So any marathon athlete will grow huge legs correct? “It’s the repetitive use of their legs”. . . I would love to see that, so much for the theory on repetitiveness. High intense explosive work will demand your legs to work harder and it should help the development of muscle mass. I have never seen an athletes achieving any “serious” results without doing some “proper” weight training, irrespective of the load during weight training. If there is a better way, please let me know!! Yes it is possible for some people to grow muscle without doing much however this rule doesn’t apply to everyone. If your genetics allow you to do the bare minimum and grow muscle, consider that a thumbs up!
Surely the professional players today are tested to see if quads and hamstring power ratios are in balance, this is only one of many tests to determine fitness isn’t it? The results from the tests are normally used to put together weight training programs to improve imbalances and to maintain power and balance. Your best bet is to ask the many qualified experts here at T-Nation if they train any professional soccer players. They will be able to tell you how they train or how they are being trained.
“I’m not interested in looking like the steroid freak super huge goon represented on the cover of all the hard core mags.” As far as this comment is concerned, this is a web site normally open to individuals prepared to go as far as possible to achieve a desired result with or without steroids. 99% of the site is dedicated to body building???need I say more?
Non weight training exercises that helped me to improve the size of my legs:
Sprints pulling a tire on a track (walk, jog & sprint) 400m
I played soccer for eight years and still follow it regularly. Masswise, a TYPICAL soccer player’s legs will often be the same size as a regular guy’s off the street. If you go to the pro ranks, you will start to see more developed legs, but also only in a minority of cases.
However, like most athletes, most pro soccer players do use weights and do train legs. The pros with impressive legs probably have decent weight room numbers as well.
However, if you are impressed by a regular soccer player’s leg development and feel your legs grew significantly from BW squats, then you can probably reach your goal without heavy weights. However, your end product won’t impress anybody on T-Nation.
I dont think many weight train, or at least they never used to. I know lots of players who have never actually lifted a proper weight ever with big legs. Some old school players like Stuart Pearce used to have very very big thighs and stuff, they just kick the ball very hard and run alot, short sprints, lots of twisting and turning, long runs in training every week. On the same note, gymnasts and swimmers have very developed upper bodies. Im not sure if they traing with weights although I suppose everybody does these days…
It’s not the constant running per se, it’s the explosive sprint work and the variation of loads. Marathon running doesn’t have either. It’s not explosive and it is extremely repetitive.
In soccer, and other sports, your lunging from side to side, sprinting forward, back peddling and changing directions. The variety of movements coupled with the fact that they are being done in an explosive fashion really helps.
You can’t argue that heavy lifting doesn’t help. Squats and other similar exercises are fantastic for developing leg size. They can also be used to develop explosive power by changing to a jump squat or something similar.
The picture Derek posted of the guy with the tire is a great example of a combination of these factors. He’s probably moving explosively, trying to get that tire flipped up and over as fast as possible, rather than a nice, controlled lift.
Also, look at the angles of his feet and legs - they’re not perfectly lined up and carefully placed like you would if you were doing a calf raise machine, and I’ll bet the angles vary with each step. Lastly, that’s a hefty load there, so you’re really getting a combination of factors: explosivity, variety, heavy loads.
Not all soccer players lift and do weight training, but not all soccer players have chiseled legs.
[quote]GoOrange wrote:
I think it’s a combination of factors.
Also, look at the angles of his feet and legs - they’re not perfectly lined up and carefully placed like you would if you were doing a calf raise machine, and I’ll bet the angles vary with each step. Lastly, that’s a hefty load there, so you’re really getting a combination of factors: explosivity, variety, heavy loads.