Take your leg gains to the next level with 4 lower body exercises recommended by fitness pros

• Variations on basic leg exercises can help you target different muscles for better gains.

• Fitness pros swear by movements like goblet squats and hack squats for a well-rounded lower body.

• Deep squats can help prevent injury and improve performance on leg day.

There's no excuse to skip leg day — elite athletes, coaches, and personal trainers swear by specific lower body exercises to prevent injury and build muscle in your quads, glutes, hamstrings, abs, and beyond.

Basic moves like squats and deadlifts have plenty of benefits for strength and stability. But variations like goblet squats and deep squats can help you perfect your form and engage your core to prevent injury. Other exercise like hack squats and leg presses help emphasize different muscles of the legs, so you can build a well-rounded lower body.

Hack squats are great for building the quad muscles on the front of the leg

If you want to build massive legs, an exercise called hack squats can add serious muscle, according to pro bodybuilder Erin Banks.

"Leg day is crazy, I've grown my legs tremendously," he previously told Insider.

As a physique competitor who has to keep a sculpted V-shape from his shoulders to his waist, Banks said hack squats helped him get more muscular legs while staying lean.

The exercise focuses on the quads, the muscle on the front of the thigh, and puts less pressure on the back and core than traditional barbell back squats.

Work your abs as well as your lower body with goblet squats

A specific type of squat variation can help you engage your core even more for better stability and strength, according to a former coach for elite athletes like Steph Curry and other other members of the Golden State Warriors.

The goblet squat, which involves holding a weight in front of your chest instead of on your shoulders, taps into more muscles of the midsection than other squat variations, said Keke Lyles, director of performance at the fitness technology Uplift Labs. Lyles said all of his NBA athletes, including Curry, used goblet squats in the training.

"I really like it because they can control the weight, to be a little bit more explosive," he previously told Insider. "It's functional and connects well to everyday movement."