Cool, I think we’re more aligned than not.
I am under the assumption that OP is here for the purpose of either powerlifting or bodybuilding (competing or not). But I could be wrong here - I view this entire forum as 80% hypertrophy goals and 20% powerlifting goals, so anything not in either of those categories I’ll assume incorrectly.
I would certainly agree with that.
For people that absolutely hate traditional leg training (squats, leg press, lunge etc), pull or push a heavy sled. I’ve seen some dudes get respectable legs just dragging the sled. But it’s gotta be heavy. Genetics also plays a part in how someone responds to that kind of training.
Though, if someone hates squats, I can’t see them liking heavy sled pulls.
But both of those require lots of leg work. Unless I missed it, they didn’t specify exercises, just leg work generally.
Its like saying “I want white teeth, but don’t like toothpaste, mouthwash, or dentists.”
I dislike training legs also, but I like the results, so I do them. This sounds like an “embrace the suck” situation for the OP.
I believe OP was saying, “I hate squats, but they are the best bang for the buck…”
This makes no sense for a hopeful powerlifter to say this. The squat is not “the best bang for the buck.” The squat is 1/3 of the competition.
I agree that this is the likely situation of the OP. I was there myself.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
I used to hate leg training too but solved it with a 4x a week push/pull split variation. Quads on push, hamstrings on pull. Knowing you’ve just got 1-2 lower exercises on each day rather than a full day of legs was easier for me mentally for a long time. Knowing you can go in every day and work your upper body can be quite motivating.
Something like -
Monday: Squats, Bench, Shoulder Press, Triceps
Tuesday: Leg Curls, Row, Pulldown, Biceps
Thursday: Leg Press/Leg Extensions, DB Bench, Dips, Lat Raises
Friday: RDLs, Seated Row, Pullup, Biceps
If you can’t even do this, then you probably need to learn that sometimes in life you gotta do things you don’t enjoy, and it’s in the hard work that will give you the most growth.
Machine hack squats + leg press for quads, RDLS and ham curls for the posterior chain + some glute isolation work.
Back Squats and my spinal health don’t get along and because of it I have neglected legs for a long time. Recently though I have found a ton of value in:
Goblet Squats
Front Squats (KB or BB)
Smith Machine squats (put your heels out in front of you and squat, almost like a pendulum squat machine without quite as big of a range of motion)
Stiff Legged RDLs
Loaded Carries of all types.
I do full body and enjoy and I do one leg exercises a session
Rdls
Squats
Legs press and leg extension
Me to
Just not a fan of leg training but I’m not gonna skip.im.not a idiotn
Grammar is suspect…
You forgot four square, red rover and British bulldog (or whatever they call those in the US).
It’s not a complete substitute for squats and deadlifts but you could:
(The last suggestions were meant as a good-natured joke. So is this. Nothin’ personal. You can get the muscle look without effort!)
I am in the “why” camp?
Why do you even need to train legs? What’s the goal?
Why do you hate it? What, specifically?
There’s directions you can go, depending on the above. @cdep89 posted about breaking it down into bite-sized pieces.
Maybe you want hypertrophy and you just want to get it over with. You could work up to one 8-minute set of squats. Get your work done for the week in under 10 minutes!
Maybe you want hypertrophy but hate the pain and nausea. Now you could do a ton of lower intensity volume a time or two a week.
Point being, start with goals and constraints, then we can fit solutions.
As stated above. Embrace the suck.
Here’s what works for me. I’m just an aging cabinemaker trying to get bigger, stronger leaner… not a performer or competitor. I look more like King Kong Bundy than Battista, but 3 years ago I looked like Chris Farley, so progress is progress.
It’s ok to skip barbell squats. Replace it with machine squats. My gym has at least 6 different squat machines (1 pendulum, a bunch of hack squats, a leverage squat and a few others “wierd ass” looking machines called somethingorother.). I alternate among 3 or 4 of them.
Do whatever rep range you enjoy on Squats . Normally I go 2x10 or 3x10. Once I a while I go much heavier 3x5. And occasionally I go 1x30.
Do A FEW Isolations before going to squats so you’re warmed up and have done some good pre-exhaust on Isolations, which won’t fatigue your central nervous system much. I prefer doing Good-Girls and Leg extension first, then squats. And both are light wt, high rep (3x20 usually). This has worked well for me for 2 years now.
Don’t focus on the numbers, focus on the stimulus. I don’t track my workouts. I used to, but it mentally wore me out. At my age and responsibility level, fretting the strength gains over time just made leg day nothing but disappointment. I stopped tracking and instead starting paying more attention to getting as much reasonable stimulus as I was capable of at any given session. That has been very helpful to me. If I were 20 years old training for a powerlifting comp, I’d track everything down to type of shoes I was wearing
If you hate training legs then does it matter what you do to train legs? Leg training for someone who hates training legs is to just not train legs.
I say do squats until you learn to love it.
If you want to stick with barbell work, just find the squat and deadlift that you dread doing the least.
For squats, experiment with low bar, high bar, safety bar, front squat, zercher squat.
For deadlifts, you can experiment with rack pulls, conventional, sumo, snatch-grip, trap bar.
I also found I really like single leg work and dread it much less than bilateral for some reason. I love bulgarian split squats and single leg landmine RDLs so find a way to incorporate those. I get way more of out these movements than any machine exercises.
You could also experiment with different tempos, pauses, bands, or add in some explosive work like cleans, snatches, jumps. If I just limited myself to squats, rdls, leg press, and extensions I’d hate leg training too lol.
