Written by Patrick Dale, PT, ex-Marine

A lot of trainers LOVE to write complicated workouts. And while these programs CAN work, they’re often beyond the reach of lifters who train in home or garage gyms or simply do not have access to state-of-the-art resistance machines.

The good news is that you don’t need to train in a million-dollar facility to build impressive levels of strength and muscle mass.

In fact, all you really need is a barbell, a squat rack, and plenty of weight plates.

You see, your muscles cannot really differentiate between doing barbell squats with a heavy barbell or leg presses on a $50,000 leg press machine. They just know tension and work.

Providing you train hard enough, your muscles will grow and adapt regardless of how you overload them. After all, old-school bodybuilders built incredible physiques with very basic equipment in what were often basically underground basements.

So, for this workout, we’re taking a page from the golden era of bodybuilding and giving you a barbell-only leg workout to try. Don’t let its simplicity fool you; this is still a brutal workout guaranteed to build lower body strength and muscle size.

This workout is designed to build your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves with nothing but a barbell and a squat rack.

Do this workout once or twice a week as part of a body part split routine. If you do it twice, make sure you train your legs on non-consecutive days, e.g., Monday and Thursday, to allow time for rest and recovery.

Of course, before you hit the weights, you must spend a few minutes warming up and preparing your body for what you’re about to do. This will help make your workout more productive and could lower your risk of injury, too.

So, start with a few minutes of easy cardio followed by some dynamic mobility and flexibility exercises for the muscles you’re about to train. Finally, do a couple of light sets of the first exercise of the workout to ensure you’re 100% ready to go.

All warmed up? Then let’s do it!

There are two ways to do any exercise: the right way and the wrong way.

The right way is easy on your joints, puts loads of tension on the target muscle, and produces the best results.

The wrong way is usually less effective and more likely to cause injury. So, make sure you do each exercise in this workout the right way by following these instructions:

While the barbell back squat is often called the king of exercises, the front squat is arguably the better muscle builder. The range of motion is usually bigger, and the upright torso position makes it more quads-centric. On the downside, some lifters do find front squats more awkward.

This bottoms-up variation provides a brief pause between reps, making it somewhat more manageable.

Romanian deadlifts are among the best glute, hamstring, and lower back exercises. But, as good as they are, they’ll soon start to lose their potency if you do them too often. Performing them with the 1 ½-rep method increases time under tension. This will provide the variety you need to make sure they’re always challenging and productive.

A lot of bodybuilders are very quick to dismiss lunges and label them as ineffectual. But what they don’t know is that lunges are actually a great quads, glutes, and hamstring builder, and they were one of Ronnie Coleman’s favorite leg exercises.

Big King Ron would do laps of the gym parking lot with as much as 225lbs on his back, and his legs were massive! So, be like Ronnie Coleman and respect walking lunges.

Before the hack squat machine became popular, this is how people did hack squats. This exercise is named after Estonian weightlifter and wrestler George Hackenschmidt, who was famed for his huge thighs and immense strength (1).

Traditionally, barbell hack squats are done with elevated heels, which increases quad activation. However, some exercisers may find this puts too much stress on the knees. If you DO lift your heels, start with a small block to see how your knees feel, not just during the exercise but afterward, too.

Barbell hip thrusts are a very lower-back-friendly way to train your glutes and hamstrings. While you can do this exercise with just your body weight for resistance, it’s much more effective if you rest and hold a barbell across your hips. Go heavy with this exercise – the glutes and hamstrings are pretty powerful and usually respond well to plenty of weight.

You don’t need a calf raise machine to train your lower legs. In fact, you only need a barbell. This is another exercise that you should be able to do with heavy weights. The calves are very strong muscles, and the range of motion is also quite small. So, as the memes say, go heavy, or go home!

Seated calf raises target your soleus, which is the lowermost calf muscle. While the soleus is involved in standing calf raises, it’s more active when your knees are bent. This exercise is a freeweight alternative to machine seated calf raises.

While there is nothing wrong with training with machines, there may be times when you don’t have access to the equipment you want to use.

For example, maybe you train in a garage gym, your gym’s machines are broken or being serviced, or you are just feeling nostalgic for some old-school-style bodybuilding training.

Whatever the reasons, be assured that a barbell and squat rack are all you really need to build muscular, strong legs. Heck, add a bench, and you can train your entire body with this minimalist setup.  

So, don’t worry if you don’t have access to state-of-the-art machines – you don’t need them. Just grab a barbell, and train hard and heavy. Your muscles won’t know the difference!

1 – Encyclopedia Britannica: George Hackenschmidt https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Hackenschmidt

Patrick Dale is an ex-British Royal Marine, gym owner, and fitness qualifications tutor and assessor. In addition, Patrick is a freelance writer who has authored three fitness and exercise books, dozens of e-books, thousands of articles, and several fitness videos. He’s not just an armchair fitness expert; Patrick practices what he preaches! He has competed at a high level in numerous sports, including rugby, triathlon, rock climbing, trampolining, powerlifting, and, most recently, stand up paddleboarding. When not lecturing, training, researching, or writing, Patrick is busy enjoying the sunny climate of Cyprus, where he has lived for the last 20-years.

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I’m trying a new old school leg routine it’s legs and shoulders or chest whatever I m in the mood for.. light weight but twenty reps three sets for twenty minutes to therty minutes.then eat and rest ..do this for four to five hours every hour fist weeky legs are still pumped and be going at it in two days ..eny thoughts on this .

Try it for a couple of months and see how your body responds. If it works for you then keep at it. But, if you’re not happy with your progress, then try something else. Good luck!

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