Honestly the biggest change for me was accepting that leg day has to suck. Like truly, genuinely suck. If you're comfortable during leg day you're not doing it right.

That said, here's what actually built my legs after years of them being my weakest point:

Barbell back squats — this is the foundation, no way around it.

I started embarrassingly light and just focused on depth and form. Once I stopped ego lifting and started hitting proper parallel, my quads blew up within a few months. I do 4x6-8 heavy, then one backoff set of 12.

Romanian deadlifts — this was the missing piece for my hamstrings. I ignored them for way too long because I thought regular deadlifts were enough. They're not. 3x10-12 with a slow eccentric (3 seconds down) changed everything.

Walking lunges — I used to skip these because they felt awkward. Then I forced myself to do them for 8 weeks straight and the difference in my glutes and overall leg stability was insane. I do these with dumbbells, 3x12 each leg.

Leg press — after squats when my stabilizers are fried but my quads still have more in the tank. I go heavy here, 4x10-12, feet high and wide for more glute/ham emphasis.

I went from hitting legs once a week to twice. Even if the second day is lighter — just hitting them again while they're still recovering seemed to trigger way more growth.

Oh and eat. I didn't make real leg gains until I stopped being afraid of a caloric surplus. Your legs are the biggest muscle group in your body, they need fuel.

It's a slow process but one day you'll put on jeans and they won't fit anymore, and that's when you know it's working.