Introduction
If you have read my blog “What is Fitness?” you will know that fitness is multidimensional. There is more to it than cardio fitness. For overall fitness we all have to think about how to develop anaerobic endurance, muscular endurance, speed, power, and flexibility, for example. When it comes to our legs, the whole body exercises that I recommend in my series on low, medium, and high-impact workouts will improve all of the elements of fitness that I have just listed. However, when it comes to absolute strength and muscle hypertrophy (size), we will benefit from undertaking our leg strength exercises with some additional weights.
In the video below I show you how to focus on strength and muscle hypertrophy in your leg exercises by adding either dumbbells or kettlebells to increase the resistance.
Basic equipment
For my recommendations on purchasing dumbbells click here.
For information on shopping for kettlebells click here.
Workout exercises
- Squats
- Lunges
- Romanian deadlifts
- Bulgarian squats
- Calf raises
Take a look at the “how to” video below for technical tips and guidance.
Exercise repetitions, sets, rest, and progression
Repetitions or timed intervals can both be effective. For leg strength I tend to prefer counting repetitions.
Counted repetitions for strength exercises:
For each exercise you should do 3-5 sets of 8-12 repetitions (reps). This should be enough volume of work to stimulate muscle overload, and therefore the muscles will rebuild back stronger in the subsequent recovery phase.
By the end of the final set you should be struggling to lift the weights and finish the reps. If you are not working at 100% like this, at least in the last set then you won’t overload the muscles.
Here is an example, using biceps curls, of how you should structure and progress your exercises from the first session.
Session 1: 4 sets of 10 reps with 8kg dumbbells – finished comfortably
Session 2: 4 sets of 12 reps with 8kg dumbbells – finished with difficulty
Session 3: 4 sets of 12 reps with 8kg dumbbells – finished comfortably
Session 4: 4 sets of 8 reps with 10kg dumbbells – finished comfortably
Session 5: 4 sets of 10 reps with 10kg dumbbells – finished with difficulty
Across the 5 sessions the work has increased from 4 x 10 reps with 8kg dumbbells to 4 x 10 reps with 10kg dumbbells. You will notice that the first increase was in the number of reps, from 10 to 12. Once you can accomplish 4 x 12 reps you should increase the weight in the next session, but drop the reps to 8 for each set. Then build up the reps from session to session until you get to 4 x 12 with the new weight. That’s the time to increase the weight again and drop the reps to 4 x 8.
