Maggie's Farm

The great thing about the "lower body" powerlifts is that they are complex movements which train your entire body, not just legs.

I am talking about squats (barbell squats especially) and deadlifts. Here's 8 Reasons to Do Squat Exercises. Did I forget to mention that squats are hard? With weights, they are f-ing miserable. Body-weight squats are good fitness calis, but the weights are a bitch.

Lunges and step-ups are more purely leg focused, and in the calisthenic category even when done with dumbells. And the stair machines are great stressors, but mostly cardio and endurance.

I have found that doing five tough sets of barbell squats and 5 of deads (different days), plus, on different days, a set of goblet squats, of dumbell lunges, and a set of dumbell high step-ups, have improved my energy and ease of movement remarkably. Serious lifters would do those things twice weekly, but that's not me.   

I can't credit at all to those, though, because I do other sorts of workouts each week too. Still, when you see progress with the weights you know it's all working.