Workout For Legs With Dumbbells: The Ultimate Dumbbell Leg Workout At Home

A workout for legs with dumbbells can be powerful for building your quads, glutes, hamstrings and calves.

But here's the catch, you have to:

1. Follow a rational explicit program that produces a surge in your body's metabolism
2. be sure to fuel your muscles with the right amount of nutrients to build muscle but avoid packing on unwanted body fat.

Today,  in this article you'll get part 1 of this 2 step process with this complete dumbbell leg workout at home.

If you want the strategies for step 2, check out how to eat to gain weight and build muscle here.

Alright, You ready to build those legs?

Here's exactly what we'll cover....

Why Your Body Weight Leg Workouts Aren't Enough

If you regularly participate in body weight leg workouts at home but they lack effectiveness to produce the results you desire like...

• Increased strength (Size and tone)
• Or improved flexibility

Then there's likely a fundamental principle you're missing for implementing any type of resistance training (especially for leg workouts because you're constantly on your legs, so they require a bit more stimulus).

That fundamental principle?

Progressive overload! nope, It's not groundbreaking news but it is highly overlooked and is likely the main cause for the lack of your health and physique results.

This principle dictates that the physical stress placed on your body by the volume and intensity of an exercise must increase over time in order to force your body to adapt[1].

Let me put this the other way around....

Any exercise system or prescribed training program (even if it's for maintenance) that doesn't have specific ways to progressively overload your muscles will...

• Not produce long-term adaptation (zero results)
• Likely result in regression (due to muscle frailty and aging)

A Common Incident?

If you just had a "that sounds like me moment" no worries, this is a common phenomenon that we see  on a weekly basis.

Our elite members report they are "active" and the like but their results are lacking.

If left unchecked as age sets in you can commonly develop muscle frailty, sarcopenia a.k.a. muscle loss, and other chronic diseases that are preventable with higher intensity progressively overloaded training programs.

That's why we preach progressive overload to ensure that adequate exercise intensity is maintained over the long term for the maximum health and physique benefits.

And that's exactly what you'll get with this ultimate workout for legs with dumbbells, so keep reading to review your leg workout structure.

Workout for Legs with Dumbbells: Leg Workout Structure

Multi-Joint Versus Single-Joint

Using free weight dumbbells for your leg workouts at home will allow you to  unleash the potent whole-body training stimulus using only a few multi-joint exercises and relatively low rep ranges compared to body weight exercise alone.

By incorporating the major movement patterns in your leg workouts you'll enable the functional aspect of all the major muscle groups. therefore, that makes this approach...

• Effective
• Efficient
• And safe when properly programmed and guided by a coach

On the flip side a training program that focuses on single-joint exercises typically requires many exercises and high rep ranges in order to provide a similar whole body stimulus sufficient to maximize strength/physique adaptations and health benefits.

The takeaway...work smarter not harder!

Dumbbell Leg Workouts at home: How Much Weight To Use

The best way to determine your starting weight is to use a 1 rep-max chart, however for this leg workout at home with dumbbells we'll use a more practical approach.

Start with a dumbbell weight that you can easily perform 5 reps with. then, add weight in small increments for subsequent sets of 5 until the exercise starts to become difficult and your movement pattern slows down by 50-70%.

This is your starting weight and you should complete 3 sets with this weight for at least 4 weeks before increasing the weight by 2.5 to 5lbs.

This approach minimizes the form breakdown and risk of injury that single repetition maximal loading is attempted. trust me....Your back, joints, muscles, and ligaments will thank you for using this approach.

Dumbbell leg workouts at home: Rest Periods Between Sets 

In our experience, your rest periods (especially for leg workouts) should range anywhere from 2-3 minutes for optimal

• Recovery
• Hypertrophy
• Strength adaptations
• And to maintain performance from set to set

As you build your strength, become more conditioned, and use heavier weights, your rest periods can increase upwards of 5 minutes.

Workouts For Legs With Dumbbells: Dumbbell Swings

Dumbbell Swings

Want to Burn 1,200 calories in an hour? Dumbbell swings can help you get it done. Of course, that amount of swinging is unnecessary with dumbbell leg workouts at home , but it goes to show the whole body stimulus that this exercise provides.

How to do a Dumbbell swing

• Stand up straight clasping a dumbbell in both hands
• Place your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart.
• Point your toes  out slightly at 3 (right foot) and 9 (left foot) o'clock.
• Drop your hips down and back by bending your knees.
• Thrust your hips forward squeezing your glutes.
• Once the dumbbell reaches shoulder height, drop your hips to bring it back towards your body.

PRO TIP: Remember to keep your arms extended throughout the movement. To end the movement just take the momentum out of the swing until the dumbbell stops in the bottom position and lower down to the floor.

Sets and repetitions: 

3 sets 15-20 repetitions

Target muscles: 

Glute and hip muscles

Quadriceps and abdominal muscles

Hamstrings and calf muscles

Back, shoulders and arms muscles

Workout For Legs With Dumbbells: Dumbbell Sumo Squat

Dumbbell Sumo Squat

This lower body movement targets your inner thighs but more importantly it allows you to use more weight therefore you can easily progressively overload your leg workouts at home.

