Single Leg Press: How to Do It, Foot Placement and Benefits

The single leg press is the normal leg press done with one foot on the platform, so each leg has to push the sled on its own. It builds the quads and glutes like the standard version, but it shows up strength differences between your legs, lets you train each side hard with much less total weight, and keeps your spine supported by the backrest the whole time. On either a 45 degree sled or a horizontal machine, the method is the same: one foot centred in line with your hip, a controlled lower to the depth where your hips stay flat on the pad, then a smooth push without locking the knee.

If you're new to the machine, start with our leg press guide for the two-leg version, then come back here.

How to set up the machine

The single leg press feels different from the two-leg version for one reason: the machine was built for two feet, and when you use one the load sits off-centre. A few minutes spent on setup stops the sled from twisting and your hips from shifting.

On a 45 degree leg press (sled)

1. Strip it down. The sled carriage on many commercial 45 degree machines is heavy before you add a single plate. Press it empty with one leg first. If that already feels like a working set, use a horizontal machine instead until you're stronger.
2. Set the backrest. A slightly more reclined seat gives you more room to bend the knee before your hips start to tuck. Sit with your lower back and the backs of your hips flat against the pad.
3. Place one foot centrally. Put your working foot in the middle of the platform, roughly in line with that hip, so the push travels straight through the sled. Many lifters drift the foot towards the platform's centre line; a small shift is fine, but keep it under your hip.
4. Park the other foot. Rest the non-working foot flat on the floor, on the frame, or on the platform's lower edge if your machine allows it. Don't let it hover and swing about, because that rocks your pelvis.
5. Release the safeties. Press the sled up slightly, turn the handles off, and grip the side handles firmly.

On a horizontal or seated leg press

Horizontal machines are usually selectorised (pin-loaded) and start at a lighter weight, which makes them friendlier for learning. Set the seat so your knee sits at roughly 90 degrees at the start with your foot on the platform. Then place the working foot centrally, as above, and plant the other foot on the floor or footrest. The backrest takes your spine out of the equation, so all your attention can go on the knee.

How to do a single leg press

1. Brace. Take a breath into your belly and pull your lower back gently into the pad. Grip the handles to keep your hips square.
2. Lower under control. Let your knee bend towards your chest over two to three seconds. Keep the knee pointing over your second toe the whole way down.
3. Stop before your hips curl. Go as deep as you can while your hips and lower back stay flat on the seat. For most people that's around 90 degrees at the knee, or a little more.
4. Push through the whole foot. Drive through the mid-foot and heel back to the start. Your toes stay on the platform but they shouldn't be doing the work.
5. Stop just short of lockout. Finish with a soft knee, then go straight into the next rep.
6. Switch legs. Finish all the reps on one side, then do the same number on the other. Start with your weaker leg, and let it set the reps for both.

Foot placement on one leg

Foot position changes the emphasis on the single leg press in the same way it does on the two-leg version, but you have less room to play with because a far-off-centre foot loads the sled unevenly.

• Middle of the platform: the default. A balanced split between quads and glutes, and the safest place to learn.
• High on the platform: shorter knee bend, more hip bend. That moves more work onto the glutes and hamstrings and tends to suit sore knees.
• Low on the platform: more knee travel and more quad. It's harder on the knee, so ease in and only go low if your heel stays down.
• Toes turned out slightly (10 to 20 degrees): usually feels more natural for the hip, and brings the inner thigh in a little. Keep the knee following the same line as the toes.

A review of muscle activity across leg press variations found that foot position and stance do change which muscles do more of the work (EMG review of the leg press and its variants), so pick a position that matches your goal and stick with it long enough to measure progress.

Muscles worked

• Quadriceps. The four muscles on the front of the thigh do most of the work, straightening the knee as you press.
• Glutes. Your glute max drives hip extension, especially from the bottom of the rep and with a higher foot.
• Hamstrings and adductors. These help extend the hip, and the adductors work harder with a slightly turned-out foot.
• Hip stabilisers. The glute medius and the deep hip muscles on the outside of your hip stop the knee falling inward. They work much harder here than on the two-leg version, where the other leg shares the job.
• Calves. They hold your ankle steady against the platform.

Benefits

It shows up and fixes imbalances. On the two-leg press your stronger side can quietly do more of the work. On one leg, it can't. If your left leg manages 12 reps and your right only manages 9, you've found something to work on, and you can give the weaker side its own volume.

