Calisthenics leg workout: 3 Workouts To Sculpt Teardrop Legs

If you are looking for a calisthenics leg workout, you are in the right place.

In this article, I am going to give you three workouts made so that you can pack on muscle mass on your legs, develop more strength in your legs, and perhaps even progress towards your first few pistol squats, if that is one of your goals.

Most people believe you can’t build your legs with calisthenics.

However, I have been doing calisthenics for the past seven years. In this time, I got to learn how to manipulate volume and intensity of exercises to get muscular legs even without weights.

I wanted these workouts to be accessible to everyone.

For this reason, they are split into three different levels of difficulty. Choose the one that best suits your level, and keep training until you have the necessary strength to do the next difficulty level.

Tempo will be explained in the next section.

Guides for all the exercises will be available below.

Level 1 - Beginner

Level 2 - Intermediate

Level 3 - Advanced

Explaining tempo

Tempo refers to how fast you do the exercise.

Tempo is a crucial part of these calisthenics leg workouts. Being forced to only rely on your own weight, tempo is one of the most effective ways of increasing the intensity of the exercise.

Here is an example of the TEMPO format:

20X1

Each digit represents a number of seconds.

When you see “0” it means no pause.

FAST means you should do the exercise fast with no regard for tempo.

When you see “X” it means an explosive positive.

Examples of tempo in the workouts above:

20X1 for Step up

11X1 for Single leg calf raise

Each digit represents a number of seconds.

With this warm-up you will mobilize all the joints that will be used in the workout to follow, as well as prime the nervous system for the demand of the exercises.

The focus of the warm-up will be activating the muscles surrounding the spine, hip, knee, and ankle.

This warm-up should get you ready for the workout to come, regardless of your level.

In the following section, we will explain each exercise, its purpose, and how to do it.

If you want good results you have to workout with proper form. The same concept applies to your warm-up too. Its effectiveness depends on the form.

Warm-up exercises

You might have noticed that in the warm-up routine you have a mixture of strength, stability, and mobility exercises. Doing all of them will assure that your joints and muscles alike will be ready for the calisthenics leg workout to come.

The purpose of the knee to wall exercise is to warm-up your ankles.

However, you can also add it at the end of the workout for a few sets to improve your overall ankle mobility. This will especially help with your squat mobility.

To perform this exercise correctly, avoid the following mistakes:

Plank

The purpose of the plank is to strengthen your anterior core stability.

As you are doing some of the exercises, you will need to prevent your lower back from arching. Doing the plank in the warm-up will set the standard for your lower back throughout the whole workout.

Perform the plank correctly by avoiding these mistakes:

Squat

The bodyweight squat is a good warm-up choice because it will replicate some of the movement patterns you will be working but with lighter intensity.

Furthermore, it will warm-up your hips, knees, and ankles at once to prepare you for the calisthenics leg workout to come.

To do perfect squats, avoid these mistakes:

Good morning

The good morning will prepare you for hip hinging exercises, like the single leg deadlift.

This exercise will prepare you for optimally loading the posterior chain: spinal erectors, hamstrings, and glutes.

To correctly perform good mornings, avoid these mistakes:

Front and side leg swing

The leg swing is a good way to promote blood flow to the lower body, and reinforce the stability of your core during a dynamic movement.

When done front to back, it will open up the hamstrings, hip flexors, and quadriceps.

When done side to side, it will open up the adductors.

To do leg swings correctly, avoid these mistakes:

Workout exercises

Now that we had a look over the warm-up exercises, let’s have a look at the actual strength exercises of this calisthenics legs workout.

If you want to check out a particular exercise, just press on it below:

Squat jump

The squat jump is a plyometric (explosive) exercise that works the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and engages even your calves.

To perform a squat jump correctly:

Bulgarian split squat

The Bulgarian split squat is one of the best bodyweight leg exercises which can be done pretty much anywhere. All you need is an elevated surface for your back leg and you are good to go.

The Bulgarian split squat will mainly target the quadriceps muscle.

