Guide to bodyweight and weighted single leg training

Introduction

When you try to search online for great home leg workouts with no weights what do you find?

Mostly ineffective training done in circuit style fashion with exercises such as bodyweight squats and jumping lunges. Sure these workouts have millions of views and you try your best to follow along. You do the same workouts but get lackluster results. Still they have managed to develop a great pair legs but you don't.

So what gives? 

You thought all you needed to do was some bodyweight squats, box jumps and sprinting and you will develop some amazing wheels. Well you were fooled. Most of the bodyweight and home workout guys and girls are secretly (or openly) training their legs regularly in the gym. It seems that you can’t build great legs with minimal equipment at all.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can train your legs effectively with bodyweight and using fairly low additional weight such as a set of adjustable dumbbells, sandbags or a weighted backpack.

In the following sections you will learn:

• General recommendations for weekly training volume. What is required to grow and make gains?

• Single leg squats vs back squat. How to compare?

• Loading the single leg squat and comparing the load to a back squat

• Ways to load single leg squats

• Free calculator to compare the loaded single leg squat and back squat

• How to get the most out of your bodyweight training?

• What to do when you reach +20 reps?

• Bodyweight and weighted single leg squat exercises

• Example training programs

• Plus a free leg workout planner

Don’t expect to get stage ready legs. But you can build a decent pair of legs at home with single leg exercises. I have been training my legs with mainly single leg squat exercises. I am not able to back squat, deadlift or do leg press due to a lower back injury. Using bodyweight and light loads has helped me to progress without back pain.

Summary:

• Typically 9-15sets per week will make good progress

• Do most of your workout volume in the 5-10rep range. For example 6-8 and 8-10 range for most exercises

• Train legs 1-2 times per week

• Single leg squats equals back squatting around 0.95 times your bodyweight leading to high rep count when you get to the intermediate level.

• When doing high rep training (+10reps per set) do all sets to muscular failure or 1 reps close to failure. It's hard to tell when you truly hit your max reps on your high rep sets so training to failure or very close to it indicates sufficient effort

• If you wish to do more than 9sets per week divide your workout into two sessions. For example 6sets per workout (3+3sets). This will provide 12 weekly sets. Don’t do too much training in a single session and limit the amount of work to about 10sets at max per session

• Deload every 4-8 weeks depending on your recovery ability. Drop the training volume by 50% for a week by doing less sets. I don´t generally prefer lowering the training load during a deload week. But if you feel your joints need some extra rest you can drop the training load for a week doing lighter pump work.

General recommendations for volume. What is required to grow and make gains?

First let’s take a look at what is generally required to make progress in strength and size for quads. For this purpose we take a short review on leg training in time tested training programs and see how much work is done in those programs.

In generic bulking routine by Lyle McDonald trainee typically performs 10-14sets per week:

Typical workout includes: 

• Squat 3-4x6-8 rep range

• Leg press 2-3x10-12 rep range

• done 2 times a week 

For specialization cycles Lyle recommends up to 16-18 sets per week. 

• 5x5 (or 4x6-8) Squat

• 3x12-15 Leg press

• Optional 2x15-20 Quad raise

• Done 2x a week

In Mike Matthews bigger leaner stronger routine trainee usually performs 6-9 heavy sets per week

For example 

• Back Squat 3x4-6, 

• Barbell lunge, 3x4-6 

• Front squat 3x4-6

For specialization cycles he recommends around 16sets per week split into 3 workouts.

