Leg Press
The leg press is a seated or reclined machine lift where you push a weighted sled away with your feet. It trains the quads and glutes, with the hamstrings assisting. Pick it when you want to load your legs heavily without the back and balance demands of a squat.
Muscles worked
The leg press trains the quadriceps and glutes, with hamstrings helping.
Primary
Helpers
Weekly sets for quadriceps
Hard sets per week that Swole.fit plans for quadriceps, counting every exercise that trains it. Start a cycle near the growth line and climb toward the recovery limit before a deload.
How to do the leg press
- 01Sit with your back and hips flat against the pad and the backrest set to a comfortable angle.
- 02Place your feet shoulder width apart in the middle of the platform with toes slightly out.
- 03Press the sled up and release the safety handles, keeping a soft bend in your knees.
- 04Lower the sled until your knees reach roughly 90 degrees or deeper, as long as your hips stay down.
- 05Push through your whole foot to return to the start without locking your knees hard.
- 06Re-engage the safety handles before you get out of the machine.
Coaching cues
- Hips glued to the seat
- Knees track over toes
- Drive through the mid foot
Common mistakes
- Lowering so deep that your hips curl off the pad rounds the lower back, so stop just before your pelvis tucks.
- Snapping your knees into hard lockout at the top shifts load onto the joint, so finish with a slight bend.
- Letting your knees cave inward on the way up reduces control, so push them out in line with your toes.
How Swole.fit programs it
Log it once and the app plans the next session for you.
- Most sets land between 8 and 15 reps, the range the plan steers compound lifts toward for size.
- Week one starts around 2 to 3 reps in reserve. Each week you train a little closer to failure, ending around 0 to 1 in reserve before a deload week.
- Hit the top of the range on every set and the next session adds the smallest real jump in weight, rounded to the plates, dumbbells or stack you actually have.
- Sets for this exercise count toward your weekly volume for every muscle it trains: a full set for the primary muscles, half a set for the helpers.
The full method, with the maths, is in how mesocycles work.
Leg Press alternatives
Same muscles, different tool. Swap in one of these when the equipment is taken or your joints want a change.
Free programs that use it
Ready-made splits from the Swole.fit library. Pick one and the app runs the progression.
- Arm Blaster3 days a week, biceps, triceps, shoulders
- Beach Emergency3 days a week, chest, shoulders, biceps
- Core Four3 days a week, chest, back, shoulders, quadriceps
- Deadlift Religion3 days a week, back, hamstrings, glutes
- Full Body Power3 days a week, chest, back, quadriceps, hamstrings
- Glute Lab3 days a week, glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps
Log it. Let the app plan the next one.
Track your leg press free. Swole.fit picks the next weight, counts your weekly sets and tells you when to deload.