What Are Landmine Leg Exercises?

Landmine leg exercises are a great way to add variety to your lower body workout routine. These exercises involve using a barbell anchored to the ground or a landmine attachment, providing a fixed movement path that changes the look and feel of traditional exercises.

You can use landmine leg exercises to work the quads, glutes, hamstrings, and calves. Some common examples of landmine exercises for legs are squats, lunges, and Romanian deadlifts.

Each exercise works the legs differently, as I’ll explain below. But first, let’s talk about the benefits of using the landmine on leg day.

Benefits of Landmine Leg Exercises

There are several benefits to incorporating landmine leg exercises into your routine. First, they add variety and challenge your muscles in new ways.

Also, landmine leg exercises typically require more balance than other free-weight or machine variations. So not only do they help develop lower body strength, but they also improve stability and balance.

Therefore, landmine leg exercises are ideal for athletes or anyone looking to enhance their athleticism. But they’re also great for bodybuilders trying to sculpt specific muscle groups.

Of course, any exercise variation has pros and cons, and the landmine is no exception. For example, these exercises are ideal for powerlifters because you can’t go as heavy.

In addition, the barbell isn’t the best equipment for doing single-joint isolation movements. And it’s best to use a landmine attachment to avoid damaging your barbell sleeves.

Pros

• Add more variety to workouts.
• Challenges muscles in new ways.
• Unique range of motion.
• Increases balance and stability.

Cons

• Can’t go as heavy as traditional barbell exercises.
• Not the best for isolating single muscle groups.
• Requires a landmine attachment.

Muscles Worked by Landmine Leg Exercises

Before getting into the specific landmine leg exercises, it’s vital to understand leg muscle anatomy. This way, you’ll know which exercises to use to target specific areas of your lower body.

For example, squat movements primarily work the quads, glutes, hamstrings, and hip flexors. But you can emphasize a particular muscle group using different squat variations.

Similarly, lunge movements generally work the quads, glutes, hamstrings, hips, and calves. However, body and foot placement can significantly affect which muscles get used more.

Finally, hip hinge movements like Romanian deadlifts are best for working the hamstrings and glutes. And the landmine offers a few variations for changing the range of motion and loading.

10 Landmine Leg Exercises

In this section, I’ll cover each exercise in detail, including the benefits, the muscles worked, and how to do the movement correctly. Here is a list of the nine landmine leg exercises:

1. Landmine Squat
2. Landmine Sumo Squat
3. Landmine Hack Squat
4. Landmine Lunge
5. Landmine Reverse Lunge
6. Landmine Side Lunge
7. Landmine RDL
8. Alternate Landmine RDL
9. Single Leg Landmine RDL
10. Landmine Calf Raise

As you can see from the list, you can do a few types of movements with the landmine, including squat, lunge, and RDL variations. And the bonus exercise is one for working your calves directly.

The sections below are segmented by exercise type to help you find variations that work with your training plan. So let’s look at each landmine leg exercise in more detail.

Squat Variation Landmine Leg Exercises

Next up are landmine leg exercises that involve some form of squatting movement. You could use these exercises as a substitute for barbell or machine squats.

1. Landmine Squat

The landmine squat is a compound exercise that targets the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and core muscles. However, it’s not exactly the same as a traditional barbell squat.

For one reason, the landmine squat involves holding the end of the bar in front of your body like a goblet squat. And this position shifts your center of gravity forward, similar to a barbell front squat.

While slightly different in mechanics compared to the back squat, the landmine squat is beneficial for targeting the quads in particular.

Here are the steps to perform the landmine squat:

1. Stand facing the landmine with your feet shoulder-width apart, toes pointing slightly outward.
2. Grab the other end of the barbell with both hands, keeping your elbows close to your body.
3. With your back straight, squat down by pushing your hips back and bending your knees until your thighs are parallel to the ground.
4. Push through your heels and return to the starting position, extending your hips and knees.
5. Repeat for the desired number of reps.

Lunge Variation Landmine Leg Exercises

The lunge is a split squat variation that works each leg independently, similar to an isolateral movement.

One advantage of single-leg exercises is that they help prevent imbalances. In addition, they are better for building balance and stability.

So let’s look at some of the best landmine lunge variations.

6. Landmine Side Lunge

The landmine side lunge involves stepping to either side instead of stepping forward or back, like in the other lunge variations. Again, the lateral movement helps target the inner thighs, hip flexors, and glutes.

Here are the steps to perform the landmine side lunge:

1. Stand with your feet facing the free end of the barbell.
2. Grab the barbell sleeve between both hands and hold it in front of your chest while keeping your elbows close to your body.
3. Start with your feet together, then step sideways with one foot and simultaneously lower your body into a side lunge position until your bent thigh is about parallel to the floor.
4. Push back up to the starting position, and repeat the movement on the other side.
5. Continue alternating lunges for the desired number of reps.

Deadlift Variation Landmine Leg Exercises

Deadlift variations can include several types of hip hinge movements for working the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. In this case, we will look at Romanian deadlift variations using the landmine apparatus.

8. Alternate Landmine RDL

You can also perform a landmine RDL facing the opposite direction. In other words, you hold the sleeve end of the bar and face the landmine.

With this alternate landmine RDL body position, the arcing path moves the bar closer to your legs at the bottom of the range of motion. So it will feel a bit more like a regular free-weight RDL.

Also, this variation is easier if you don’t have a handle because the sleeve has a larger diameter than the barbell shaft. That means it won’t dig into your hands as much when using a fingers-clasped grip.

Here’s how to do this variation of the landmine RDL:

1. Stand facing the landmine with your feet hip-width apart. Grasp the sleeve of the barbell with both hands clasped.
2. Hinge forward at the hips, keeping your back straight and your core engaged. Allow your hands to travel down your thighs as you lower the bar toward the ground. Keep your knees slightly bent throughout the movement.
3. Once you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, pause and squeeze your glutes to pull yourself back up to a standing position. Keep your shoulders back and your core engaged throughout the movement.
4. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

Bonus Exercise

Of course, you know that no leg day would be complete without training your calves! So here is a calf exercise you can do using the landmine and barbell.

10. Landmine Calf Raise

Standing calf raises are the ideal exercise for hitting the gastrocnemius or the upper portion of your lower leg. And you can use the landmine to add resistance to this exercise while getting a good stretch in your calves.

Here are the steps to do a landmine standing calf raise:

1. Stand with your feet facing the free end of the barbell.
2. Grab the barbell sleeve between both hands and hold it in front of your chest, keeping your elbows close to your body.
3. Stand with your feet slightly behind your shoulders and lean into the barbell so you feel a stretch in your calves.
4. Now lift your heels and stand on the balls of your feet while keeping your legs relatively straight.
5. Lower your heels back to the starting position, and repeat for the desired number of reps.

Landmine Leg Workout

Now you have a good idea of the best landmine exercises for working your lower body. But you might be confused about assembling them into a productive leg day workout.

So here is an example leg session using some of the landmine exercises above.

Landmine Leg Workout:

• Landmine Squat
  • 4 sets, 8-12 reps
• Landmine RDL
  • 3 sets, 8-12 reps
• Landmine Hack Squat
  • 3 sets, 8-12 reps
• Landmine Lunge
  • 3 sets, 12-15 reps
• Landmine Calf Raises
  • 5 sets, as many reps as possible

This landmine leg workout includes exercise variations for working the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and hip flexors. As well as a finisher exercise for your calves.