Mike Isratel suggests in his articles that 12-18sets gives you best results in terms of gains. With minimum effective volume 8sets per week (the training volume that will give you some gains). For example starting a mesocycle with 

Workout A 4x8 squat +6x10 leg press 

Workout B 4x12 Smith squat 

increasing volume towards the end of a training block before deload to  

A 5x8 squat +8x10 leg press

B 4x12 Smith squat 

Borge Fagerli suggest in his Myo-reps e-book:

Number of “hard” sets per muscle group per week –> sets per workout, workouts/week:

• Beginners: 3-9 sets -> 1-3 sets/workout, 2-3x/week

• Intermediate: 9-18 sets -> 2-4 sets/workout, 2-4x/week

• Advanced: 12-24 sets -> 2-6 sets/workout, 3-6x/week

Example workout with myo-reps (8-10sets per week)

Workout A (3-4sets)

Squats 3-4x 6-8reps

Workout B (2+1Myo =-5-6 sets)

Split squat 2x9-12reps

Leg extension Myo-reps 1 set of 15-20 +3-5x

James Krieger on his extensive research on training volume “Set Volume for Muscle Size: The Ultimate Evidence Based Bible” suggests:

“On average, muscle growth tends to be best around 6-8 hard sets per muscle group per training session when taking long rests. That can be 12 - 24 weekly sets for a frequency of 2-3 days per week.”

Conclusions about training volume

So generally speaking we are looking at least +8sets per week to make gains assuming you get sufficient rest, calories and are able to recover between workouts. And to make good progress you should be doing around 10-15 hard sets per week. For a single session per week you can maybe do around 9sets depending on your performance. But if you wish to do more sets it’s better to divide the weekly volume to 2 separate workouts for example 4+3 sets per workout that will give you 14sets of weekly volume.

Also notice that in previously mentioned training programs revolve around heavy lifting. Most of the work is done in the 4-8 rep range and accessory work is done in higher rep ranges. You need to be able to progress in your workouts and to be able to measure progress. So increasing resistance or the number of reps is a must to make sure you are progressing. With higher reps there is a problem since you need to train to failure or close to failure. 

Single leg squats vs back squat. How to compare?

So how does the single leg squats compare to back squat in terms of loading. Well the answer is not quite simple but to give an idea single leg squats (pistol squat, shrimp squat, skater squat etc.) load the working leg with about 86% of your bodyweight. This is equal to back squatting about 95% of your bodyweight. So for example 80kg athlete doing single leg squats would be back squatting a load equal to 76kg (0.95*80kg=76kg). 

That is not much weight to work with! 

Any decent intermediate squatter should be able to perform over 20reps with this weight.

And strength wise to be intermediate lifter you should be able to perform Bodyweight * 1.5 for reps depending on the strength standard you are looking at. And to be a top lifter your 1RM back squat should be around 1.5..2*Bodyweight

Notice that the two lifts are completely different in terms of technique and requirements so we are comparing “apples to oranges” but this is just to give you an idea of the actual load you are lifting with single leg squats. I'm not going to go into details on how this is calculated exactly but for example you can check out the calculator in

https://www.exrx.net/Calculators/Workload

Example calculation with the calculator:

Exercise single leg squat

Bodyweight 70kg

Weight 0.01kg (you have to enter some number here for the calculator to work)

Actual resistance 60kg

For two legs the actual resistance would be 2*60kg = 120kg

Now find the equivalent Actual resistance (120kg) for Squat. 

Exercise Squat

Bodyweight 70kg

Weight 66kg

Actual resistance 120kg

You can use the following formula to estimate the load:

Equal back squat = 0.95*Bodyweight 

Equal back squat = 0.95*70kg = 66.5kg

Here is a table so you don’t have to count:

Bodyweight   Equal back squat (95% BW)

60kg 57kg

65kg 62kg

70kg 67kg

75kg 71kg

80kg 76kg

85kg 81kg

90kg 86kg

Table 1. Bodyweight and equal back squat when squatting with single leg

Loading the single leg squat and comparing the load to a back squat:

Use the following formula to calculate equal back squat load when loading single leg squats:

Equal back squat load = 0.95*BODYWEIGHT + 2*LOAD 

So for example 70kg athlete squatting 20kg on single leg is producing force at a similar rate as back squatting 107kg 

Equal back squat = 0.95*70kg+2*20kg = 107kg

To squat about 2 times bodyweight at 70kg (140kg) trainee should use 37kg of added weight.

Example calculation with the calculator:

Exercise single leg squat

Bodyweight 70kg

Weight 37kg

Actual resistance 97kg

For two legs the actual resistance would be 2*97kg = 194kg

Now find the equivalent Actual resistance (194kg) for Squat. 

