Help Training My Legs

Training Beginners
1

I’m looking for some advice on training my legs.
My goals are strength for sports and building muscle.

At the moment I can SL deadlift 120kg for 3 lots of 5. Standing up between each rep.
I can powerclean 70kg 4 lots of 4
Squatting is a problem because we have no powerrack. So I only squat 40kg for 5 sets of ten.
Anything more and I can’t shoulder press the bar above my head.

Obviously my powerclean and deads can just be improved, but I am worried about the fact I can’t really squat.
I saw Chad’s bodyweight article on T-Nation and have been trying one leg deadlifts and single leg squats, but I am a long way of doing this.
I also leg press and do some lunges.

I am currently do a 4 day upper lower split. With one lower body day for powercleans and the next day for deadlifts. Is this wise?
I always fit my light squats in with some lunges on these days.
My question is what should I be doing now to improve and where should I be at Christmas?

2

If I were you I’d build a ghetto squat rack.

Two square planks of wood. Two buckets. Some cement.

Cut a V shaped groove into the top of the planks. Place the planks into the buckets. (Make sure it’s the right height) Fill buckets with cement.

Once it’s dry you can put the barbell into the grooves and you will have a squat rack.

If you don’t want to/can’t build that, you could research some single leg progression exercises. So that you could do pistol squats eventually.

3

you could do hack squats or buy a trap bar deadlift … bar; that bar would be significantly cheaper than purchasing a power rack, or you could use craigslist.com

4

if you can get 40kg on your back why don’t you do 20rep squats with it?

5

I will definately just keep upping the reps and sets of my squats.

We have a smith machine but I figure thats not the same as bb squats.

6

[quote]flintoff99 wrote:
I will definately just keep upping the reps and sets of my squats.

We have a smith machine but I figure thats not the same as bb squats.[/quote]

that can work - there are a lot of Smith machine ‘haters’ on here, as well as many that successfully use it

7

smith machine will do fine for u for now, ive used it for succes on squats its fine

8

Clean the weight, then front squat it.

9

[quote]MC sp3 wrote:
Clean the weight, then front squat it.[/quote]
I was wondering why this wasn’t suggested earlier. Definitely my first instinct.

[quote]flintoff99 wrote:
I am currently do a 4 day upper lower split. With one lower body day for powercleans and the next day for deadlifts. Is this wise?
I always fit my light squats in with some lunges on these days.[/quote]
Meh, you could probably split the lower body training into one day quad-dominant (squats and lunges) and one day hip-dominant (deadlifts and cleans). But if it’s working for you so far, with improving strength and size, then it’s obviously fine.

But once you include the heavier front squats, your body might recover better splitting legs into those two days.

Stick with the heavier, lower rep training, 4-6x4-6 should fit the bill.

You tell us. Keep the training consistent and you’ll be on the right track.

10

Thanks for all your help.

I think I will give the quad/hip/upper split a go.

At the moment my lower days seem quite sparse.

How would something like this look?

Back squats 40g 3x15
Front squats 4x4/6 of 85 per cent 1 rep max
Smith machine squats 4/6 of 85 per cent
Lunges 4x10
Chuck some calf raise in there

Anything else?