The Best Single Leg Exercise For Building Muscle and Strength

The following is going to sound a bit biased. Single leg skater squats are the best single leg exercise for building muscle and strength. We’re about to get into why I am so biased against this movement and why no matter where you are, which gym you workout at, skater squats are the way to go.

You might be asking yourself based on the photo of me above, “do I really need to do that?” The answer is no. Please don’t start any single leg exercise with additional load. Getting to the point of performing the “best single leg exercise” requires a smart approach.

There is a systemic progression and regression system with most exercises. When people with a high training age like myself post on social media movements like this and make it look easy, because we have gone through the progressions. If you are curious as to the progression/regression line, it looks a bit like this:

(From Top to Bottom: Highest Progression to Most Regressed)

You’re probably thinking how this progression model work? It relies on the principle of stability to instability and assisted to resisted. This allows anyone to work up to what I consider the best single leg exercise – at the toughest level.

Why it’s the best single leg exercise out there

Let’s compare the single leg skater squat to other single leg exercises. The single leg pistol, single leg step-up, single leg RDL, and single leg hip thrust. The single leg pistol is a highly difficult movement. I give credit to for those who can perform full range of motion repetitions for volume. In most cases however the repetitions require a person to muster all the energy to finish the rep forfeiting full muscle activation.

The single leg step up/down can be the closest competition to the skater squat. The only problem is if you focus on just one of three parts of muscle action, you’re selling yourself short of the maximum performance. The last two movements are more hip dominant; shared between proximal hamstring strength and greater glute recruitment. This is where the skater squat stands superior as the best single leg exercise.

I talk about single leg squats (as an example of how the skater squat can be tough) in previous articles that I’ve been featured in, including this one from Popsugar.

I’m sure to receive a bunch of comments through emails and DM’s about why I’m wrong about the best single leg exercise. That’s perfectly fine because everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Most of the clients that I work and have worked with can attest when I’ve programmed single leg skater squats they’ve benefitted with increases in their fitness and sports performance.