The Best Leg Exercises for Women Over 40

If you’re a woman over 40 who wants stronger, more defined legs, you don’t need a complicated workout routine or dozens of different exercises to achieve them. The best leg exercises for women over 40 are the ones that allow you to build strength, maintain muscle, support your bones and joints, and help you maintain your mobility as you age.

This means that you’ll want to focus on foundational strength training exercises like squats, RDLs, lunges, step-ups, and hip thrusts. At this stage of life, it’s less about doing the most exhausting workouts that burn the most calories and more about doing the workouts that consistently allow you to make progress and therefore change over time.

As you move through your 40s and navigate perimenopause, strength training becomes even more important, not just from an aesthetic standpoint but from a health and longevity standpoint as well.

Here are some of the top lower-body exercises for women in midlife to include in their training routine, as well as how to use them effectively.

Why Leg Strength Matters After 40

Women begin losing strength, muscle, and bone in their mid to late thirties, making it increasingly important to prioritize maintaining muscle mass. Strength training is one of the best tools we have for doing that.

Strength training can help you maintain and build muscle while also providing a stimulus for stronger, healthier bones. But there's another reason I want women over 40 to prioritize leg training: your legs are responsible for so much of what you do every day.

Walking, climbing stairs, getting up from the floor, carrying groceries, playing with your kids, traveling, hiking, and simply moving through daily life all require lower-body strength. The goal isn't just to have strong-looking legs (although we’ll get that, too!); it’s to have strong, capable legs that continue to serve you well for decades to come.

What Makes an Exercise "Good" for Women Over 40?

You don't need a special list of exercises simply because you're over 40. A good strength exercise is a good strength exercise, regardless of your age. However, the older we get, the more important it is to prioritize exercises that:

• Build muscle and strength
• Can be progressively overloaded
• Train multiple muscle groups
• Support functional movement
• Can be performed with good form
• Don't unnecessarily beat up your joints
• Fit into a sustainable training routine

You also don't need to avoid heavier weights because you're over 40. In fact, progressively challenging your muscles is exactly what helps you continue building strength and definition in your legs and glutes. The key to seeing results is choosing appropriate weights, using good form, and allowing your body enough time to recover.

The 8 Best Leg Exercises for Women Over 40

1. Squats

Squats are one of the best overall lower-body exercises because they train several major muscle groups at once - this is called a compound movement. Squats primarily target your quads and glutes, but they also require a lot of core strength to stabilize your body.

You can perform squats with dumbbells, a barbell, or with a band or your bodyweight depending on your experience and equipment. For an at-home workout, a dumbbell goblet squat is a great option.

Try: 3 sets of 8-12 reps

Focus on controlling the movement rather than rushing through your reps. As you get stronger, gradually increase the weight.

2. Romanian Deadlifts (RDLs)

If you want stronger hamstrings and glutes, RDLs should absolutely be part of your lower-body training plan. This is a hip-hinge movement that trains your whole posterior chain.

Hold dumbbells in front of your thighs and push your hips backward as you lower the weights, keeping your back neutral. Then drive your hips forward to return to standing. You should feel this primarily through the back of your legs and glutes.

Try: 3 sets of 8-12 reps

The goal isn't to get the dumbbells as close to the floor as possible. Lower only as far as you can while maintaining good form and tension through your hamstrings.

3. Reverse Lunges

Lunges are excellent for building single-leg strength, balance, and stability, and there are tons of variations to choose from. I particularly like reverse lunges because stepping backward tends to be more controlled and comfortable for many people than stepping forward or back at an angle like you would with a curtsy lunge.

Reverse lunges primarily work your quads and glutes, while also challenging your balance and core stability. You can perform them with bodyweight or hold dumbbells at your sides.

Try: 3 sets of 8-10 reps per leg

If balance is an issue, start with bodyweight or use a wall or other stable surface for support.

4. Step-Ups

Step-ups are another great functional lower-body exercise. Think about how often you encounter stairs in everyday life. Being able to comfortably step up and down is a basic movement skill, and training it with resistance can help build the strength needed to do it confidently.

Step-ups primarily target the glutes and quads while also challenging your balance.

Try: 3 sets of 8-10 reps per leg

Use a step or sturdy bench that's an appropriate height for you. You don't need an extremely high step to make this exercise effective.

As you get stronger, hold dumbbells to increase the challenge.

5. Hip Thrusts and Glute Bridges

Your glutes are some of the largest and strongest muscles in your body, so they deserve some direct attention. Hip thrusts and glute bridges train the glutes through hip extension and are easy to modify based on your equipment and experience.

A glute bridge can be performed on the floor with a dumbbell resting across your hips. A hip thrust is performed with your upper back elevated on a bench or other stable surface.

