Knee-Friendly Leg Day: Grow Quads & Glutes Without Aggravating Joints

Most people are scared to squat or do any other compound lower-body exercise because they fear their knees will pop. While gym bros may tell you that you need to be doing squats to achieve bigger legs, this isn’t actually true.

Contrary to what social media influencers often suggest, training your legs does not have to be a battle between gains and pain.

Each individual is unique, and so are their biomechanics. As a personal trainer with almost two decades of hands-on experience, I can attest that what works for one person might not work for others.

The good thing is that there are thousands of exercises that you can do to build bigger wheels, so don’t worry about chasing a handful that cause joint aggravation.

In this article, I’ll pull back the curtain on my top-secret joint-friendly leg day workout that I have used to help hundreds of my clients build bigger and stronger quads and glutes. You will also learn how you can implement it in your routine for maximum effectiveness.

Understanding the Knee Joint in Leg Training

I believe that most people despise leg days because they don’t understand the knee anatomy. You are bound to have an awful workout if your training choices don’t go well with the structure of the knee itself.

To grow your quads and glutes without flaring up your joints, you must understand what the knee does under load, why it sometimes gives you issues, and how you can train around it.

About 33 million US adults have osteoarthritis, which is a common cause of knee problems, and the numbers are getting worse each year. (1)

The knee is more complex than it looks. It has four different components that play unique roles in powering every movement. These are:

• Patella: Also known as the kneecap, it improves leverage for the quads during extension movements.
• Ligaments (ACL, PCL, MCL, LCL): I am sure you’ve heard of people with ACL tears or similar injuries, but are not sure what it is entirely. These ligaments help keep the knees stable and prevent unwanted movement.
• Cartilage (meniscus and articular cartilage): These connective tissues cushion the bones and absorb the force, ensuring optimal bone health.  
• Tendons: Anchor the quads and hamstrings to the joint and transfer power into the movement.

To sum it up, let’s consider a squat or even a lunge, for that matter. The patella will glide, the ligaments will stabilize, and the cartilage will bear the impact. Even if one of these components is compromised, you feel discomfort during the movements.

Why Knees Flare Up During Leg Training 

Every week, I have several clients complain that they cannot understand why their knees start paining randomly during lower-body workouts. The truth is that these nagging aches are anything but random, and usually come down to one of the following factors:

Many lifters are way too eager to start exercising and don’t spend enough time learning the proper exercise technique. I’ve lost count of how many people I see squatting with knees collapsing inward, toes and knees not aligned, or rushing through the reps without control.

They don’t stop there. They pile on sets, reps, and weights too quickly without allowing their tissues time to adapt.

This, combined with tight hips or ankles, forces the knees to take on extra stress, which shifts the load to where it does not belong, causing these knee issues.

Principles of Knee-Friendly Leg Training

If you are experiencing pain, use that as a source of information to make appropriate adjustments in your workouts. Don’t look at it as a challenge and try to push through it. Below are a few tips to grow massive quads and glutes without irritating the joints:

• Adjust your range of motion: Avoid going too low during squats. Limit the depth until you can move without pain. Then slowly rebuild the range.
• Shift the load: Glutes are your body’s biggest muscle group. If you are dealing with knee aches, favor hip-dominant movements like hip thrust or glute bridges.
• Use unilateral variations: If your knees are flared up, switch to unilateral exercises like split squats or step-ups to strengthen each side while limiting joint stress.
• Prioritize tempo: One of the quickest solutions is to slow down the eccentric phase, as it makes the exercise more challenging by increasing the time under tension. Most people tend to use lighter weights while employing a slower tempo, easing knee strain.
• Strengthen supporting muscles: Hamstrings, glutes, and calves all contribute to knee stability. Follow a balanced routine that strengthens your entire lower body to minimize knee discomfort. 

Exercise Selection for Quads and Glutes

With all that out of the way, let’s get into the most effective movements that you can do for maximizing quads and glute hypertrophy without wrecking your knees.

Split Squats

This is my go-to exercise if you are looking for a knee-friendly leg builder. Split squats combine quad and glute activation with the added benefit of unilateral training, which can help determine and iron out strength and muscle imbalances that often lead to knee pain.

Why are Split Squats such a hit?

This movement allows you to tweak your stance to prioritize a particular muscle group. For instance, standing with a wider stance loads the glutes, whereas a narrower foot position emphasizes the quads.

Squats also reduce axial loading, meaning you don’t need to stack plates on your back to feel challenged. Moderate weight with controlled tempo can unlock your maximum growth potential.

Perform this exercise by standing in an upright position with your feet placed shoulder-width apart and your hands on your waist. Take a step forward with your left foot and lower your rear knee to the floor by flexing your knees, ankles, and hips while keeping your torso upright. Slightly leaning forward biases the glutes.

Drive through your mid-foot and heel to return to the starting position.

Variation To Consider

If you are feeling too adventurous, you can go with the notorious Bulgarian split squats. They involve placing your rear foot on an elevated surface like a flat bench and lowering your rear knee until it gently touches the floor.

