For Strong, Powerful Legs, Trainers Love These 10 Muscle-Building Dumbbell Exercises

The always-challenging single-leg squat fires up your glutes and hamstrings, said Steve Stonehouse, NASM-certified personal trainer and director of education for Stride indoor running studio. It develops single-leg strength to help you be explosive when sprinting, jumping, and changing directions, he said. Make sure you can do the move on its own first, then advance it by holding a dumbbell in one hand.

• Stand firmly with both feet together. Optional: hold one dumbbell in front of your chest.
• Put weight into your left leg and lift your right leg into the air.
• Keeping the leg lifted, bend the left knee into a squat. Then straighten the leg to complete one rep.