Exercise Squat

Bodyweight 70kg

Weight 140kg

Actual resistance 194kg

You can use the following formula to estimate the load:

Equal back squat = 0.95*Bodyweight+2*Load 

Equal back squat = 0.95*70kg+2*37kg = 140.5kg

So as you can see when squatting with one leg a small weight adds ups fast and you reach 2*bodyweight squat by adding about 53% of you bodyweight. 

I made a calculator on google drive which you can use:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sY4UJXt7HUuY5z4JAqx7kldinDf9VTpQOC5wBxxYXQE/edit?usp=sharing

Save a copy to your own Drive to enable editing.

Overly simplied way to calculate the equal back squat load would be to assume you lift all your bodyweight with single leg and the calculations would be the following:

Single leg squat to back squat:

Equal back squat = BW + 2*Load

Back squat to single leg squat:

Equal single leg squat = 0.5* Backsquat Load - 0.5*BW

Ways to load single leg squats

Let just get this out of the way first. The best way to load your single leg squat is using adjustable dumbbells with hanging dumbbells in front of you. It is a safe and versatile way to load your squat and you don’t have to go up in weight in big jumps. Hang the weights in front of you like you do in a bulgarian split squat. This way if you fail a rep you are in a better position exit without injury. Zercher or gobbled type holds carry a bigger injury risk. If you lose your balance what do you think will happen?

Weighted west seems to be popular but they are rather expensive and have limited weight capacity unless you get a professional weight west. When loading single leg squats we need to have at least 20-40kg at hand to get strong in a moderate 6-8 rep range.

Ways to load single leg squats and some key points:

• Adjustable dumbbells - easy to adjust, help with the balance, low risk of injury

• Weight west - expensive compared to dumbbells if you want to go heavy

• Sandbags - hard to adjust to right load

• Barbell with Zercher grip - hard to balance, zercher grip is uncomfortable for most

• Kettlebells - non adjustable

• Dumbbells - adjustable dumbbells are better for this purpose. Small dumbbells work great for counter balance

• Weight plates with handles

I don't recommend training weighted pistol squats with heavy loads in 3-8 rep range. There is a great risk of lower back injury due to nature of the movement and rounding lower back in the bottom position. Trust me. I did pistol squats for 4-6reps with +40kg of added weight but eventually I snapped my lower back during a warm up set.

Skater squat and step up work better for loading since the back is in better position. Your non working leg is below or behind you when doing these exercises reducing rounding of the lower back. Also your non working leg will limit the range of motion depending on how high a step you are using. Your knee or your foot will touch the ground in bottom position creating a natural safety limit for the range of motion.

In order to make weighted pistols squats safer I recommend using a small step or a box to limit the bottom range of motion. Slightly below parallel is fine.

How to get the most out of your bodyweight training

Assuming you don't want to add load to your single leg squats (dumbbells, back pack, weight vest or any other equipment) what would be the best way to approach leg training?

To quote James Krieger from one of the Muscle for life podcast:

You know, whether you’re training 8 to 12 reps, 12 to 15, 20 to 25, as long as you’re training to failure – and the caveat to that is: as long as you’re training to failure or near failure, if you’re training well short of failure, then especially with the higher reps, then it’s not going to work. It’s especially important with the lighter weights because of the way muscle fiber recruitment works and everything, the only way lighter weights are going to work for muscle size is: you got to get, you know, close to failure or to failure.

You should perform enough hard sets and as discussed earlier and with enough intensity. And by intensity I mean how close to failure you train on each set. With high rep training you need to train very close to failure to reach sufficient muscle fibre recruitment. Generalized idea is that the last few reps is what produces the full activation of muscle fibres. Specially with high rep sets +12reps it's hard to tell when you are close to failure due to the burning sensation in your muscles. So basically this means that you have to push your sets close to the limits where the last rep is hard to complete.So basically this means that every set is AMRAP (As many reps as possible).

