Ryan Terry’s Olympia Leg Day Workout: 22 Sets for Lower-Body Growth
Three-time Olympia Men’s Physique champion Ryan Terry has built a successful bodybuilding career by paying attention to proportions and in a recent Instagram post, the buff Brit shared an intense leg session as he looked forward to the 2026 finals later this year. Here’s how to try it for yourself.
Terry took his legs to his RT-Fit gym floor in Nottinghamshire, England, using a mixture of machines and free weights to achieve complete muscle exhaustion. Here are the five exercises the current Olympia Men’s Physique Champion completed along with sets and reps.
Ryan Terry’s Board Short-Busting Leg Workout
- leg extension:
- 2 sets of 16 to 18 reps (warmup)
- 5 sets of 10 to 12 reps (working sets)
- Stiff-Leg Deadlift:
- 1 set of 16 to 18 reps (feeler set)
- 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps (working sets)
- Hack Squat:
- 1 set of 10 to 12 reps (feeler set)
- 4 sets of 10 to 12 reps (working sets)
- Lying Hamstring Curls:
- 1 set of 12 to 15 reps (feeler set)
- 4 sets of 10 controlled + 5 forced reps (working sets)
- Bulgarian Split Squat:
Why This 22-Set Leg Workout Builds Serious Muscle
With over 20 work sets, this is an intense leg day, designed to demystify muscles so they can get stronger again. Terry uses a feeler set to assess how heavy a job he can handle on a particular day and then gets to work. First up are leg extensions. “Heavy and controlled,” he said, taking the quad apart. After these exercises he lifted the barbell for some stiff-legged deadlifts. This exercise effectively targets the hamstrings, lats, glutes, and posterior chain.
Feeling the burn, Terry raised himself to a hack squat with his feet shoulder-width apart, positioned in the middle of the stage for balance, loaded up on his quads and glutes. Notice how the champion keeps his back glued to the rest of the pad and drives with his emotions. The fourth exercise was a lying leg bend to target his hamstrings. And, because the bodybuilder wants to build under tension, he performs most of his reps as controlled movements and then saves the last five in each set for forced reps, where Terry attempts to push past failure and maximise hypertrophy.
Heading into the Bulgarian split squats as a qualified finisher, the men’s physique competitor never gave up his desire to get the form right. “The weight is light but it sure has weight
There’s nothing left to do before we hit the gym,” he explained, straining his quads and calves into submission. Ryan Terry’s detailed approach, taking on 22 working sets, is a serious leg day, so if you’re just starting out, feel free to adjust the volume, but try to mirror his intensity for maximum muscle growth.
