Mark Wahlberg never skips leg day. In fact, it’s fair to say he probably overdoes it. In the latest episode of his YouTube series, The 4am Club Challenge, Jesse James West joins Wahlberg for a punishing early-morning gym session, with the 54-year-old offering a glimpse into just how intense his training can be.

The workout features 11 movements, including three warm-up exercises before they get into the bulk of the session.

‘This is an insane quad workout,’ Jesse James West says. ‘My legs are the most sore they’ve been since I was like 17 and first started doing leg day.’

Sissy Squat

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, heels raised on a plate (or simply lift them off the floor) shifting your weight forwards to the balls of your feet.
• Place your hands on your hips, straight out in front zombie style, or use a squat rack, wall, or a TRX suspension trainer – like Wahlberg does – to support you.
• Bend at the knees and lean backwards, creating a strong and rigid straight line from your knees to your head.
• Continue bending at the knees, maintaining your backwards lean, lowering your knees as close to the ground as you can handle before standing back up forcefully.

Squat Hold

• Stand with your feet a little wider than your hips.
• Keep your chest proud and your core locked.
• Sink your hips back and descend into a squat whilst the knees travel in line with the toes.
• At the bottom of the squat, the thighs should hit parallel or lower and your elbows should come in between your knees.
• Stay in that position, maintaining a strong posture.

Static Bike

• Jump on a bike and pedal as hard as you can at the highest resistance possible.

Pendulum Squat

• Stand on the pendulum squat machine with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor, then return to the starting position.

Adductor Machine

• Sit down at an adductor machine, set the leg pads as wide as you comfortably can.
• Maintain a strong posture throughout with your back firmly pressed against the back pad.
• Place your legs against the pads, squeezing them together against the resistance.
• Slowly return your legs back to the start.

Leg Press

• Grab the handles on the machine and pull yourself down into the seat.
• Squeeze your glutes to drive your butt down into the seat while engaging your abs to drive your lower back into the pad. Squeeze your shoulder blades and drive your neck into the pad, too.
• Place your feet on the sled. The narrower you place your feet, the more knee-dominant the movement will be, making it more quad-focused. If you place your feet further away, the movement will be more hinge-dominant, meaning it will be more focused on your hamstrings and glutes.
• Press through the sled with your feet, maintaining tension in your torso. Release the sled from the safety lock, then control the weight down.
• Lower down as far as you can, maintaining upper body tension with your back flush against the pad. Don’t allow your butt to raise off the seat; if you shift you’ve gone too deep.
• Press through the pad with both feet to raise the weight back up, extending your knees.

Goblet Squat

• Stand with your legs slightly wider than your shoulders and hold a dumbbell (vertically) or kettlebell (using the handles) at chest height.
• Tightening your core, stick your backside out, bend your knees and lower yourself into a squat until your thighs are parallel to the ground and your knees track over your feet. Think about sitting back on a box, rather than ‘dropping’ down.
• Continuing to look ahead, pause for a second at the bottom of the movement. Be sure to keep your torso upright.
• Drive back up through your heels, squeezing your glutes and thrusting your hips.

Leg Extension

• Set up the leg extension machine with your knees at 90 degrees and the pad on top of your shins by your ankles. Make sure you adjust the seat to suit your needs. Grip the handles at the sides of the seat.
• With your core engaged, extend your legs so the padded roller lifts and your legs are completely straight.
• Squeeze your quads and pause.
• Slowly bend the legs, resisting the weight as you lower it until the plates meet.

Smith Machine Squat

• In a Smith machine, stand with your feet a little wider than your hips and with the bar on your shoulders.
• Keep your chest proud and your core locked.
• Unrack the weight from the machine, sinking your hips back and descending into a squat whilst the knees travel in line with the toes.
• At the bottom of the squat, the thighs should hit parallel or lower and your elbows should come in between your knees.
• Drive back up, driving through the heels and tensing your glutes at the top. Repeat.

Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift

• Start standing tall with your feet underneath your hips. Hold the dumbbells in front of your thighs.
• Send your hips behind your heels with a flat back as if you’re ‘shutting a car door’ with your backside. Keep the knees directly above your heels and shins vertical to the floor.
• As you lower the weight, keep your shoulder blades drawn towards each other and head in line.
• Feel a stretch in your hamstrings. When the weight is below your knees, send your hips forward to return to the starting position.

Hack Squat

• Begin by loading the hack squat and adjust the shoulder pads to just below your shoulders.
• Step onto the machine’s platform and set your shoulders under the pads and back against the backrest.
• Position your feet slightly turned out, hip-width apart.
• Take hold of the handles, push the shoulder pads upwards and release the safety pins.
• Begin the rep by lowering the weight slowly so that your knees bend.
• Once your thighs are parallel to the floor, pause and push the floor away.
• Drive upwards until you come back to standing, without locking your knees out, ready to repeat.

Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.

During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.

Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…

You can follow Ryan on Instagram @ryan.dabbs or on X @ryandabbs_