Best Exercise on Leg Day

Rows? Wait…. What?


I am a huge advocate of training the back more than anything. Think about it — jacked guys have huge backs. Has anyone seen The Rock lately? I believe in training the back during every training sesh — especially leg day.

I’m not talking about a full body workout. Leg day is leg day. You go in, do big compound barbell lifts, and dedicate one rowing exercise in there — strategically.

I prefer to do back thickness (hence rows) on leg day instead of width (pull ups and chin ups). The only real reason is I don't want my lower back to be too beat up from say deadlifts on one day and then from bent over rows the next.

One is because the lower back gets taxed from deadz and bent over exercises and to be honest I never do anything bent over. I always make sure to have some sort of support whether it be 1 armed dumbbell rows, chest supported rows, or anything else I choose.

I know what your thinking. What do I mean strategically? Right? Let me give you a sample of a leg day I recently had.

  1. 1 legged bulgarian split squat x 5 rep max and a back off set
  2. goblet squat 1x15-20
  3. 1 legged hip thrusts 3x8-12

4a. 1 arm dumbbell rows 3x6-10

4b. alternating leg raises 3x15-20

So I worked up to a 5 rep max on the split squats, did a back off set, and the rest was assistance work. At the end of the sesh I hit a super set of back thickness rows and abs.

Having upper body and lower body days really helps in being able to hit muscles more often for increased growth.

My name is Bacilio Ruiz and I am a strength and conditioning specialist who specializes in rapid strength and size gains as well as keeping firefighters, EMTs, police officers, and military personnel injury free. Click here for more info.