As others have said i think they are a great finisher exercise. I’ve never gone below 10 reps on these, usually i use them for rest pause or drop sets at the end of a session.
I can imagine if you start going for 1 rep maxes with them then you may be in for some trouble! lol.
Just another thing to add ive noticed that pointing my toes in different directions seems to change the muscle activity.
I havent done leg extensions more than 3 times in the last 3 years. This thread gave me the itch again, just for the thrill of it.
I think its bad reputation comes from the fact that there’s no weight on your feet, your lower leg is not planted, so the knees can potentially move around a bit - which is BAD.
The “high rep/just go for the burn” advice makes sense.
One thing is certain, with all the squats, single leg exercices, sprints and whatnot, you dont NEED leg extensions to grow big quads! There are just another tool that we can use, but not a primary exercice to focus on IMO.
Bushy, my VM is way smaller than my VL. How could using leg extensions help in this (if it can)?
Turn your toes out perhaps?
[quote]Sepulnation wrote:
So how do you exactly know if you have Petellar Femoral Syndrome?[/quote]
Go to an ortho and get some xrays if you have knee pain. I know it sounds crazy but it just might work!
You could also look up the symptoms to begin with and see if it might pertain to you.
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Bondslave wrote:
They can be bad if you have certain pre-existing conditions like petellar femoral syndrome. If you fall into this minority then you are probably doing more harm than good by using extensions in a routine, but for the average joe it seems to be a decent exercise. I dont do them.
However, since patellofemoral syndrome is often caused by a strength imbalance between the vastus lateralis and the vastus medialis, leg extensions are a prescribed rehab exercise to help cure this condition.
Of course, the weights used in rehab are low.
BBB[/quote]
You may well be correct, and my ortho certainly isnt in the business of rehab, but he did tell me not to do any leg extensions since I have PFS. This particular sports medicine facility does do work for local professional athletes; just to give a little bit of credibility to the docs assessment.
I’m sure some experts have different opinions on the matter, but I don’t believe the benefits of the leg extension are good enough to warrant its use for the potential risk.
[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
I think if you look at a lot of athletes and knee injuries that shouldn’t have occured (Tiger Woods for example, how does a golfer tear an ACL, lol), you will find that leg extensions are part of the routine.
While for a BBer they may not be the devil in causing knee injuries like in sports, they still cause wear and tear on the knee that doesn’t need to be there.[/quote]
It could just be one of those random chance incidents that caused him to tear it. One of my friends at school who did not use leg extensions just tore his ACL when he was jump roping.
Sounds weird, but there are those cases when there’s that unexplainable factor where you could do a lift perfectly, or a movement in this case, and it just goes.
As for strengthening the knee, this is one of those topics that will never be solved. I personally advocate them as I had a torn ligament in my left knee several years back.
Unfortunately, I did not have the option to rest it during the marching band season as it was less than a month until championships. After the season ended, I included leg extensions in my workouts after resting the leg for a while, and I find that it is perfectly fine today without the need for surgery or anything else.
I vary its uses in my workout; I either pre-fatigue my quads pr warm them up before squats. Other times, I use them at the end of workout just to get a good burn running through it after the heavy lifts are over.
Ask five different people, you’ll get five different answers. I would say your best move is consult a physician who is privy to your personal situation and ask his recommendations.
Ultimately, though, you know your body better than anyone else. Just don’t overdo the weight and keep to higher rep ranges, and I think you’d be fine.
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
However, since patellofemoral syndrome is often caused by a strength imbalance between the vastus lateralis and the vastus medialis, leg extensions are a prescribed rehab exercise to help cure this condition.
Of course, the weights used in rehab are low.
BBB
You may well be correct, and my ortho certainly isnt in the business of rehab, but he did tell me not to do any leg extensions since I have PFS.
This particular sports medicine facility does do work for local professional athletes; just to give a little bit of credibility to the docs assessment. I’m sure some experts have different opinions on the matter, but I don’t believe the benefits of the leg extension are good enough to warrant its use for the potential risk.
So, the benefits = strenghtening of a problematic VMO. BTW, how else do you propose to strengthen this muscle if you won’t use a leg extension?
I’m unclear, what exactly are the risks involved here, assuming integrity of the supporting ligamentous and tendinous structures is sound?
Finally, try asking your ortho for a more detailed ‘diagnosis’ than PFS. See what he says. If he can’t provide a better answer, he is not a very good ortho, in my opinion.
BBB[/quote]
Leg extensions don’t even seem to be all that common for PFS rehab (albeit from my limited research capabilities). Like you said, a weak VMO is just one possible, and much debated cause of PFS, so I still wouldn’t put much emphasis on leg extensions as a rehab mechanism.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isnt the VMO just a small part of the quadricep? In which case ANY quad dominant exercise would strengthen the VMO. As far as fixing an imbalance I don’t know, but another subject of debate is whether or not you can isolate and strengthen the VMO independent of the other quad muscles.
Once again I cant see needing leg extensions at all unless its part of a post-op rehab where the patient simply cant do any other exercise because of load parameters, which wouldnt be the case for someone with PFS.
It doesnt logically follow, for my dumbass anyway, that someone who can squat 400lbs would derive some great benefit from extremely low weight leg extensions.
Which raises a question for me; in your opinion should someone with decent squat numbers be looking for a cause other than a weak VMO? Or is it still that the VMO may be weak in relation to the other parts of the quad?
As far as risks, I don’t know. If you would like to debate biomechanics I would have to give you my docs phone #. I’m just telling you what the man told me, and I’m not qualified to have an intelligent discourse with you on the subject.
I would be interested to get more info about other causes based on cartilage damage, as it sounds like you may be onto something here and would like my ortho to be more detailed about it. But I assume this would involve an MRI which I really can’t afford to do. So I guess I will just have to lift and run with pain for now.
[quote]Sagat wrote:
I never did leg extensions on my routine because i prefer squats, 1leg exercises even leg press and i tried in the past and it caused knee pain.
But today i was doing some ramdom leg stuff in the gym (easy, recover week) and decided to throw a few high rep sets of leg extensions. I’m surprised i could get some extra quad work with very little knee stress, so i’m thinking about doing them regularly after compound movements.
Any thoughts on this?
The leg extension recently has a bad reputation of causing knee problems. Do you think its true? Whats your experience with it?[/quote]
Not bad, you just have to be sure to control the weight and not “kick it” at any part of the movement. Keep an eye on your knee joint and move slowly, as if you were cautiously opening a door.
I never had knee problems with leg extensions until I got problems from running.
I used to go pretty heavy and high rep. It’s a great exercise for your quads, personally I feel like it’s the best for your quads if you don’t have knee problems already. You will find that the quad is an extremely strong and high enduring muscle.
The problem with leg extensions is that you can quickly cause imbalances in your legs. Since it seems like a muscle that gets used already, can get soo much stronger, bigger, and endure more you will want to push it more and more until a problem occurs. If you can limit yourself to one workout a week or specialize in it for a short time frame say 3 - 6 months you would probably be better off. This is only the case if you do alot of running and jumping. Minor leg strength imbalances shouldn’t cause you trouble if all you do is walk around, or light jogging from time to time.
If you already have knee problems cancel all of the above. If your going to use it, stick to lightweight single leg, or medium weight toes out:toes in ratio 3:1 sets.