This is question to Bill Roberts. Your statement that you mainly did leg extensions intrigued me. I have shied away from leg extensions for years, mainly doing leg press for quads and leg curls and stiffleggs for hams. I have always thought that leg extensions were a waste of time. Especially when I’m on Androsol, I feel I have to demolish legs with deads and such compound leg exercises. I have to admit, I’ve never done mostly leg extensions for quads. Have you added any size to your quads using just leg ext? I’m no mass monster. I just want to be bigger than normal. If I’m doing the fat fast w/ Androsol, is leg ext enough to keep my quad mass? You’ve made me sit back and look at things a little differently. When you’re doing a cycle, what are your leg mass gains? I know its all very individual. I’m just trying to get a general idea. I usd to think I had to destroy myself in the gym. Your comment reinforces my growing doubts about this. By the way, I made some outstanding gains on Androsol last year. Unfortunately, I got sidetracked by exams and girlfriend and the list goes on. Kudos on the best supplement I’ve ever used. I hesitate to use anything else except some protein powder now! Also, thanks for all the time you put in responding to the forum.
ward
Thank you for all the kind comments, Ward.
On one occasion I actually gained (well,
technically, regained but it had been quite
some time since I’d had it) an inch on the
upper legs, measured at midthigh, in 2 weeks.
That was on Nandrosol and TA and was on
an absurdly low number of sets. It just
seemed at the time that my legs were “done”
with much fewer sets than planned, both
for quads and hams, and obviously there were.
This was not to a new peak level though.
It was just to the same size I’d previously
attained some time back, while still doing
hack squats, with a TA/Dianabol/Winstrol/GH/
insulin stack. (I have not since used GH/insulin.)
So I thought that was a very good result for
me. The appearance also seemed better: more
teardrop, less “turnip.” I know you can’t
really change shape greatly but you can
get a little different pattern of relative
development I think. (Each individual muscle
head probably changes only in terms of
size not shape.)
Man I’m glad someone brought this up. I am 41 and have been lifting since 16. This is my personal experience. So, whether it work for you or not, it works for me. I agree, leg extensions give great quad development. I always vary my leg routine, quads first, quads last. But, one thing that made my legs stand out was doing quads totally. Meaning, 5 sets, blasting away. I love squats, don’t get me wrong. Have always done them, never will stop. But, leg extension, slow, squeeze, man, I love it. I had the most impresive quads you have ever seen. Once everyone got away from leg extensions, my quad development went wayside. I’m going back on them tomorrow with a vengeance. Thanks for reminding me what works for me.
Check out my post on an excellent leg workout!
Bill, could it be that the leg extension does a better job of working the VMO muscle, thereby helping to lend the teardrop shape? If so, I wonder if it means that there may be a protective effect from doing leg extensions due to the stronger VMO, since a weak VMO is a common cause of patellofemoral syndrome.
The best gains I have ever made in leg size and appearance came from a workout I did once utilizing nothing but leg extensions. What I did was load the machine up withvery close to my one rep max - the whole stack + 2 25’s. I did a rep, explosive positive, 2 or three second negative. Then I rested for 10 seconds, then did another rep. I continued this way until I could not do a rep on my own, (I thinik I got 10 or so), dropped one of the quarters, and continued. Got maybe another 10, dropped another quarter. Another 10 or so, took off 2 plates. (There were 20 in the stack) I continued in this fashion, getting 10-15 reps at each weight, until I got down to having no weight on the machine. Must have taken 20 minutes or better for this one set, but that’s all I did for the whole workout (in fact, I don’t think I worked legs again for a month or more), and I put more than an inch on my thighs, and 40lbs on my squat, from that one workout. Now if I could just come up with something similar for arms…
Yeah Bodz, my experience is the same, my quads lose alot of size and shape if I don’t do leg extensions.I dropped them reading about focusing mainly on compound exercises and lost size very quickly.I also only get the ghetto booty look from squats and very little quad growth compared to a leg extension hack squat type routine.
You know, since I tore up my ankle back in january, I haven’t been able to squat or leg press. So I’ve resorted to leg extensions with different reps, tempos etc… I hadn’t done extensions in about 2 years, and my legs don’t seem to be gaining any size, but their certainly more cut- in the teardrop region.