On the flip side, you could also try the front-foot elevated variation for a deeper glute activation. Some of my clients report feeling less knee strain with this movement compared to the others.

This extended range of motion maximizes quad and glute muscle fiber activation while also challenging your core stabilizers, balance, and coordination.

Step-Ups

This movement adds an additional layer of challenge to the split squats. However, they place less strain on the knees compared to walking lunges.

How is that, you ask?

Instead of dragging the back knee into deep flexion, step-ups rely on vertical force production, which is better suited for sensitive joints.

In this movement, the working leg controls both concentric and eccentric phases, and the back leg provides stability without heavy loading. Plus, since you are only focused on one leg, there is less lateral wobble compared to walking lunges, significantly reducing injury risk.

How To Perform Step-Ups

Here is a step-by-step guide on how to master this exercise:

1. Stand facing a box of knee height, as this is perfect to load the quads and glutes without straining the knees.
2. Lift your right foot off the floor and slowly place it flat on top of the box.
3. Then extend your knee to lift your rear foot off the ground.
4. Both your feet should be placed on the box at the top of the range of motion.
5. Reverse the movement to return to the starting position.

As you gain more experience, use slow controlled descents lasting anywhere between three to five seconds to maximize time under tension and protect the knees.

You should always start with the bodyweight variation until you can control 8 to 10 reps per leg. Then progress to dumbbells, but make sure that you are not crashing down during the lowering phase.

Hip Thrusts

When you want direct glute growth without aggravating your knees, hip thrusts are one of the best exercises in this situation.

This unassuming exercise is incredibly effective for hammering the posterior chain, building explosive hip drive, and minimizing joint stress. Several EMG studies prove its effectiveness in helping you build a strong and muscular derriere. (2)

Optimal Setup For This Exercise:

Sit with your back against a flat bench and a barbell across your hips. Drive through your heels with your shins vertical at the top so that only your upper back and shoulder plates are in contact with the bench.

Pause and squeeze your glutes at the top for peak contraction. Slowly return to the starting position.

Avoid over-arching your lower back at the top of your range of motion, as it can increase the risk of injury. Also, steer clear of the urge to rush through the movement with momentum; instead, focus on contracting the target muscles with each rep.

Leg Press

The leg press often gets dismissed as a machine lift, and people with finicky joints tend to avoid it.

To be honest, the leg press has earned a bad rap over the past few decades because people usually tend to ego lift during this exercise. They stack more plates than they can handle and end up moving the sled only a few inches, making this exercise completely useless.

Your success on the leg press will ultimately come down to your technique.

Find a foot position that works for you and doesn’t strain your knees while loading the quads and glutes. Use a weight that you can lift while following a full range of motion. Your quads should touch your belly at the bottom of the movement.

However, feel free to limit your range of motion if your knees don’t feel comfortable.

The fact that you don’t have to balance the weight during this exercise makes it much easier on the knees. It also supports your back, which reduces spinal strain.

Foot Placement Strategies:

Tweak your stance in the following ways to target your lagging muscles:

• Low and Narrow: This helps target your quads while keeping your knees within a safe tracking range.
• High and Wide: Shifts emphasis to glutes and hamstrings while reducing knee flexion.

Irrespective of the foot position that you choose, please ensure that you drive through your mid-foot to protect the patella.

All these movements can help build functional strength, which can improve your performance in squats, deadlifts, and athletic performance, and boost your lower-body joint health.

Structuring a Knee-Friendly Leg Day Program

It’s now time to get into the most exciting part – structuring this work out. Use this split to maximize lower-body hypertrophy while minimizing knee strain:

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest Time
Split Squats (use dumbbells for stability)	4	10–12 per leg	90 sec
Step-Ups (box at knee height, slow eccentric)	3	8–10 per leg	75 sec
Hip Thrusts (pause 1–2 sec at lockout)	4	12–15	90 sec
Leg Press (controlled ROM, avoid ego depth)	4	10–12	2 min

Conclusion

You don’t need to sacrifice your knees to build bigger and stronger legs. Swapping problematic movements with knee-friendly alternatives, like split squats, step-ups, head thrusts, and leg presses, can get you to your goals without putting your longevity on the line.

Patience and consistency are the most important factors here. Start small and gradually increase your training volume, intensity, and frequency as your muscles begin adapting to the new stimulus. Best of luck!

References:

1. Stierman B, Afful J, Carroll MD, Chen TC, Davy O, Fink S, et al. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2017–March 2020 prepandemic data files—Development of files and prevalence estimates for selected health outcomes. National Health Statistics Reports. 2021. No. 158. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. DOI:10.15620/cdc:106273.
2. Neto WK, Soares EG, Vieira TL, Aguiar R, Chola TA, Sampaio VL, Gama EF. Gluteus Maximus Activation during Common Strength and Hypertrophy Exercises: A Systematic Review. J Sports Sci Med. 2020 Feb 24;19(1):195-203. PMID: 32132843; PMCID: PMC7039033.

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