Hi, i’ve been reading on this site for years but i’ve finally decided to join up and start my own training log.
I’m 1 of those with gifted genetics…for the upper body, and legs that look fit to run a marathon.
I’ve spent years telling myself if i just train a little harder my legs will grow and catch up. This week i’ve finally accepted its time to start training them twice a week and see if i can finally fill out a pair of jeans.
Yesterday was day1
leg extension
seated hamstring curl
hack squat
leg press
walking lunge
More quad dominant i feel so my next leg session will be hamstring based
I might be able to add some help, but I need more information about your physique and training, particularly strength.
I noticed you didn’t mention squats. What can you squat?
Whether you are short or tall, long waisted or long legged is important.
What is your height?
What is your weight?
What is your age?
Are you natural or taking AAS?
A pic or two would be helpful to see the length and shape of your muscle bellies in your thighs.
This was taken about 2 weeks ago, I have seen you are the man to listen too so would appreciate any feedback.
I’m 6’4” around 225lb. I’m 37 and using 125mg of sustonan every 5 days as trt. My strength levels are ok, I usually squat towards the end of a session and will hit around 160kg for 6 reps as a top set.
I do calves twice a week already. A variation between standing and seated
Let me just get this one out of the way. I am definitely far from an expert on building calves, but I have seen someone do it. It took much dedication and prioritization. He did his calves first and it was mostly about time under tension and holding the flexed position, and not so much about the weight. He worked calves everyday. This is just something to think about.
I do believe that the weight is not as important as is the time under tension and not accessing the stretch reflex that calves are extremely good at doing. In other words, hold the stretched position at least a moment. Slow reps where the set lasts 90 to 120 seconds. No bouncing for most all the sets. The exception might be a “flutter” for 40 or so seconds on the final set for a final burn.
Do both standing and seated, but the standing is the most important, as the gastrocnemius muscle is not shortened (like in seated calf raises which doesn’t allow full stretch of the gastrocnemius.)
I always wanted bigger calves, because I think the “Martini glass” physique looks odd. I want to look like an immovable object. Seated calf raises were great active recovery between sets of squats and deads. You can crank in 20+ sets easy on leg day.
Also doing the standing version at the end of leg pressing (at the end of all sets). Normal calf press to failure, toe out to failure, toes in to failure. Just get ready to only wear boot-cut jeans.
You are very tall, but you seem balanced in leg length and torso length. I would like to see a video of you squatting around 275lbs. It needs to heavy yet not difficult. If not can you describe what your squat looks like?
Narrow stance, wide, or in between?
High bar or low bar?
Does your upper body lean forward or stay relatively upright? (another way of asking this is do you find that front squats are easy? I find them very difficult.)
How low are you squatting? I would like you to be going parallel. (If you squat high they won’t be developing you the way you would like.)
Before I figured out how to squat efficiently, the leg press was my very heavy leg exercise. I always did 10 reps on the leg press. You need to go as deep as you can without your hips coming off the back of your torso support bench. I never focused on feeling any muscle group doing leg press, just moving as much weight as possible. Do you use a lot of weight on the leg press?
In my first contest I knew next to nothing about competitive bodybuilding and came in dead last. My legs were way too thin, particularly my thighs. After the show I did legs twice a week on a six day split. When I did legs, my upper body was not trained. It was always legs, calves, and abs those two days.
There is much more. Do you have any questions before I add more detail?
Next time I squat I’ll get a video. Form wise I believe I’m pretty solid. I use to compete in strongman many moons ago so I got use to handling heavy loads.
Nowadays I squat high bar, feet possibly just inside shoulder width, and I go considerably below parallel. My torso does lean forward more than I’d like but I have slightly long femurs which I could be wrong but I think causes the tilt.
Leg press at my gym only holds 7 plates aside which I can press for around 12 reps currently. As you mentioned I go as low as possible before my pelvis has chance to tilt. I usually do some back off sets for around 20 reps.
