11 Reasons Not to Skip Leg Day
What is often referred to as Leg Day is a day that some beginner weightlifters either don’t know about or actively avoid. More seasoned lifters know that if they skip leg day they will end up unbalanced, top heavy, injured, and also may end up being featured in the next “never skip leg day” meme on social media.
Brock Armstrong
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11 Reasons Not to Skip Leg Day
To some, leg day is the worst day of the workout week. They feel this way because they would rather be pumping up their arms, their shoulders, or (most often) their chest. As much as it is forgotten about, some lifters would even rather be working their back! But on leg day, they are stuck working a part of the body that shows the least but poops you out the most. That is what I think is the major issue that people have with leg day—too much effort for a body part they can’t admire 24/7.
All that being said, there are many great reasons not to skip leg day and today we are going to examine a few of them. So, if you skip leg day, a few things will happen.
- You Will Look Unbalanced
- Your Sports Performance Will Decline
- You Won’t Go As Fast
- You Will Burn Fewer Calories
- Your Hormones Will Suffer
- Your Back May Get Sore
- Your Injury Rate Will Go Up
- Your Range of Motion Will Decline
- Your Balance Will Deteriorate
- Your Everyday Life Will Suffer
- You Won’t Be as Smart
Let’s dive into each point one by one.
1. You Will Look Unbalanced
I don’t like to focus on aesthetics too much because it just isn’t important when it comes to fitness (or at least it shouldn’t be), but let’s get this one out of the way first. If you spend all your time developing a defined and chiselled upper body but ignore your legs, you run the risk of looking unbalanced. It is easy to spot someone who lifts regularly but who clearly spends their time hammering their chest, arms, and shoulders. The result is a rippling torso piled on top of small glutes and quads, and even smaller calves.
2. Your Sports Performance Will Decline
In pretty much all sports, your power and strength come from a thing called ground force production. That simply means that the majority of your movement starts at the ground, moves up through your feet, then through your ankles, torqued through your knees and hips to create the force in your upper body. In many ways, your legs really are the foundation of your performance. Simply put, the stronger your foundation, the stronger, faster, and more powerful you will be.
Simply put, the stronger your foundation, the stronger, faster and more powerful you will be.
3. You Won’t Go As Fast
Research showsopens PDF file that strength training can improve running economy in runners. And other research shows that cyclists who strengthened their lower body have more raw power during the crucial final sprint of a race than those who skipped leg day. Maximal strength training has been shown to improve work economy in trained female cross-country skiers. Explosive-strength training has been shown to improve 5-km running time by improving running economy and muscle power. I could go on and on. Suffice to say that science has found that lower body resistance training and speed go hand in hand.
4. You Will Burn Fewer Calories
If you want to lose body fat then you are probably looking for a workout that gives you the best results. Once again, leg day to the rescue! Since the largest muscles in your body burn up the most energy when they are being used, leg day will increase the amount of energy you burn during the workout.
Since the largest muscles in your body burn up the most energy when they are being used, leg day will increase the amount of energy you burn during the workout.
One of the best exercises for this is the Squat (weighted or not). The squat really works the entire body, while it specifically hits the largest muscles in the body. This means that it burns a lot of energy during the workout and sets your body up to burn even more in the hours after your workout.
There is also the fact that adding muscle mass to your body actually increases your resting metabolic rate (the number of calories your body burns outside of the gym). With that in mind, focusing on the part of your body with the largest muscles (your legs) is a very effective tool for long-term fat loss.
5. Your Hormones Will Suffer
As we just discussed, the largest muscles in your body are in your pelvis and legs. Making these muscles work hard causes a release of HGH (human growth hormone) and testosterone which are both key elements for building muscle, repairing tissue, and building strong bones—not just in your legs but all over your body.
Training all of your lower-body muscles releases the hormones that turn your body into an anabolic environment which will improve your muscle-building capacity in general.
6. Your Back May Get Sore
Most of us in this modern sedentary society have weak hamstrings and short and tight hip flexors. That can lead to back pain if we don’t do something about it. Most of us try to “stretch it out” when we would be better off strengthening our hamstrings and glutes. Similar to increasing your sports performance, having a solid foundation in your legs means that your back doesn’t have to do all the work.
You should definitely consult a physiotherapist, chiropractor, or sports medicine physician before you start treating any existing back pain, but if you want to avoid it in the future, I suggest you make your legs strong.
7. Your Injury Rate Will Go Up
Sometimes the athletes who come to me with an injury have fallen into the old trap of thinking that their chosen sport trains their legs sufficiently (runners, I am looking at you). Sure, many sports involve using the legs but most athletic movements overemphasize the quads, or the calves, or another single part of the leg which creates an imbalance. In fact, the injury that is referred to as “Runner’s Knee” is often a direct result of an imbalance between the quads and the hamstrings.
The injury that is referred to as “Runner’s Knee” is often a direct result of an imbalance between the quads and the hamstrings.
If you want to stay injury-free, it is absolutely essential that you regularly do legwork. This usually means planning your training around leg day (so you aren’t too fatigued to get your sport-specific workout done) but long-term this is a worthwhile strategy.
