Build Super Strong Legs: 3 Exercises You’ve Never Tried Before

When it comes to building strong, muscular legs, many gym enthusiasts rely on familiar exercises like squats, lunges, and deadlifts.

While these classic movements form the foundation of any solid lower-body routine, there are some lesser-known exercises that can help you achieve even better results by targeting your muscles in unique ways.

These exercises challenge your body with different movement patterns, muscle recruitment strategies, and intensities, helping you break through plateaus and build truly strong legs. Below are three exercises that you likely haven’t tried before, each backed by science to elevate your leg training game.

Bulgarian Split Squat with Deficit

The Bulgarian split squat is already well-regarded as one of the most effective unilateral (single-leg) exercises. It targets the quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, and stabilising muscles in the hips and core. But, adding a deficit to this movement can dramatically increase its effectiveness by enhancing the range of motion, leading to greater muscle activation and hypertrophy.

The deficit Bulgarian split squat involves placing your front foot on an elevated surface, such as a low box or a stack of weight plates. This increases the distance your body must travel, placing a greater stretch on the working muscles and allowing for deeper knee flexion.

Why It Works

Research shows that exercises performed with an increased range of motion result in greater muscle activation. A study in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that movements like the Bulgarian split squat lead to significantly higher levels of hypertrophy compared to traditional versions of the exercise with a more limited range of motion (Bloomquist et al., 2013). Additionally, the unilateral nature of this movement helps to identify and correct muscular imbalances, which is key for developing functional strength and reducing injury risk (Mendiguchia et al., 2014).

The deficit Bulgarian split squat also places considerable stress on the stabilising muscles, especially in the hips and core, improving overall stability and balance. This contributes to improved athletic performance and can help prevent injuries, particularly in sports that involve sudden changes in direction or single-leg force production.

Banded Nordic Hamstring Curl

The Nordic hamstring curl is an excellent, but underutilised, bodyweight exercise for developing strong hamstrings. This exercise works by eccentrically loading the hamstring muscles, meaning that the muscles are lengthened under tension. Eccentric movements are especially effective at building strength and preventing injuries. The addition of a resistance band provides assistance during the hardest part of the movement (the concentric phase), making it accessible even for those who struggle with the full range of motion.

To perform the banded Nordic hamstring curl, anchor your feet under a stable surface (such as a barbell or a heavy bench), attach a resistance band around your chest and a sturdy anchor point behind you, and slowly lower your upper body towards the floor while keeping your hips extended. The resistance band will help you return to the starting position after you’ve reached the limit of your strength.

Why It Works

Eccentric training, like the Nordic hamstring curl, has been shown to be highly effective in improving hamstring strength and reducing the risk of hamstring injuries. A study in The American Journal of Sports Medicine demonstrated that eccentric hamstring exercises, such as the Nordic hamstring curl, significantly reduce the incidence of hamstring injuries in athletes (Arnason et al., 2008). Moreover, eccentric movements are known to stimulate muscle growth more effectively than concentric movements due to the greater amount of muscle tension generated (Douglas et al., 2017).

The addition of a resistance band makes this exercise scalable, allowing individuals of varying strength levels to perform it while still benefiting from the intense eccentric load. This exercise not only builds the hamstrings but also engages the glutes, lower back, and core, making it a full posterior-chain movement that enhances overall leg and core strength.

Cossack Squat

The Cossack squat is a dynamic lower-body exercise that enhances hip mobility, strengthens the adductors (inner thigh muscles), and challenges the quads and glutes through a wide range of motion. This movement involves shifting your body weight laterally from one leg to the other while keeping the inactive leg extended out to the side, essentially performing a deep single-leg squat on one side while maintaining balance and flexibility on the other.

Incorporating the Cossack squat into your leg day routine can help build muscle strength and joint stability while also improving flexibility and mobility in the hips and ankles, areas that are often neglected in typical lower-body training.

Why It Works

The Cossack squat targets muscles that are often overlooked in traditional leg exercises. The adductors, for example, play a key role in stabilising the pelvis during leg movements and contribute to overall leg strength. A study published in the Journal of Biomechanics found that stronger adductors help improve lower-body power and stability, reducing the risk of groin injuries, which are common in sports that require sudden changes in direction (Serner et al., 2015).

In addition to strengthening the inner thighs, the Cossack squat also places significant load on the quadriceps, glutes, and hamstrings while working the core to maintain balance. Furthermore, the deep squat position increases flexibility and mobility in the hips and ankles, which can improve performance in other exercises such as squats and deadlifts.

For individuals who struggle with flexibility, performing the Cossack squat with assistance from a resistance band or holding a kettlebell in front of the body for counterbalance can help maintain proper form and gradually increase mobility over time.

Conclusion

Incorporating these lesser-known but highly effective exercises into your routine can provide new challenges to your leg training, promoting muscle growth, strength, and stability. The Bulgarian split squat with deficit enhances your range of motion and targets key stabilising muscles, the banded Nordic hamstring curl builds strong hamstrings while reducing injury risk, and the Cossack squat improves lower-body mobility and targets muscles often neglected in typical leg workouts.

By adding these movements into your training programme, you can break through plateaus, improve functional strength, and build truly powerful legs.

Bibliography

Arnason, A., Andersen, T. E., Holme, I., Engebretsen, L. and Bahr, R., 2008. Prevention of hamstring strains in elite soccer: an intervention study. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 36(2), pp.197–205.

Bloomquist, K., Langberg, H., Karlsen, S., Madsgaard, S., Boesen, M. and Raastad, T., 2013. Effect of range of motion in heavy load squatting on muscle and tendon adaptations. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 27(12), pp.3402–3410.

Douglas, J., Pearson, S., Ross, A. and McGuigan, M., 2017. Chronic adaptations to eccentric training: A systematic review. Sports Medicine, 47(5), pp.917–941.

Mendiguchia, J., Ford, K. R., Quatman, C. E., Alentorn-Geli, E., Myer, G. D. and Hewett, T. E., 2014. Sex differences in proximal control of the knee joint. Sports Medicine, 44(4), pp.529–540.

Serner, A., Jakobsen, M. D., Andersen, L. L., Hölmich, P. and Thorborg, K., 2015. EMG evaluation of hip adductor and abductor exercises performed by male soccer players. Journal of Biomechanics, 48(14), pp. 3773–3779.

Key Takeaways