Build Massive Bodybuilder Legs With This Summer Workout

Building Legs

Summer is an epic time to build killer bodybuilder legs. And MUTANT has the most badass bodybuilder three-day split to get your legs looking incredibly thick and ready to sport those swimming trunks. 


Here, we give you the comprehensive summer bodybuilder leg workout, split into three intense training sessions: quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Why three different workouts? This gives you a comprehensive leg training regimen to target every muscle in your legs. Plus, working the lower body with a ton of volume leads to massive overall human growth hormone spikes, leading to insane muscle gains throughout the body, upper and lower. 


Without further ado, let’s get to the workouts.

Bodybuilder 3-Day Leg Split 

Day One: Build Bodybuilder Quads

  • Hack Squats: 4 sets x 6-8 reps
  • Leg Press: 3 sets x 8-10 reps
  • Leg Extensions: 3 sets x 12-15 reps
  • Dumbbell Lunges: 2 sets x 8-12 reps (per leg)

  • For all these exercises (including the hamstring day and the glute day), you’re looking for a slow, controlled eccentric — muscle lengthens, e.g., lowering portion of a squat — motion and an explosive, controlled concentric — muscles contract, e.g., upward phase of a squat — motion. Performing these movements in such a way will lead to the most muscle fiber breakdown and maximal blood flow to the area. 


    As you can see, the rep range goes up while the sets go down. With this, the weight will fluctuate down per exercise. That’s because the more reps you do, the less sets you need to do. In addition, performing an exercise for more reps means less weight is needed. 


    Your heaviest exercises will be hack squats and leg presses since these are the compound exercises that engage all your lower body muscles — glutes, hamstrings, and quads. The weight will be lighter for the isolation exercise that directly engages your quads (leg extensions). 


    With every exercise for building bodybuilding quads, progressive overload is the key; always increase reps or weight every workout. Luckily, with this three-day split, you only work these movements once a week, giving you ample time to recover and avoid plateauing. 

    Traditional Deadlifts

    Day Two: Hamstring Exercises 

  • Traditional Deadlift: 5 sets x 5 reps
  • Floor Glute-Ham Raises: 4 sets x 10 reps
  • Leg Curls: 3 sets x 10-12 reps
  • Kettlebell Swings: 1 set x 50 reps

  • Training hamstrings are all about staying healthy while obtaining tremendous definition. If you’re dealing with a hamstring pull, your legs won't look very good, so getting them stronger than you thought possible is key. And since the hammies contain three muscles compared to their antagonistic counterpart — quads, which contain four — they’re more easily injured in athletes. 


    The deadlifts need to be HEAVY. The StrongLifts 5x5 method is ideal for building otherworldly strength on the deadlift, and a traditional variation provides the most stretch in your hammies. (Even standing on a platform to bring the barbell further toward the ground is a great way to maximize that hamstring range of motion.)


    For the floor glute-ham raise, weight isn’t involved, so you want to improve total time under tension. Do 10 reps every time, but see how slowly you can do the reps without stopping. These will be killer, but if you can control more of the range of motion, you’ll be both injury-proof and ready to show off at bodybuilding events.

    Day Three: Glute Exercises 

  • Sumo Deadlifts: 4 sets x 8-12 reps
  • Barbell Glute Bridge with Band Abduction: 4 sets x 8-10 reps
  • Bulgarian Split Squats: 2 sets per leg x 10-12 reps
  • Standing Calf Raises: 1 set x 50 reps

  • The protocol for your glutes is simple; you’re looking for a squeeze at the top of every repetition. Sumo deadlifts and barbell glute bridges with a band around the knees for abduction do double time with the nice glute stretch at the bottom and the tremendous amount of force at the top. 


    For the first three exercises of this workout, you’re looking for a slow, deep stretch. However, during the calf raises, try to have a tight squeeze going in your glutes while stabilizing and letting the calves do their thing.

    Conclusion

    There you have it! Three days of intense lifting to get all facets of your legs to the level of a professional bodybuilder. Try these training sessions for 10-12 weeks and see how much strength and size you add to your legs.


    It’s still summer, and you deserve MUTANT-sized legs. Get to the gym and get to work!

    Article by Terry Ramos