How to do a Dumbbell sumo squat

• Stand up straight with feet wider than shoulder width apart.
• Point your toes  out slightly at 3 (right foot) and 9 (left foot) o'clock.
• Drop your hips straight down by bending your knees.
• Push through your heels to stand straight up in the starting position.

PRO TIP: Keep your chest up, a slight arch in your lower back, and maintain your body weight on your heels throughout this movement as the dumbbell has a tendency to make you lean forward.

Sets and repetitions: 

3 sets 15-20 repetitions

Target muscles: 

Glutes

Hamstrings

Inner thighs

Workouts For Legs With Dumbbells: Dumbbell Split Squat

Dumbbell Split Squat

This is by far my all-time favorite dumbbell leg workouts. This exercise provides quadriceps and glute activation on the lead leg, while also providing a great stretch in the hip flexors of the trail leg.

How To Do A Dumbbell Split Squat

• Place your front foot on the ground and back foot on the bench.
• Hold a dumbbell in each hand and let them hang  by your sides.
• The distance between the front foot and bench should be about a foot and a half.
• Next, lower your body to the ground while keeping your chest up and A slight arch in your lower back.
• Your front knee should not travel beyond your toes.
• Try to use the heel of your front foot to push through THE ground as you stand up.
• SLOWLY Return to the starting position.

PRO TIP:  If you want activate your glutes more place your lead leg further away from the bench.

Sets and repetitions: 

3 sets 15-20 repetitions

Target muscles: 

Glutes

Hamstrings

Inner thighs

Workout For Legs with Dumbbells: Dumbbell Wall Sit

Dumbbell wall sit

Ready to feel the burn? this exercise introduces isometric contraction to your leg workout. An isometric contraction is when your muscle is static or still while contracting but there's no obvious movement.

Isometric contractions have commonly used to help break up strength gain plateaus and build up quadriceps strength.

How to do dumbbell wall sits

• Place your back against a wall with feet shoulder width apart and about 1 foot from the wall.
• Tighten your abs and slide down into the squat position with your quadriceps parallel to the floor.
• Keep your back flat against the wall.
• Hold the position for 20 seconds
• Slide slowly back up the wall to a standing position.

PRO TIP: This exercise will challenge you, so to help you get through it, fix your eyes on a spot in front of you and focus on your breathing to help calm your mind.

Sets and repetitions: 

3 sets 15-20 repetitions

Target muscles: 

Glutes 

Quads

Abs

Complete Dumbbell Leg Workout At Home: Dumbbell Romanian Dead Lift

Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift 

Many dumbbell leg workouts at home are quadricep and glute dominant (front of your thighs), so The dumbbell Romanian deadlift is a great exercise to target your hamstrings (back of your legs).

How to do dumbbell Romanian deadlift

• Stand up and hold two dumbbells on your thighs.  
• Your feet should be hip width apart and toes should point forwards.
• Keep a slight bend in your knees and maintain it throughout the movement
• Maintain 90% of your weight on your heels throughout the movement
• Bend at the waist by hinging at your hips and lower the dumbbells down to your lower shins
• Slowly return to the starting position by pushing through your heels.

Sets and repetitions: 

3 sets 15-20 repetitions

Target muscles: 

Hamstrings

Complete Dumbbell Leg Workout At Home: Dumbbell Calf Raise

Dumbbell Calf raise

Calf raises are not only great for developing the show muscles of the lower leg but they're highly effective in aiding blood return to your heart.

How to do dumbbell calf raises

• Stand up and hold two dumbbells by your sides.  
• Your toes should point forwards.
• Raise your heels off the floor and contract your calves. 
• Slowly return to the starting position.

Sets and repetitions: 

3 sets 15-20 repetitions

Target muscles: 

Calves

Complete Dumbbell Leg Workout At Home: Single Leg Calf Raise

Single leg Calf raise

No rest for the weary because calf muscle growth requires a bit more volume.

So for the final exercise of your leg workout we're going isolate each calf muscle individually with single leg calf raises.

How to do single leg calf raises

• Stand up straight on one foot
• Your toe should point forward.
• Raise your heel off the floor and contract your calf.
• Slowly return to the starting position.

PRO TIP: to maintain your balance you can extend the off arm on the wall if you need.

Sets and repetitions: 

3 sets 15-20 repetitions

Target muscles: 

Calves

The Ultimate Workout For Legs With Dumbbells

Workout For Legs With Dumbbells: Full Workout

Leg Workout At Home: Wrap up

Alright ladies and gents, By now your legs should be shaking like a bunny tail.

And I sincerely hope you enjoy this complete leg workout and better understand the principle of progressive overload.

If you're looking for a rational explicit training program to build muscle, blast body fat, and improve your health, then tap the image below to take our free health and physique quiz to find the best proven process diet and training program for you.

That's enough from me for today, be sure to drop a comment below if you try this workout and let us know what you think.

As always...the juice is worth the squeeze.

Signing out

Joe G - Your Elite Health And Physique Leader