Are you struggling to find ways to get a great legs workout while at home, or have you been seeking new ways to shock stubborn quads, glutes or hamstrings into growing?
Then seek no further. Your search has paid off, and ends here; the workout this article follows along with is sure to add some potent variation into your legs day training.
Duffle Bag Legs Day
By now, it’s likely you’ve seen athletes tout the benefits of utilizing sand bags to improve their performance, core strength, functionality. All those benefits are true. Not everyone just has sand bags lying around though.
That’s why we decided to make a more universal version of those functional workouts, using a household item pretty much everyone has lying around — the duffle bag. And if you don’t, then the duffle bag our models are using in the workout video is available now on the site.
Benefits of a Duffle Bag Training Day
There are a wide variety of benefits potentially reaped from this sort of training. I won’t belabor you with all of them but…
Some of the benefits from incorporating workouts using slack weight like what you’d find in a duffle bag (loaded with whatever your swole heart desires) are:
- Like sandbags, training with a weight-loaded duffle bag can improve stability
- If you’re on the go, traveling the world or just road tripping, chances are you already have a duffle bag on hand, meaning you can do this workout just about anywhere
- Duffle bag training can build better mental strength: it requires a lot of focus to maintain posture and proper form so that you don’t drop the bag and thus end the set short, making this type of training effective for developing better focus.
Duffle Bag Front Squat 3 x 15
These are actually more like Zercher Squats than front squats, but that’s not really important. What’s important is that this exercise is a powerful, innovative way to work your:
- Quadriceps
- Glutes
- Core
- And… even biceps.
How to perform Duffle Bag “Front” Squat
- Keeping arms bent, rest the duffle bag on your forearms, like cradling it
- Set up your feet in the traditional squat stance
- Engage core, and maintaining an upright torso, slowly lower until the back of your thighs are parallel to the floor (or take that a** to grass)
- Powerfully press through feet and squat up to the starting position
Duffle Bag Lunges 3 x 10 each leg
Whether you’re using traditional weights or one of our duffle bags, lunges are a staple in every lifter’s legs day. This is because lunges help build quads, hamstrings, glutes, and core stability.
If you have the space, feel free to do walking lunges. In the following instructions and the video, however, the exercise listed is an in-place lunge.
How to perform Duffle Bag Lunges
- Keeping arms bent, rest the duffle bag on your forearms
- Stand with your feet about shoulder width apart
- Step your right foot forward
- Slowly lower until the back of your right leg is parallel to the floor. Your left shin should also be about parallel to the floor. You’ll want to make sure that the majority of your weight is on your right foot.
- Through your right foot, press up and back to return to the starting position
- Repeat with the left leg
- That’s one total rep. Perform ten (per leg, so a total of twenty)
Duffle Bag Hip Thrust 3 x 10
No better way to build some solid glutes than the hip thrust. According to some, at least. Whether hip thrusts are the champion glute builder or not might be arguable but their importance for anyone seeking to make their gluteus maximus into gluteus optimus, and gluteus minimus into gluteus prime is no joke…
How to perform Duffle Bag Hip Thrust
- Sit on the floor with your back against a bench.
- Plant your feet on the floor in front of you, and rest the duffle bag on your upper thighs. To keep it in place, place your hands on each end of the bag
- As you lift your body onto the bench, your feet should form a 90 degree angle with the floor and your body.
- Push through your heels, laying shoulders on the bench (shoulders act as pivot point), raising your hips upward until your hips are in line with your shoulders, and knees are at a 90 degree angle. Shoulders should be firmly on the bench. Tuck your chin and look forward (not at the ceiling or at the person checking out your ‘shelf’ booty)
- When you get to the top of the movement, concentrate on flexing your glutes. Contract and push your hips forward, until you feel them fire. Try to hold the contraction for 2-5 seconds.
- Slowly descend. Repeat.
- That’s one rep. Perform ten.
Duffle Bag Leg Extension 3 x 15
One of the better exercises you can perform for developing what many bodybuilders refer to as the “tear drop” portion of the quadriceps, Leg Extensions are a must for anyone who wants to sculpt their thighs.
A lot of lifters and coaches will say they don’t really belong in a workout routine focused on building mass, but they’re wrong. And even if they weren’t, a duffle bag workout is more about getting a burn in and making due with what’s around you than it is focusing on the optimal methods of hypertrophy.
How to perform Duffle Bag Leg Extension
- Sit on the edge of a bench or chair. IDeally, you want something that makes it possible for your feet to hang off the edge without touching the ground. If you don’t have that around, you can throw some books on top of a chair. Be creative.
- Place the duffle bag on the tops of your feet, and keep the feet slightly up to hold the bag in place. The bag will rest against your ankles and lower shins
- Maintaining focus on not letting your feet lower (and thus dropping the bag), bring your legs up until they’re almost straight.
- Contract your quadriceps for 2-3 seconds
- Slowly lower back to the starting position
- That’s one rep. Perform fifteen
Legs Day Finisher (Tri-Set)
Now for the grand finale. The fatality exercise, or combination of exercises. To complete this atypical workout, you will be performing three exercises back to back without rest in between. This is called a tri-set. It’s an effective way to pump massive amounts of blood into working muscles as well as increase heart rate.
Additionally, this is actually an impressive combo our folks put together as it combines multiple, and various types of muscle building stimuli. The squat jumps bring in explosive concentric movement with full range of motion. The wall sits can work as an isometric hold, trapping blood in the muscles to further test pain tolerance and stack the pump. Then it finishes with some squat pulses for even greater muscle activation and fatigue.
- Squat jumps 3 x 10
- Wall Sit 3 x 15 seconds
- Squat Pulses 3 x 20
Want more leg workouts? Check out this leg workout with dumbbell.
Putting it all together
| Exercise | Sets + Reps | Rest Time |
| Duffle Bag Zercher Squat | 3 x 15 | 45-60 seconds |
| Duffle Bag Lunges | 3 x 15 | 45-60 seconds |
| Duffle Bag Hip thrust | 3 x 10 | 45-60 seconds |
| Duffle Bag Leg Extension | 3 x 15 | 45-60 seconds |
| Tri-Set Finisher Squat Jumps Wall Sit Squat Pulses | 3 x 10 3 x 15 seconds 3 x 20 | 45-60 seconds (between completed tri-set) |