The squat and deadlift are popular exercises that are fun to do. No doubt about it.
But, when it comes to athletic performance, durability, and resiliency for sport and everyday life, doing single leg exercises are absolutely key!
Single leg exercises offer many benefits to athletes and active adults, which include:
Help to carryover to clean up side to side weaknesses in bilateral lifts
Increase overall strength while effectively targeting specific muscle groups, such as the glutes and quads
Improve balance and leg stability which can help improve your overall coordination and reduce the risk of injury.
Various movements like lunges, single leg deadlifts, and step-ups are some of the most common single leg exercises that we will program for an athlete or client.
Here are 6 single leg exercises we recommend trying to work into your routine.
All of those movements mentioned above, or variations, regressions, or progressions are all viable options to have in a well-structured training program.
Here are 3 different movements that can be performed in your program to add some variety and improve your overall strength on one leg.
Key Points:
Place a barbell on the floor, in the corner, or in a landmine attachment.
Hold with both your hands against chest.
Standing on one leg, think of sitting back as if you were going to tap the opposite knee to the ground.
Should be felt in the glutes, quads or hamstrings. Try not to let your knee go inside of your ankle.
Key Points:
Place a barbell on the floor, in the corner, or in a landmine attachment.
Hold the bar in the arm of the non-working leg.
Standing and balancing on one leg, think of sitting back as if you were going to tap the opposite knee to the ground.
Should be felt in the glutes, hamstrings, or quads.
Key Points:
Place a barbell on the floor, in a corner, or in a landmine attachment.
Place the bar to your side, on the side of the leg that is not working.
Have a slight lean towards the bar.
Think of “sitting back and touching your opposite knee towards the ground.”
This exercise should be felt in the side of your glute, glutes, quads, or hamstrings.
Single leg workouts aren’t talked about much, but for athletes and active adults it can have great carryover for bilateral lifts. Single leg balance exercises also improve athleticism and durability for sport and everyday life.
Try incorporating the following single leg exercises into your program or gym routine to help improve your strength on one leg:
Lunges Single
Leg Deadlifts
Step-Ups
Goblet Landmine Skater Squat
Offset Landmine Skater Squat
Lateral Landmine Skater Squat
We also have many other posts about single-leg strengthening exercises, and lower body training:
We work with athletes and clients coming back from an injury and/or looking to improve performance and their health and wellness.
When we work with an athlete or client coming back from an injury inside of Cressey Sports Performance in Hudson, MA, we make sure there are multiple exercises that focus on single leg strength. Single leg exercises may not be "cool", but being able to move well on one leg is important.
If you’ve been dealing with a nagging injury that just won’t go away? Are you going to continue to let it hang around and limit you in what you can and want to do? Take that first step and click HERE to get back to doing what you want and love to do.