To perform a Bulgarian split squat correctly:

Single leg deadlift

The single leg deadlift is one of the best bodyweight hamstring exercises, which can be done anywhere, requires no equipment, and can be heavily loaded too.

This exercise is going to work your hamstrings and glutes.

To do single leg deadlifts:

Glute bridge

As the name suggests, the glute bridge will mainly target your glutes and your hamstrings a little.

Working your glutes doesn’t only have an aesthetic effect. Strong glutes prevent hip, back, and knee pain, which are problems commonly found in today’s society.

To do glute bridges correctly:

Calf raise

Did you know that one of the most commonly requested plastic surgeries for men is a calves implant? Having big calves is a dream for most men.

However, a big part of the size of your calves is due to genetics.

I know, disappointing. The good news is that if you work your calves enough, they will eventually grow.

To do calf raises correctly:

Step up

The step up is one of the best exercises for a calisthenics leg workout.

With the step up you are mainly working the quadriceps, which is the muscle group in the front part of your leg. To make the exercise harder, all you have to do is use a more elevated surface.

To do the step up correctly:

Hamstring curl

The bodyweight hamstring curl is a great hamstring exercise which requires minimal equipment: a slick floor and a towel.

As the name suggests, this exercise targets the hamstrings mainly.

To correctly do the hamstring curl:

Box pistol squats

The box pistol squat is one of the most effective quadriceps exercises and variations towards the full pistol squat.

If you don’t have a box, you can use a bench or a chair. However, changing the intensity may prove a bit more difficult with any of these options, because you will not be able to lower them closer to the ground.

To do a box pistol squat correctly:

Single leg glute bridge

This exercise is a tougher variation of the glute bridge.

Just like with the two-leg version of this exercise, you will be working your glutes and hamstrings, and help prevent back, hip, and knee pain.

To do the single leg glute bridge correctly:

Wall sit

The wall sit is a very efficient quadriceps exercise.

With the wall sit, you are doing an isometric exercise, meaning that you are not shortening or lengthening the muscle. You are just keeping it in tension.

To correctly do a wall sit:

Single leg calf raise

The single leg calf raise is the easiest way to increase the difficulty of the regular calf raise.

However, with the increase in the intensity of the exercise, you should expect to not be able to do as many reps as with the regular version.

To correctly do single leg calf raises:

Pistol squat

The pistol squat is one of the skills most calisthenics athletes pursue in the calisthenics leg workouts. It is an impressive exercise and quite effective at building the quadriceps.

One of the benefits of training the pistol squat is an increase in balance.

To do pistol squats correctly:

Glute ham raise hinge

The glute ham raise is a very difficult exercise. To make it easier, I recommend you to do the hinge variation, where you hinge at the hips for every rep.

To make it more difficult, instead of hinging, keep leaning forward until your chest almost touches the ground.

This exercise will work your hamstrings like no other.

In this section, I will be answering some of the most common questions regarding leg training with calisthenics.

Yes.

You can build strong and muscular legs with calisthenics if you select the right exercises, focus on the time under tension, and do enough sets and reps.

The leg training routines provided in this article have been made in such a way that you will get visible results within a few weeks of starting to workout.

What is the best calisthenics leg workout?

There is no best workout.

The best calisthenics leg workout is the one that you can stick to and focuses on exercises that will support and help you achieve your goals.

For instance, if your goal is to be as explosive as possible for sprinting, there is no point in doing slow squats.

Are big legs bad for calisthenics?

Depends on how you look at it.

If you have big, bulky legs, they will make certain calisthenics skills more difficult. Since the weight of your legs makes the exercise more difficult, you need to become stronger in your upper body to make-up for the extra weight.

In my opinion, that is a small price to pay for general aesthetics.

If you plan on competing at street workout events, then I can understand the decision of skipping leg training. It will give you an advantage.

However, if this is a hobby of yours and you only train for aesthetics and strength, then skipping leg training would be a mistake.

In this article, I have presented you with three calisthenics leg workouts for different levels of strength.

I have also pointed out the importance of warming up, given you a good warm-up to do before each leg training session, and explained how to do each exercise.

All that is left is for you to start your workout and begin your transformation.

Over to you.