8. Your Range of Motion Will Decline
If you think weightlifting has nothing to do with flexibility and mobility, just take a second to consider the squat. In the article 5+ Benefits of Squatting and How to Prepare, we talked about how awesome and important the squat movement is (in and outside the gym) and the same goes for the deadlift, the calf raise, the kettlebell swing, and so on. By simply getting into a squat or deadlift position, you can keep your body loose and mobile while also undoing some of the mobility and strength issues we see from sitting in chairs much of our day.
9. Your Balance Will Deteriorate
In the article called Going Barefoot and 8 Other Ways to Improve Balance, I talked about how important strength is to your balance. Once again it comes down to having a solid foundation. Having strong legs and a strong lower body, in general, is what I am talking about!
Incorporating exercises like side lunges, calf raises, and deadlifts can seriously increase your stability, re-invigorate your proprioception, and help you to stay on your feet when the world is trying to knock you over.
10. Your Everyday Life Will Suffer
If you ever have to pick up a box, carry some groceries, or move a piece of furniture, you will find that it is much easier if you have some solid lower body strength. Yes, even if you have super strong arms and a powerful back, you will still be much happier when you lift something heavy if you have some power in your glutes, quads, hams, and calves.
You will be much happier when you lift something heavy if you have some power in your glutes, quads, hams, and calves.
11. You Won’t be as Smart
I have talked about the connection between physical activity and brain health before in an article called How Exercise Affects Your Brain but there was a recent study that dug even further into this relationship. To tell us more about that, I asked our friends, Ashley and Cody, over at the Curiosity.com podcast, to fill us in.
CODY: Alright Ashley, do you ever skip leg day?
ASHLEY: NEVER.
CODY: Me neither!
ASHLEY: Leg day’s the best!
CODY: I actually like leg day because it’s so efficient! Squats and deadlifts and you’re kinda out there, right?
ASHLEY: I mean…
CODY: I mean, you CAN go deeper. But are you getting a pretty thorough workout between two exercises?
ASHLEY: They are your biggest muscles, and you are burning the most calories with those huge muscles, and you’re doing great things for your body.
CODY: I like efficiency! Well a groundbreaking new study from just last month has shown that leg exercise is critical to brain and nervous system health. We already knew that not using your legs can reduce bone and muscle mass, like in astronauts in low gravity or in bedridden patients. But a team of researchers wanted to know if restricting leg mobility would affect the brain. They ran tests on some mice by immobilizing their legs for 28 days. The result was a 70 percent reduction in the number of neural stem cells in their brains, compared to the freely moving control group. That’s huge. Without those cells, neurogenesis doesn’t happen — that means new cell development. Brain health also declines as dead cells aren’t replaced. So the takeaway is this: don’t skip leg day!
ASHLEY: Little caveat that it is an animal study, so it doesn’t necessarily extend to humans. But there’s a good chance that it does.
CODY: Yeah. Better safe than sorry, right?
ASHLEY: I mean, leg day’s great.
CODY: Also, you don’t want to be a tank on stilts.
ASHLEY: That’s right.
Thanks, Ashley and Cody! I am pleased to hear that you are both such big fans of leg day. Which means that you might enjoy this next section.
A Quick and Dirty Leg Workout
Now that you know why you should do it, you might need some inspiration for how to do it. There are many awesome leg workouts available if you do a quick search, but here is a Get-Fit Guy quick and dirty leg workout that you can add into your workout regimen today.
In the following workout, RM stands for “repetition max,” which is the number of reps that you are able to do before your form starts to fall apart while using a particular weight. So, 6RM means that you would choose a weight that allows you to do six solid reps.
Instructions
After a good warm-up, do the following workout as a circuit. That means you alternate between the a and the b exercises three times before you move to the next set of exercises. If you have the time and the energy, go through this entire routine two times.
- Set 1a. Squats – 6RM
- Set 1b. Jogging on the spot (high knees) – 60 seconds
Rest for 30 seconds between exercises and sets.
- Set 2a. Step-ups – 6RM per leg
- Set 2b. Jumping jacks – 60 seconds
Rest for 30 seconds.
- Set 3a. Elevated Hip Thrusters – 6RM
- Set 3b. Walking lunges – 10 per leg
Rest of 30 seconds.
- Set 4a. Deadlifts – 8RM
- Set 4b. Lateral Lunges – 10 per leg
Rest for 30 seconds.
- Set 5a. Glute Ham Raises – 8RM
- Set 5b. Squat jumps – 60 seconds
Rest for 60 seconds and (if you can handle it) start from the beginning again for a total of two times through.
When it comes to squeezing in a good leg workout, we have all struggled at some point. Excuses come pouring in: it’s boring; I would rather work my chest again; sick kid at home; the car is in the shop; or, perhaps the most common, no time to get to the gym. But hopefully now you know that leg day should not be optional. If you want to be a strong and well-rounded mover, it is worth the time and effort. Not to mention that you don’t want to become just another internet meme, now you do, bro?
For more leg info, lower body tips, and to join the balanced body conversation, head over to Facebook.com/GetFitGuy or twitter.com/getfitguy. Also don’t forget to subscribe to the Get-Fit Guy podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play or via RSSopens XML file .
About the Author
Brock Armstrong was the host of the Get-Fit Guy podcast between 2017 and 2021. He is a certified AFLCA Group Fitness Leader with a designation in Portable Equipment, NCCP and CAC Triathlon Coach, and a TnT certified run coach. He is also on the board of advisors for the Primal Health Coach Institute and a guest faculty member of the Human Potential Institute.