For example a training session with bodyweight pistol squats and step ups could look something like this when training to failure on each set:

Pistol squat

1st set 18reps

2nd set 14reps

3rd set 12reps

Step up

1st set 15reps

2nd set 13reps

3rd set 10reps

As you can see your performance will decline over the training session since you are fatigued and performing all the sets to near failure. That is normal.

If you are at a level where you can't do at least 12reps follow rep progression for bodyweight  pistol squats or other single leg squat variants. Add reps when you can. For example:

Week 1 9,8,8

Week 2 9,9,8

Week 3 9,9,8 (Sometimes you can't make progress. That's normal.)

Week 4 9,9,9 (Success. Now add one rep to the first set)

Week 5 10,9,9

Etc.

Do this until you reach

Week X 12,12,12

And start working with AMRAPS. It will most likely look something like this

Week X+1 14,11,10

What to do when you reach +20 reps?

Do 1.5 reps

How to progress when you hit 20+ reps. Well you can do over 20reps if you want but personally I started doing 1.5reps for pistol squat, skater squats and step up. This forces your quads to work longer. The way you perform 1.5reps with pistol squat is 

1. Squat down 

2. Come only half way up and keep the tension on your quads

3. Squat down again and then come all the way up 

This is 1 repetition in 1.5rep style. When I was able to do 20reps on pistol squats I was able to do only 8reps with 1.5rep style. Here is a good example how to perform the weighted deficit 1.5 rep skater squat:

Do Myo-reps rest pause

Rest pause technique can be used for exercises that don’t have stabilization requirements and they will make your workouts faster. Such as Step up or Bulgarian split squat variations work well. For high rep sets you can use a method called the Myo-reps where you do a high rep set almost to failure and after that you do multiple mini sets almost reaching failure on each mini set. For example let’s say you can do 20reps of bulgarian split squat as your second leg exercise. Now do that 20reps and after that take a rest for 3-5 deep breaths (about 15seconds) and perform 5reps, then rest again for 15seconds and do another 5reps. Continue this until you can’t reach 5reps anymore in your mini set or reached 5 total mini sets

20reps + 15sec break + 5reps + 15sec break + 5reps…. 15sec break + 4reps → now stop

This is a good way to avoid doing multiple high rep sets and save time. 

So instead of doing normal 3sets to failure you do one activation set and multiple mini sets.

Remember the rule of thumb when counting volume that 1 Myo-rep set equals 3-4 “normal” sets. 

One important thing I would like to point out to make Myo-Reps work is:

By keeping constant tension on the muscle, i.e. shorten the ROM by 10% on top (avoid locking out the weight) and 10% in the bottom (resting the weight or overstretching the muscle), you will mimic the occlusion effect and reach higher fiber recruitment faster.

In terms of training volume you could do for example 2sets of pistol squats to failure with an additional 1set of step up with myo reps. This would equal about 5sets for a workout (2 straight sets + 1 myo rep set) So use Myo reps as a time efficient tool to reach higher weekly volume instead of doing straight sets.

If you want to know more about Myo-reps check the link below

https://borgefagerli.com/myo-reps-in-english/

Combining the 1.5reps and Myo-reps for a workout

So instead of 4-6 straight high rep working sets in a session you could combine the two methods mentioned above for bodyweight workout

Workout example (equals 5-7 working sets)

• Pistol squat 1.5reps 2-3sets to failure

• Bulgarian split squat 1set Myo reps 15-25 +3-5x

Exercises

List of most useful bodyweight and weighted single leg squat exercises. Click the link below to land on the correct part of the videos.

