4 Leg Day Tweaks to Stimulate the Quads, Glutes, and Hamstrings – Muscle & Fitness

Leg day is often filled with visions of hitting the squat rack and leg press machine to max out those muscles, but when the gym is packed and there’s a line at the usual leg day stations, why not change things up by focusing on the corners? Best of all, you can keep things fresh without a single machine or barbell in sight, as online fitness coach Seth Wickstrom recently shared with his more than 200,000 followers on Instagram.

“One small change in your setup can completely change the way your muscles fire,” the trainer explained. By performing 2 to 3 sets of each move, aiming for 8 to 12 challenging reps, you’ll test those legs in ways they may never have been worked before. Give these four epic exercises a blast and make sure you hit the right angles to have a top leg day.

Dumbbell Goblet Squats: Lift toes for glute gains

“If you bring your toes up and perform dumbbell goblet squats like this,” Wickstrom demonstrated by placing two weight plates on the floor and resting his front legs on the edge. “You shift the focus more to your glutes.” This is because lifting the toes requires more force from the back of the legs to remain stable and not fall backward while controlling the load in a vertical motion.

Dumbbell Goblet Squats: Raise the heels to crush your quads

“If you elevate your heels and do gobled dumbbell squats this way, you’ll feel it more in your quads,” Wickstrom showed. “Especially in the tear.” The mechanics of this move basically work in reverse to the toe lift, because this time your body has to adapt to keep you from falling forward, which brings the quads into play with more intensity.

Dumbbell RDLs: Raise the toes for a bigger hamstring stretch

“When you raise your toes and do dumbbell RDLs, you stretch the hamstrings even deeper,” the trainer explained. “Making them do more work.” That, of course, is the key to changing angles during training. The idea is to focus on the area where you most want to improve your physique.

Dumbbell Sumo Squats with a break for adductors and glutes

For his final demonstration, the coach puts his feet firmly on the ground again, but still finds a way to further challenge his body. “You’re bringing in more adductors and glutes,” Wickstrom shared. “Especially when driving through the heels.” The best part of this session is that it takes up little space but yields huge gains. So the next time your leg day ends with lines for the traditional stations, give this workout a try.

To follow Seth Wickstrom on Instagram, click here.