How to do the Leg Press
Step by step
- Sit in the machine with your whole back and hips against the pads.
- Place your feet flat on the platform about shoulder-width apart.
- Release the safety handles and lower the sled by bending your knees.
- Lower until your knees reach about 90 degrees, keeping knees tracking over your toes.
- Press the platform away through your whole foot without slamming the knees straight.
The thing people get wrong
Do not lock your knees hard at the top or let your lower back round off the pad at the bottom - stop before your hips curl up.
Coaching cue
Push evenly through your whole foot and stop your knees from caving in as you press.
Stay safe
Keep your hands on the handles, never on your knees, and set the machine's safety catches before you start.
Make it easier or harder
- Easier: Use lighter weight and lower only partway down.
- Harder: Pause two seconds at the bottom of each rep.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Quads, Glutes
- Secondary: Hamstrings
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.