Single Leg Press: Benefits, Muscles Worked, & Best Machines

The leg press doesn’t get as much love as a barbell squat in the world of bodybuilding, but when it comes to building mass and working all of the major muscles of the lower body, the leg press is one of the most beneficial compound leg exercises you can include in your exercise routine.

While most people use the leg press machine with two legs at the same time, performing a single leg press is an even harder variation that has some unique benefits.

Keep reading to discover these awesome single leg press benefits.

Is The Single Leg Press Good?

Yes, the single leg press is a solid exercise to add to your routine – mainly because most functional movements that occur in sports and everyday life are done one leg at a time. Does that mean it should be the only leg exercise in your arsenal? Probably not.

The single leg press is good for isolating the major leg muscles including the quads and hamstrings, the same way you use dumbbells to isolate each bicep or tricep. But most guys don’t get really strong, muscular legs from this exercise alone. It should really be included after both legs are worked together using squats, regular leg presses, or a similar movement.

Single Leg Press Muscles Worked

The single leg press works the muscles in your quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. These are the primary muscles used for running, squatting, and jumping:

• At the front of your thigh is the quadriceps femoris. This is the main muscle group worked by the single leg press and it’s actually a group of four muscles including the vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, and the rectus femoris. This muscle group is responsible for knee extension necessary in most basic and high-intensity physical activities.
• Your hamstrings are also stimulated by the single leg press. This muscle is located at the back of your leg below your glutes and aids in flexing your knee. You can work this muscle a little more by going deeper into each repetition.
• Last, your gluteal muscles are also worked by this exercise. This is a group of three muscles that forms your butt, including the gluteus minimus, gluteus medius, and gluteus maximus. This group controls the hip joint through a series of movements including abduction, extension, and rotation.

7 Real Single Leg Press Benefits Trainers Swear By

Now, you just learned what muscles this exercise works, but there are a ton of other benefits worth mentioning. To convince you to add this movement to your routine, here are 7 benefits of the single leg press that bodybuilders and personal trainers stand by.

1. Muscle Symmetry

Most people have an imbalance between their left and right sides. One side is usually stronger or bigger than the other, and when you are doing squats or the traditional leg press, that stronger, bigger side is carrying the load and doing most of the work.

When you do a single leg press, you are forcing each side to perform an equal workload. This will result in balance and proportion between both legs.

This is one of the key principles you’ll find in very effective lower body workout programs for women like the top-rated Kinobooty program.

2. Greater Range of Motion

As I’ve talked about before, the leg press works the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes. And, when you do the exercise just one leg at a time you will work those muscle groups with a greater range of motion, and that will activate your muscles even more.

Studies have shown that when you do focused eccentric training on your hamstrings – like you can do with the single leg press – it gives them the ability to produce peak force. You will see noticeable benefits when running and sprinting, and this will also benefit your hamstrings when they are in the stretched position like at the bottom of a deadlift, squat, or kettlebell swing.

3. Core Stimulation

When you are doing a leg press, your back is supported on the back rest. But, this doesn’t mean you aren’t working your core or obliques during the movement. When you do a single leg press you have to stabilize your body even more, and that means more work in your core.

4. One Leg Means Half the Weight

When you are doing a traditional leg press with two legs that means you have to load up the machine with a ton of plates. If your legs are really strong, you will most likely need at least ten 45-pound plates, and rounding all those up and loading them on the machine can be a huge pain in the ass.

No one wants to be a weight plate hog at the gym, and doing a single-leg press can help you avoid that completely. You will only need about half the weight you would normally use, but still get just as much – if not more – muscle stimulation.

No matter how strong you are, you won’t need a huge stack of 45-pound plates to get a killer lower body workout.

5. Improved Functional Strength

Contrary to popular belief, the leg press does improve your functional strength. I’m not just saying this because I am a fan of the single leg press, there is actually science to back me up on this.

A 1996 study of college-aged participants showed that after a six-week leg press training program, there was a 2.55 inch increase in single-leg jump height.

Would you get a better result with barbell squats? Maybe. But, when people tell you that leg presses have no functional strength benefit, they don’t know what they’re talking about.

