7 Exercises to Burn 1,000 Calories on Leg Day

Leg day is one of the most intense training days in any lifter’s routine. Lower body exercises recruit large amounts of muscle mass and they’re usually the exercises where people can move the biggest amounts of weight. We were lucky enough to witness an epic leg day that IFBB Pro Sadik Hadzovic went through with Dr. Mike Camp.

This wasn’t just any ordinary leg day, the goal for this workout was to burn 1,000 calories in a single workout.

Burning 1,000 calories in a workout is no easy task. You need to maintain a high level of intensity for a long enough period to hit this calorie amount. If you train at too high of intensity too soon, you’ll probably tire out and not workout long enough to burn 1,000 calories. And if you train at too low of an intensity, you’ll have to do a marathon long workout to get to your goal.

Are you up for the challenge of a 1,000-calorie workout?

Sadik’s 1,000 Calorie Leg Workout

Walking Lunges
Pendulum Squats
Barbell Squats
Leg Extensions
Lying Leg Curl
Dumbbell RDL
Cable Pull-Through

Walking Lunges

I always start with a unilateral movement, either a rear foot elevated squat or a walking lunge.

Calories burned so far: 175

Pendulum Squats

This exercise places really good emphasis and stress on the quads especially out of the hole. We start with about 10-12 repetitions and increase the weight each set and then we go to 6 rep sets for the working sets. We go a little heavier on this machine exercise so that we can go lighter with the weights on the barbell squats. It’s important to breathe as you do this exercise, stay in control as you descend and drive with your legs out of the hole.

Calories burned so far: 300

We change our repetition amount each set on this exercise as well. If something isn’t working or we’re feeling a little burnt out, we look at the volume and amount of weight to see what we can change, so it’s important to keep track of these things. For this exercise it’s important to drive up out of the hole with speed. 

Calories burned so far: 585

Leg Extensions

We only do one set with this exercise but it’s multiple drop sets. The goal is 100 reps with this exercise. It’s important to keep your head up, shoulders back and maintain strong contractions during this exercise.

Calories burned so far: 711

Try to pause a little at mid-range during this exercise to feel the contraction. Don’t just go through the movement using momentum, hold it a little to feel the stretch. On this exercise I aim for a high rep amount on each set, in the range of 18-20 per set.

Calories burned so far: 810

We go from lying hamstring curls to dumbbell RDLs, these two exercises target the same muscle groups. On this exercise we maintain a slight bend in our knees and focus on the range of motion. For dumbbell RDLs we don’t go too heavy with the weights.

Calories burned so far: 920

We finish up with cable pull-throughs, this variation is more of a squatting motion that works on the posterior chain. We do three sets of about 12 repetitions for this exercise.

Total calories burned: 1067

If you’re going to be taking on the challenge of this 1,000-calorie leg day workout, you’ll need to make sure you’re taking the right steps to perform and recover at your best.

Step up your growth with some of Sadik’s favorite supplements and stacks.

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