• Pistol Squat (Weighted or bodyweight)  

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN-wQc5dJIY&t=10s

• Deficit Skater squat (Weighted or bodyweight)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tivrc9UhELc

• Skater squat (Weighted or bodyweight)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybF2rVhnbuY&t=30s

• Deficit Bulgarian split squat (Weighted or bodyweight)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMQi0qA_V-k

• Step up (Weighted or bodyweight)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSs9VbeGxIY&t=20s

• Bulgarian split squat (Weighted or bodyweight)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxza3DSKKq8

• Split squat (Weighted or bodyweight)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybF2rVhnbuY&t=284s

As you can see I left out exercises that are technically difficult or potentially harmful to some people. For example sissy squat might be a good alternative for some, but I would say most people cannot perform this exercise without knee pain or without developing knee issues. Also commonly used calisthenics leg exercises have been left out such as box jumps and sprints. Box jumps are not well suited for progressive overload and people tend to cheat on these. Also doing box jumps in a fatigued state can be dangerous. Just search “box jump fails” and you see what I mean. Sprints might work fine for some, but unless you have access to indoor circuit most you won't be able to perform this year round. Shrimp squat might be a good fit between pistol squat and skater squat but it is left out because it's mainly just a hard version of skater squat and doesn't give extra benefit of increased range of motion or increased loading on the working leg.

When selecting exercises to your leg workout do the following: pick on exercise that requires the most balance (for example pistol squat or skater squat). Second and third exercise should require less balance since you are fatigued from your first exercise. So pick something like step up or bulgarian split squat.If you wish and can you can do deadmans quad raises or sissy squats as last exercise if they don’t bother your knees.

So your workout would consist of 1 Primary squat movement and 1-2 accessory movements depending on how you structure your workout. See the examples below.

Workout examples:

Here are training examples you can implement on your current routine. There are options for fullbody and split routines.Check out my leg workout template on google drive to make your own workouts

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uw6Bcw1bqKfdkAyhvHHEaGvnh17j33fxjStypWdofmA/edit?usp=sharing

Save a copy to your own Drive to enable editing.

Two leg workouts a week

Example A 8sets per week (one exercise per session)

If you are training with upper lower split or full body where you are training quads 2x week. Workout could be done simply like this 

Workout A

• Skater squat 4x to failure or weighted skater squat 4x6-8 rep range

Workout B

• Pistol squat 4x to failure or weighted pistol squat 4x8-10 rep range

Example B 10-14sets per week (two exercises per session)

For upper lower style split with 2x lower body sessions a week

Workout A

• Pistol squat 3-4x to failure or

weighted pistol squat 3-4x8-10 rep range

• Step up 2-3x to failure or 

Weighted step up 2-3x10-12 rep range

Workout B

• Deficit skater squat 3-4x to failure or

Weighted deficit skater squat 3-4x6-8 rep range

• Deficit bulgarian split squat 2-3x to failure or

Weighted deficit bulgarian split squat 2-3x10-12 rep range

Example C using 1.5reps and Myo-Reps equals around 10 sets per week

For trainees who can to 20+ reps for pistol squats. If you are training with upper lower split or full body where you are training quads 2x week. Workout could be done like this 

Workout A

• Pistol squat 1.5reps 2x to failure 

• Bulgarian split squat 1x Myo-reps 15-25 +3-5

Workout B

• Deficit skater squat 3-4x to failure or

Weighted deficit skater squat 3-4x6-8 rep range

One leg workout a week

Example D One leg workout a week (9-10sets per week)

For Push/Pull/Legs or bodypart split routines where you train legs once a week (9-10sets per session)

Workout

• Pistol squat 3-4x to failure or

weighted pistol squat 3-4x6-8 rep range

• Step up 3x to failure or 

Weighted step up 3x8-10 rep range

• Bulgarian split squat 3x to failure or

Weighted bulgarian split squat 3x10-12 rep range or 

Quad isolation 3x to failure (natural quad extension, sissy squat etc.)

Don't forget the hamstrings

Above examples include only quad centric exercises. For a complete leg workout add 3-4sets of hamstring work of your choice (nordic curl, hamstring curl etc.) and 3-5sets of calf work (single leg or weighted)

That’s all for now. Hope this helps others to make better progress with bodyweight and weighted single leg workouts!

Interested in Bodyweight Strength Training?

This one is for those who are interested in practical information in one small package.

Get Guide to Bodyweight Strength Training at Amazon.com

I did my best to gather all the information between these covers so that you can make the best progress possible. It is a textbook with some math. But you can skip the math part and read the best parts. I don't mind!