No questions, I just appreciate you taking the time out to help
I got showed the 3 minutes of hell by someone who was trained by milos sarcev, apparently it was his approach to growing calves, literally just repping a weight straight for 3 minutes. The pump is unbelievable but it hasn’t yet produced any growth. I don’t only do that, I generally try for about 8 sets in total, as you say pausing briefly in the stretch and try to get a good squeeze at the top, generally in the 10+ rep range.
Interesting thought on the 90 second set theory, I’ll try that moving forward thanks
IMO, you need more weight. Is there another gym fairly close that you could use? If not, can you improvise a way to add weight. At one of the gyms I used the cradle that had plate posts on each side could accommodate some heavy dumbbells in the middle.
What is the angle of the incline leg press? Most have an angle of 30 to 45 degrees from the horizontal. The nature of an incline is as a mechanical advantage. 30 degrees has a 2 to 1 mechanical advantage. That is with 7 plates on each side you have 630lbs loaded on the cradle. This equates to lifting 315lbs vertically. (I know that the weight of the cradle must be added in to get the total weight.) A 45 degree incline multiplies the weight by 0.707 to equal 445lbs lifted vertically with 630lbs loaded on the cradle.
Next, can you vary the angle of the seat? The higher the seat angle the more your hips are engaged, and you should be able to push more weight, but your range of motion might suffer some. You should allow your thighs to pass beside your torso in the descent, which means a slightly wider foot position on the cradle plate.
Unfortunately due to work/childcare etc I have to make do with this gym for the next couple of years. It’s progress though as I was stuck training in my garage until January.
I’m not sure on the angle of the leg press but the seat doesn’t adjust. I tried balancing plates on the back of the machine to add more but they fell off.
I didn’t know that about the angle and the ratio, that’s some pretty cool knowledge
What do you think about suspending dumbbells (one on each side) with heavy cord between the, say, third and fourth plate just below the bottom of the plates? It should still be high enough to not touch the ground, and even if it did a little, it would have a bit of accommodating resistance effect.
Wide stance leg press worked upto 8 rep max (really deep and really slow with pauses at the bottom)
Good morning/low bar squat superset, worked upto 5 rep max on good morning then straight into squats until failure (once again wide stance, pausing in the hole)
Laying hamstring curl x3 sets
Walking lunge long strides 2xfailure
Finished with calves
The last year or two my leg workouts have been quad dominant with narrow stance. I feel like this has left me with zero adductors. Hence my 2nd session being aimed at wide stance and hammies. (The adductor machine is currently broken but I will be adding these in)
I got a leg training tip from Jeff King around 1983 on how he developed his adductors. I have done that exercise ever since with noticeably better adductors. It is the leg press with feet placed on the outside portion of the plate, having your toes pointed 180 degrees from each other.
It will take you some time to get the range of motion due to the intense stretch of your groin; like doing a “split” with your thighs. Your adductors are bringing your thighs together and quads assist in an isolated feeling that you don’t get doing a traditional leg press. It takes your glutes almost completely out of the movement. You must start very light until you get the flexibility to safely execute the movement. I feel like it helped to prominently display my sartorius muscle when flexing thighs. My inner thighs filled in very well.
Once you get accustomed to doing the exercise, I did after heavy leg presses with about 60% of the weight (still 10 reps)
So my thigh workout was Squats, then Leg Press, and finally Hyper-wide Leg Press. That was the end of the compound exercises I did for my thighs. Then I would add the isolation exercises.
You won’t need this machine, but it will not hurt doing it. I used it to get supper stretched to do abductor machine holds at the fully flexed position. The abductor work was to strengthen the tensor fasciae latae, that needed to stay healthy to squat heavy.
Wow toes 180 degrees apart even sounds difficult just to get in that position. I did point my toes a decent angle apart but nothing like this. I think I’ll add these in as my back off sets next week, thank you
It is radical. And feels quite a bit different. It will be a challenge to get limber enough to get completely 180 degrees apart. But I really liked how it filled in my inner thighs.
Just resist adding weight for a few months. Add weight gradually. In 6 months you should be close to 60% of your traditional leg press weight.
