The best legs workout for beginners

It’s okay if you have zero lifting experience, a pair of chicken legs, and little-to-no muscle. As long as you have the desire to grow stronger, bigger, and more powerful, we can help you get there. 

A good first step: this legs workout, which comes courtesy of Liz Lowe, C.S.C.S., the head program designer at Scorch Fitness, a high-intensity interval training gym in Sarasota, FL. Specifically designed to include some of the 10 best legs exercises for beginners, it has all the necessary building blocks to get you learning proper lifting form, honing better balance, and building strength both unilaterally (single leg) as well as through your entire posterior chain (e.g. your lower back, glutes, hamstrings, and calves). 

Directions

“With any beginner program, less is more,” Lowe says. You don’t want to overload your body with a bunch of exercises (or weight). This workout is meant to be done as a circuit with rest between each exercise, she explains.  

Don’t be fooled, though. This workout will cook your legs. Because of this, it shouldn’t be done more than twice a week so you have enough time to recover. 

Complete a 5-10 minute cardio warmup, then perform 2-3 rounds of this circuit. 

Once you find your legs aren’t getting sore any more, and you’re not seeing results, up the ante and try this 15-minute workout for stronger, more muscular legs.