Best Rep Ranges for Leg Growth

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

What rep ranges have you found your legs grow best with. More specifically what rep ranges have you found to be most effective for growth of your quads, and what rep ranges have worked the best for growth of your hamstrings.

I’m talking rep ranges for compund lifts mostly like squats and front squats and deads, but feel free to throw in ranges youve used for more isolation type work. Also what rep ranges have you found work best for the gastoc and soleus, I can’t remember which one works better with higher reps. Thanks.

2

[quote]tremad12 wrote:
What rep ranges have you found your legs grow best with. More specifically what rep ranges have you found to be most effective for growth of your quads, and what rep ranges have worked the best for growth of your hamstrings.

I’m talking rep ranges for compund lifts mostly like squats and front squats and deads, but feel free to throw in ranges youve used for more isolation type work. Also what rep ranges have you found work best for the gastoc and soleus, I can’t remember which one works better with higher reps. Thanks. [/quote]

I used with great success a rotating set/rep protocol.

4X6,5X5,6X4,8X3 (alternating week to week). Box squats/front squats. Alternating with the other leg wkout of split squats at 3X6 each leg. Accessory stuff consisted of step ups, and some leg ext. 3X6 ea, and 3X10-15 respectively. The legs grew very well, best results ever.

Hams I’ve always used the higher range of 3X10-12.
I would think the aforementioned range would work well for hammys too though.

Good luck, I’m going back to hammering my quads and hams this way again after jacking up a delt, and having some extra “space” around for the other bodyparts without chest/pressing to worry about.

good luck.

ToneBone

3

I agree with InTheZone, my legs have responded best when I was on a 5x5 program, and when doing 6 sets in the 4-6 rep range, using a wave pattern. Added a lot of muscle to the hammies using Powerlifting style squats, legs real wide, sitting way back onto a box. If your doing them right ass and hamstrings will be sore with very little quad soreness next day.

5

10-15 but it’s tension that grows muscles, not rep ranges, weights, or anything else

6

[quote]bmitch wrote:
I like 10-12 and the odd 15 rep squats or 5 rep squats to switch things up[/quote]

Reminds me, I forgot to mention that I’ll toss in a black widow set of 20 on those squats at the end too, for a mad blood pump. Also nice to slam em with a 50 rep pump set too here and there for some nice additional hypertrophy gains.

7

[quote]tremad12 wrote:
What rep ranges have you found your legs grow best with. More specifically what rep ranges have you found to be most effective for growth of your quads, and what rep ranges have worked the best for growth of your hamstrings.

I’m talking rep ranges for compund lifts mostly like squats and front squats and deads, but feel free to throw in ranges youve used for more isolation type work. Also what rep ranges have you found work best for the gastoc and soleus, I can’t remember which one works better with higher reps. Thanks. [/quote]

I have had great results with 3 sets of back squats, 12RMx20, 10RMx16 8RMx12 Breathing sets. Real hard, but great results in quads.
I have seen the best results in my vastum medialis (Teardrop) since raising my heels and going ATG.
Recently i have gone to 10x10 with my 8RM… we’ll see how it goes.

DL I like to do either 135lbs for sets of 15-20 for a whole body tie-in effect. Core taining etc… but i love to go max effort on DL… regularly. 31/2 plates a side is good for me for a couple reps.

My quads are growing nicely, and i intend to get them upto a large, round shape that will complete me more. But i am struggling with Hammies. I have done Romanian DL for years, and gone high (20) rep and low (6) rep, (one can handle a lot of weight on that move!) but still… they dont “explode”. I love to do lots of legcurls and i am in the process of finding the correct place where i could do some GHR’s. My hams ahve grown though and i must admit, mostly from the lying(angled)leg curl! (sorry compound crew…)

As for calves i have seen my greatest growth from sets of 100 BW raises years ago, and today i do 4 sets of 3 DC style rest/pause technique… so,

160lbs x 20+10+6=36reps (with 10 secs in between Rest/pause.
180lbs x 10+5+3=18reps ( " " )
160lbs x 15+8+4=27reps ( " " )

this allows me to do high reps which ALWAYS works for me with calves, and also high weight too.

Soleus i am not working a the moment due to a small tear, also i have big big calves and i want to concentrate on the gastroc rather than the soleus, but simply 3-4 sets of 12-25 with decent weight works well for my soleus.
I have great calves and i attribute it to 3 things,
1/ Trainin them from 14 yrs old.
2/ Training them with high high reps till i cannot stand on them.
3/ Stretching the muscle vigorously during and after work.

Enough!

Joe

Excerpt taken from: “Joes Encyclopedia of Modern Day Bodybuilding”

8

I suspect if you did a scientific test on what causes the most growth (assuming no preference is made for sarcomere hypertrophy or sarcoplasmic hypertrophy) I suspect it would be somewhere around 15-20.

9

ya, higher reps really fucking hurt, but they work.
Thats the trouble with legs… you load up the bar, say 25… and it feels heavy… you squat and with a breath or 3 you can do 20-25 reps with what was supposed to be a 10RM!
Most dont go heavy enough, nor use enough reps. It needs pushing to the max is all…

10

Quads
FSQ: 1-6
BSQ: 10-20
Leg Press: 20+

Hams
DL: 1-8
SLD: 1-18
HGR: 1-18
Good Morning’s: 1-18
Leg Curl: 1-8

Calves
Gastoc: 1-100
Soleus: 3-8

11

Lots of heavy ass lifting a bunch of times. That’s all you really need to worry about. Not one rep range works. It’s a combination of them all.

12

[quote]Nominal Prospect wrote:
10-15 but it’s tension that grows muscles, not rep ranges, weights, or anything else[/quote]

I think so. More specifically TUT, or TUL.

My quads grew like weeds when on a 30-rep squat (2x per week) cycle.

Lower reps made my ass and upper thighs large, but the quads over the knee grew very little.

13

All rep ranges work – for a time. Basically, most people should probably be doing the opposite rep range of what they are currently doing. If you have been doing 5 or 6 reps for a couple months, then its probably time to go 10 to 12 reps for a couple months. If you have been going 10 to 12 reps for a couple months, then its time to go 5 or 6 reps for a while.

14

I have to agree with the past few posts in that the best stumulus is what you’re currently not doing. Don’t get caught up in a perfect set/rep range. There is no perfect set/rep range.

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is supersetting. I get great vascularity in my thighs when I start off with a set of leg extensions with a pause during full contraction, followed immediately by a set of narrow stance back squats.

Another thing to try is Load 135 on the bar and see how many reps you can get in 5 minutes. Whatever you do, don’t take the bar off of your back for the full 5 minutes. You can do 5 reps, you can do 20 reps, you can do 200 reps. Just make it your goal next time around to beat the number of reps from your previous attempt. With this style of training, keeping it to one timed set followed by a couple of assistance exercises should be sufficient.

15

i think for most people, high volume usually leads to an increase in leg size faster. mine exploded when i had to do 20 rep squat while dc training. now i have stretchmarks on my quad running from my groin to the top of my knee haha.

16

I never feel like I’m doing enough since I’m able to train legs once a week.

So what I did:

Squats 3 sets of 5 reps with 315(for now)
Squats 3 sets of 15 with 225 (for now)

ohh and hamstring curls for 3 sets of 8 progressive weight.

Each week I either add some weight to the 5 reps or 15 reps, depending on how I feel.

Take it for what it’s worth, Its worked so far for me, and each leg workout feels like I’ve drained myself.