. There is no stack to misjudge and no bar to bail out from. You are just asking tired legs to be explosive.
Three sets of ten, with only enough rest between sets to be able to execute the next one. Jump and pull the knees to the chest. Land soft and go again.
You can do these on any interval you like. Tabata works, and tuck jumps are one of the hardest movements you can put in a Tabata. Twenty seconds on and ten off sounds manageable until round four – only halfway through.
Sets: 3 | Reps: 10 (minimal rest)
Frequently Asked Questions
Why the horizontal leg press instead of the regular one?
It was the machine in front of me and it is a good one, but it does feel different. The load comes at you level rather than down an angle, so the seat and foot position both change. Go lighter than your usual leg press number for the first few sessions on it. Learn the machine before you load it.
Can I do this workout with a lower back problem?
Most of it. I have a lower back injury and this is the sort of session I build around it: machines with proper back support, glute work that does not load the spine, and a bodyweight finisher. The tuck jumps are the one part to be careful with, since landing is an impact. Swap them for a bodyweight squat hold or step-ups if jumping does not agree with your back. The trick with any dynamic work is to learn how to land and not put the impact chain on your spine. Land on the toes, lower to flat foot.
Do I have to end on tuck jumps?
No, but end on something. The point of the finisher is to empty whatever the machines left behind, and bodyweight is the safest way to do that when your legs are already tired. Bodyweight squats, walking lunges or a wall sit all work. Tuck jumps just do it fastest.
How is this different from your other gym leg workout?
Same idea, different half of the leg. That one hits leg curls and is hamstring led. This one runs extensions and is quad led. The compound anchors both, and rotating which isolations sit behind it is how I cover the whole leg across a few weeks.
What about the leg press warm up set of 20?
The compound doubles as the warm up for everything after it. Twenty reps at a light weight gets blood into the quads and glutes and gets the knees moving through a full range before any real load shows up. I treat my first set with the compound lift as a feeler for where my body and mind are at, before I start progressing with the weights.