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Legs. There are two kinds of people in this world: the people who say they hate doing legs, and the people who lie when they say they like doing legs. Our legs are so valuable for so many reasons, but working them out is one of the biggest chores in the world.
The legs comprise some of the largest muscles in your body, and when working them out you want to focus on working out the quads, the hamstrings, and the calves. Since they are so big, they also use up a lot of energy, and thus when working them out heavily it's easy to lose your breath and feel your energy getting sapped very quickly.
It's this aspect of legs, coupled with the fact that most people aren't going to heavily invest or place high importance on the look of someone's leg aesthetic that add to overwhelming grinding sensation that is felt throughout your leg workouts.
But you need to workout legs. Legs not only complete your aesthetic by preventing you from looking overwhelmingly top heavy, but also, being such a huge muscle group, they stimulate the release of hormones beneficial to bodybuilding throughout your body in large amounts when they are stressed and /or need repair (that's completely anecdotal and may not necessarily be totally true). Furthermore, strong legs can help prevent injury in that area of your body.
I like to make my leg days efficient. I DO NOT SQUAT. Sorry if that upsets you hardcore squat-for-days gym bros. I just don't like any exercise where I need to worry about the form so much more than the actual lift, or doing exercises where one tiny mistake or misstep in form can severely injure you and keep you out of the gym for an eternity. You can hit just as many muscle groups with the same level of stress and intensity over multiple machines as you can with squatting. I do find merit in the squat exercise though, and if that's your thing then by all means keep at it! But make sure you know what you're doing.
My main exercises for leg day include lunges, leg press, leg extensions, hamstring curls, and calf raises. On the quad exercises (lunges, leg press, and leg extensions), I'll start off with one leg on each side and then finish doing the same exercise with two legs. For hamstring curls and calf raises I'll do both legs simultaneously and then drop set....though I've been experimenting with one leg to two leg calf raises.
A lot of people have a hard time growing legs. There are two main reasons I can think of for this. 1) most people hate doing legs and are therefore not consistent with it, and/or 2) they don't put enough stress on the legs. The 2nd point is super important here. Your legs can take a LOT of punishment. A LOT. They are built to withstand a lot of weight and stress constantly. Therefore, you need a lot of weight and stress to get them activated and stimulated to grow / repair them. A lot of people underestimate this weight and are stuck with the same sized legs forever. So go pretty heavy on legs, and get a large amount of repetitions with each set. This has been working for me lately, but of course that's my opinion. You might find that something else works for you.
When doing quad exercises, drive through the heel. Like really drive through the heel. Almost to where you feel that all of your pushing is going through your heel. I've found that this fully pumps, stimulates, and activates the quads. When doing exercises like calf raises, drive through the ball of your foot in the same way. When doing hamstring curls, flex the back of your quads at the end range of motion like you would with bicep curls and let your legs back down slowly. Further stimulation can happen by pointing your foot forward during these exercises to stimulate leg muscles in a compound manner (i.e. turning a hamstring curl and leg extension exercise into a calf exercise as well). On all of these exercises, FULLY flex your target muscle and hold for 1-2 seconds and bring them back down slowly.
To prevent injury, take note on how your knees and legs bend. I've found that where you position your foot, how you twist your shins, and how far out your leg is from the direction the force is being exerted, is important when it comes to stressing the knees. Like shoulders, the knees have a lot of mobility. So they are also very susceptible to injury. one wrong twist of anything below the knees, or leaning your weight the wrong way can stress your knees or, even worse, severely and /or permanently damage structures in your knees. Before you do any exercise involving legs and free-ranging leg movements, take a look and be cognizant of how your knee bends. Many of us have uniquely shaped leg bones and how they flex can be different for everyone. Execute a lift in a way that allows you to get a nice pump and successful repetition, while also taking advantage of how your body naturally moves.
And those are my leg training tips! Let me know if you have any other tips / questions / concerns! I'd love to hear them!
-Jtrain
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