Leg press training improves balance recovery, vertical jump height, number of bodyweight Squats in 30 seconds, and short-distance sprinting ability…

says Chris Beardsley of Strength and Conditioning Research in a 2014 blog post.

You might have heard that athletes don’t perform the leg press because they don’t build functional strength. But, the truth is that elite athletes like Colin Kaepernick and Dwyane Wade include single leg presses in their workout routine because it is a more functional variation.

Just about every athletic movement is done from a single-leg position. “I like single-leg work because it isn’t often as a quarterback that both of your feet are stationary and planted,” says Kaepernick.

6. More Power

You would think that bilateral movements like barbell squats would be all you need for explosive power training, but unilateral exercises like the single leg press have been shown to improve the Rate of Force Production (RFD).

I don’t want to get too sciencey here, so think of RFD as a car’s 0-60 MPH time. In other words, it is the measurement of how long it takes a muscular contraction to hit the peak level of force production. Yes, bilateral movements are extremely important to RFD, but don’t ignore unilateral exercises.

When you have only one foot on the machine, that small base of support stimulates the motor neurons at the spinal level, which contributes to force development. Think of single leg presses as improving your force from the inside out.

7. Cardio in Disguise

There are significant cardiovascular and metabolic advantages when you are doing single leg presses. When you do a high amount of reps in a high volume program, by the end of the set you are going to notice a significantly increased heart rate.

When you are doing one leg at a time, it will take you twice as long to work both legs compared to the traditional leg press. That means twice the amount of time under tension, twice the metabolic cost, and twice the number of heartbeats.

3 Single Leg Press Variations (How To)

Standard Single Leg Press

This is the standard single leg press variation that’s going to emphasize the quads, but also work the hamstrings and glutes. Here’s how to do it:

• Sit in the leg press seat facing directly forward and place your right foot in the vertical center of the footplate inline with your right hip.
• Unlock the safety restraints on the leg press.
• Bend your right knee and allow the footplate to move closer to your body. 
• When your knee reaches close to a 90-degree angle, press against the footplate and push your body back to starting position.
• This is one rep. Repeat for 10-12 reps and then switch legs.

Side Leg Press

[Video Below]

The side leg press is just what it sounds like, but there’s even more of a twist. Not only will you be sitting sideways, but you’ll also be propped up on your knee to change the muscle emphasis. Here’s how to do it:

• Position yourself in the leg press seat by facing to the left, propping yourself up on your left knee, and placing your right foot up on the footplate.
• When you’re ready, unlock the safety restraints on the leg press.
• Bend your right knee and allow the footplate to move closer to your body. 
• When your knee reaches close to a 90-degree angle, press against the footplate and push your body back to starting position.
• This is one rep. Repeat for 10-12 reps and then switch legs.

Side Leg Squat

[Video Below]

The side leg squat is very similar to the side leg press, but you’re not propped up on your knee in the seat. This allows you to go even deeper on each rep and feel the emphasis more in your glutes and hamstrings. Here’s how it’s done:

• Position yourself in the leg press seat by facing to the left and placing your right foot up on the footplate. You may need to lean forward slightly to get into position.
• When you’re ready, unlock the safety restraints on the leg press.
• Bend your right knee and allow the footplate to move closer to your body. 
• When your knee reaches close to a 90-degree angle, press against the footplate and push your body back to starting position.
• This is one rep. Repeat for 10-12 reps and then switch legs.

5 Effective Single Leg Press Alternatives

Even though the single leg press is a great leg-builder, it has a major flaw. You need access to a leg press to do it. Or do you? You might be surprised to learn that there are a number of effective alternatives you can do right at home to work the same muscle groups as this exercise.

Weighted Step-Ups

Weighted step-ups use a combination of gravity and weighted resistance to make a very simple movement into a decent muscle-builder. For this exercise you can either hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand or hold a barbell on your traps (similar to squatting position). You’ll also need a bench or high step to step onto.

If you don’t have a pair of dumbbells, I recommend the Bowflex SelectTech Adjustable Weights because they let you switch increments quickly and easily.

• Start by standing behind the bench with your weights in each hand resting at your side (or barbell on your back).
• Drive one leg up and place it onto the bench.
• Push through the heel of the elevated foot and raise yourself up until you’re completely standing on the bench.
• Reverse the movement to return back to the floor.
• Repeat this movement with the opposite leg.