It's easier on the back. You're sitting in a supported seat, and the total weight on the sled is much lower than a heavy two-leg press, so your spine takes far less load than with a barbell squat or lunges carrying heavy dumbbells. That makes it a useful leg builder for anyone working around back pain or recovering from a heavy lower-body day.

It builds single-leg strength. Running, climbing stairs, kicking and changing direction all happen on one leg at a time. A 2025 meta-analysis of nine studies found that unilateral and bilateral training built similar amounts of muscle, but strength gains followed the training: one-leg training improved one-leg strength more, and two-leg training improved two-leg strength more (Kassiano et al., Sports Medicine 2025).

It still carries over to two-leg strength. In a five-week study with adolescent rugby players at the University of Edinburgh, single leg press training improved the two-leg 5-rep max about as much as two-leg training did, and improved the single leg press 5-rep max by more (Zhao et al., Journal of Human Kinetics 2023). Neither group improved jump or sprint scores over that short block, so don't expect miracles for speed.

It needs less weight. Pressing each leg on its own means you can work hard with fewer plates. That's handy in a busy gym, and even more so on a home machine with a modest weight limit.

Common mistakes

Letting the knee cave. The most common fault on one leg. The knee falling inward puts the joint in a poor position and dumps load off the glutes. Lighten the weight and push the platform slightly outward through the outside of your foot.

Hips lifting or twisting. If the working-side hip peels off the pad at the bottom, or your pelvis rotates towards the free leg, you've gone too deep or too heavy. Hold the handles hard and stop the rep where your hips stay square and flat.

Using the sled weight blindly. Some 45 degree sleds are much heavier than people assume. Starting at your usual two-leg weight divided by two is a common way to grind out ugly reps on day one. Start empty and build up.

Foot too far off-centre. Putting your foot right at the edge of the platform makes the sled pull to one side and twists the knee. Keep it roughly under the hip.

Bouncing at the bottom. Dropping fast and rebounding takes the work off your muscles and puts it onto your knee. Lower with control and pause briefly if you need to.

Locking out hard. Snapping the knee straight at the top under load is never a good idea, and it's harder to control with one leg. Finish each rep with a soft knee.

Variations

• Pause single leg press. Stop for two seconds at the bottom of each rep. You can't bounce, and you quickly find out which leg is weaker.
• Tempo single leg press. Take four seconds to lower, then press normally. A lighter weight feels much harder, which suits home machines with low maximum loads.
• Alternating single leg press. Both feet start on the platform; lower with both, then press with one, alternating each rep. Useful on machines that feel unstable when you start one-legged.
• Two-up, one-down. Press up with both legs, take one foot off, and lower the sled slowly with the other. This lets you handle more weight on the lowering half, which is a hard way to train. Go light first.
• Single leg press with high foot. Place your foot at the top of the platform to bias the glutes and hamstrings.

If you don't have a leg press, the Bulgarian split squat and step-ups train the same single-leg pattern with dumbbells and a bench, although they ask more of your balance and back.

Sets and reps

Treat the single leg press as either a main leg exercise on a back-friendly day or an accessory after squats or the two-leg press.

• Muscle building: 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps per leg, 1 to 2 reps short of failure. Rest 60 to 90 seconds between legs.
• Strength: 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 8 reps per leg with a weight that's heavy but controlled. Rest 2 minutes.
• Fixing an imbalance: do your weaker leg first, match the reps on the stronger side, and add an extra set for the weaker leg only for a few weeks.
• Learning the move: 2 to 3 sets of 10 slow reps with the empty sled or a light pin setting.

Add weight only when you can hit the top of your rep range on both legs with clean form. The NHS recommends strength work for all the major muscle groups, including the legs and hips, on at least two days a week, and two leg sessions a week with single leg press in one of them fits that easily.

Doing it at home

A home leg press is a big buy, so check our guides to plate loaded leg presses and other leg machines first. At the compact end, the SPORTNOW seated leg press is a plate loaded unit with three backrest angles and four stop positions, and it was in stock at £449.99 when we checked on 2 November 2026. The listing doesn't explain how the plates link to the moving part, so we'd treat its 455kg figure as a frame rating rather than a training load. For single leg work, which needs much less weight, that matters less than it would for heavy two-leg pressing.

Check the SPORTNOW leg press price on Amazon£449.99

Recommended reads

1. Leg press: how to do it and foot placement
2. Plate loaded leg press buying guide
3. Leg machines at the gym, explained
4. Bulgarian split squat: how to do it
5. Step-ups: how to do them