Try: 3 sets of 10-15 reps

Focus on squeezing your glutes at the top of the movement rather than simply lifting your hips as high as possible.

6. Split Squats

Split squats are a fantastic way to train one leg at a time without requiring the balance and coordination of a walking lunge. They work your quads and glutes while also helping address differences in strength between your two legs since you’re isolating one leg at a time.

You can perform them with bodyweight or add dumbbells once you're comfortable with the movement.

Try: 3 sets of 8-10 reps per leg

Keep your movements controlled and use a range of motion that feels comfortable for your body.

7. Lateral Lunges

Most traditional leg exercises involve moving forward and backward. Lateral lunges add movement in the frontal plane, which can help you build strength in a different direction.

They work your glutes, quads, and inner thighs while also challenging your ability to control your body as you move side to side.

Try: 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps per side

Start without weight if lateral lunges are new to you. Once you're comfortable with the movement, you can hold a dumbbell at your chest, rest them on your shoulders, or hold them at your sides.

8. Single-Leg RDLs

Single-leg RDLs combine lower-body strength with balance and stability.

They primarily target the hamstrings and glutes while requiring your core and stabilizing muscles to work to keep you balanced. They're also a great example of why you don't need extremely heavy weights to make an exercise challenging.

Try: 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps per side

If balance makes this exercise difficult, keep one hand lightly supported on a wall or other stable surface, or keep your back foot planted lightly behind you in a staggered stance to provide stability and support.

How Often Should Women Over 40 Train Legs?

For most women, training your lower body one to two times a week is great. You don’t need to train your legs every day to see results. In fact, if you’re not allowing your muscles to rest, recover, and repair between sessions, you won't get the results you’re looking for anyway.

A simple, standard weekly training split for women who have a goal of strengthening their legs might look like this:

Monday: Lower body

Tuesday: Upper body

Wednesday: Rest or light movement 

Thursday: Lower body

Friday: Upper body

Weekend: Rest, walking, or other enjoyable activities

You can also train your entire body three times per week rather than having dedicated leg days. There's no single "right" training split for women. What matters most is that you're consistently training your muscles and gradually challenging them over time.

How Heavy Should You Lift?

Two of the biggest mistakes I see women make as they get older are assuming that they need to use very light weights because they're over 40 or that if they lift heavier weights, they’ll get bulky. These are both inaccurate.

Your muscles respond to resistance. If the weight you're using is so light that you could easily perform another 15 or 20 repetitions, you're probably not challenging yourself enough to make any appreciable change. Instead, choose a weight that makes the final few reps of your set challenging while allowing you to maintain good form. Then, as an exercise becomes easier, increase the weight.

That's progressive overload, and it's one of the most important parts of building and maintaining muscle. You don't need to constantly find new exercises to do to keep your body “guessing”; you need to get stronger at the exercises you're already doing.

As far as getting “bulky” goes, the feeling women typically associate with bulky usually has a lot more to do with having excess body fat on top of muscle that leads to feeling “bigger” or “fluffier” - this is an issue that has more to do with nutrition than lifting weights.

A Simple Leg Workout for Women Over 40

You can easily combine several of the exercises above into a simple lower-body workout.

For example:

Goblet Squat: 3 x 8-12

Romanian Deadlift: 3 x 8-12

Reverse Lunge: 3 x 8-10/side

Hip Thrust: 3 x 10-12

Lateral Lunge: 2 x 10/side

Rest as needed between sets (60-90 seconds is a good place to start) and choose weights that challenge you while allowing you to maintain good form.

And if you want a complete 30-minute workout that puts this into practice, check out my 30-Minute Perimenopause Legs Workout.

Wrapping Up

The best leg exercises for women over 40 aren't necessarily the newest, hardest, or most complicated exercises; they’re the tried and tested basics that you can perform safely, progressively, and consistently.

Squats, Romanian deadlifts, lunges, step-ups, hip thrusts, split squats, lateral lunges, and single-leg RDLs give you plenty of variety while covering the major movement patterns and muscles of the lower body. You don't need to destroy your legs with endless workouts and tons of variety.

You need to strength train consistently, challenge your muscles, recover, and keep getting stronger over time by continuing to show up and following a program that helps keep it simple and effective. That's what will serve you well in your 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond.

If you'd like to take the guesswork out of your workouts, that's exactly why I created the Simply Strong App. I give you structured strength workouts designed specifically for women, so you know what to do when you walk into your workout space and can focus on getting stronger instead of constantly searching for your next workout. I program two leg workouts per week so you can be sure your legs and glutes are getting the attention they need to be strong, sculpted, and capable.

Take my quick quiz to see if training in the Simply Strong App is a good fit for you!