Single Leg Squat to Box

The single leg squat to box also takes advantage of gravity and only requires a bench, box, or other piece of furniture to limit your range of motion as your butt descends towards the floor. You can add more resistance by holding a weight in each hand.

The box in the video is called a plyo box and we recommend this one by j/fit. And don’t worry, you’ll definitely get your money’s worth since a plyo box can be used for all sorts of strength and dynamic training exercises.

• With your back to the bench or box, stand on one leg, and position your hands in front of you to maintain balance. (If holding weights, allow your arms to fall to your side.)
• Thinking about trying to touch your butt to the wall behind you, begin squatting by bending the knee of your standing leg.
• When your butt touches the top of the box or bench, drive through the heel of your standing leg to return to a fully-standing position.

Single Leg Smith Machine Squats

Some alternatives still require a complicated equipment setup to do. One of these exercises is the single leg smith machine squat. For this you’ll need a smith machine as well as a bench to perform the movement.

• Before starting, make sure the bench is placed either inside or outside of the smith machine approximately 2-3 feet from the bar. You can adjust the distance based on your reach.
• Facing away from the bench, get under the smith machine bar and place the bar on the meaty part of your traps like you would to ready for a squat.
• Lift one leg off the ground and put your toes on top of the bench behind you.
• Tighten your core and bend your standing knee to perform a single leg squat motion.
• When your knee makes a close to 90-degree angle, reverse the movement and return to starting position.

Bulgarian Split Squats

Bulgarian split squats are a very good exercise for leg isolation because there’s limited equipment involved. All you’ll need is a bench or piece of furniture, and some weights to hold in each hand like dumbbells or kettlebells.

• With weights in each hand, stand facing away from the bench.
• Lift one leg off the ground and place your toes on top of the bench behind you.
• Tighten your core and bend your standing knee to perform a single leg squat motion.
• When your knee creates close to a 90-degree angle, reverse the movement and return to starting position.

Weighted Walking Lunges

More hardcore lifters might look at walking lunges and laugh, but I promise you these are no joke. The range of motion and time under tension make these real leg builders, not only for your quads, but your hamstrings and glutes as well. Make sure you have 10-20 feet ahead of you before starting so there’s plenty of room to walk.

• Stand up straight with a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand.
• Step forward and bend your knee to the point where the knee of your opposite leg actually touches the ground.
• Drive through your heel to raise yourself back to standing position.
• Step forward with the opposite leg and bend your knee until the opposite knee actually touches the ground.
• Drive through your heel to raise yourself back to standing position.

The Final Word on Single Leg Press

I encourage you to add single leg presses to your workout routine. Of course, don’t leave out the barbell squats entirely. Instead, alternate between the two exercises on leg day, or do them both. Just be sure to include single-leg training in your routine because there are numerous benefits.

But you can’t build a visually-impressive body with just one exercise. You need a complete diet and training system.

That’s why you should check out the greek god program and discover how you can build a lean and muscular body in only 3 short workouts per week while eating large, satisfying meals throughout the day.

Single Leg Press FAQs

What is Single-Leg Press good for?

The single-leg press is a good leg isolation exercise and (like the double-leg press) is a great lower-body workout that targets the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes, which are the muscles primarily used for running, squatting, and jumping.

Is single-leg leg press effective?

Just like the standard leg press, the single-leg press works the same muscle groups but is especially effective at isolating each leg, which helps develop muscle symmetry.

Is single-leg Press better than double-leg press?

Compared to double-leg presses, the single-leg press is better for isolation and developing muscle symmetry, allows for an extended range of motion, and can be performed effectively with lesser weights.

Can you do Single-Leg Press on a leg press machine?

Yes, you can use the same leg press machine for both the double-leg press and single-leg press variations. Check out the single press, its variations, and alternatives in this article.

Is leg press better than squats?

It’s not straightforward to pick an outright winner between the leg press and squat exercise. Both exercises will have their benefits and drawbacks. On one hand, squats work more lower body muscles and may be better at improving leg performance in sports. On the other hand, the single leg press allows for more weight and resistance, and it’s better at isolating the quads, hamstring, and glutes.