Squats
The king of all leg exercises is the squat. Stand upright with a bar across your shoulders, use your hands to keep it in place. Lower yourself down until your knees are bent and your thighs are almost touching your calves. The lower you go, the harder it will be, but it will place less strain on your knees as you are not stopping partway through a movement, it will also stimulate a broader range of fibres the lower you go, as you are using the entire length of the muscle.
If you are new to squats, just start with a bar, no weight and get used to the movement. If you have used machines, such as leg press machines, don’t expect to be able to squat anywhere near what you can press, because you also have your body weight to lift in a squat, which you don’t with the leg press. Take off 80% of your body weight from what you would normally do on a leg press and try that as your starting weight for a squat.
