Its pretty bad that people who come on the forums for help get shitted on. This guy isn’t retarded, he wants to build a porportionate body. That’s a fine goal.
Having said that, Brainfreeze, I think your best bet would be to emphasize your upper body and arms with a maintenance level of work for your legs. That way you can get your body sized out the way you want. Because sometimes the goal is not to be as big as possible, but to look the way you want. But I also agree with most people here that it is a bad idea to not train your legs at all.
If your legs are bigger proportionally than upper body, when you train legs less (but still train) and upper more it does even out. Then you can hit legs hard again and so it goes on. By cutting back on legs and training (for example) arms directly and in particular I just started doing press behind neck again, the reserve from cutting back slighly on legs aids the other parts.
But, if you stop legs altogether, the upper body tends to shrink back before your very eyes, no joke. The balance and integrity thing is very evident.
Too many guys have gig arms, big chest and maggot legs, they strut round the gym thinking they are massive. People always comment on my legs, its cold here, they are the most visible in trousers where the upper body is harder to evaluate in clothes. An issue when legs get big is for example when I go walking they chaff together on the inside, which is a pain in the ass.
[quote]dr stig wrote:
If your legs are bigger proportionally than upper body, when you train legs less (but still train) and upper more it does even out. Then you can hit legs hard again and so it goes on. By cutting back on legs and training (for example) arms directly and in particular I just started doing press behind neck again, the reserve from cutting back slighly on legs aids the other parts.
But, if you stop legs altogether, the upper body tends to shrink back before your very eyes, no joke. The balance and integrity thing is very evident.
Too many guys have gig arms, big chest and maggot legs, they strut round the gym thinking they are massive. People always comment on my legs, its cold here, they are the most visible in trousers where the upper body is harder to evaluate in clothes. An issue when legs get big is for example when I go walking they chaff together on the inside, which is a pain in the ass.[/quote]
I know how you feel about the chaffing on the inside of the legs. I’m a hairy bastard and i constantly have a bald spot on the inside of my thighs. It’s no fun.
Get Diesel “Zaf” cut jeans. They cost 190$ US, but they have the space to fit your legs with a taper on the bottom to make them look even. Find the type with the wash on the top and darker colour on the calves part. You will look good in these jeans. Get a pair that’s tight on you, because they stretch like crazy (actually Diesel is good for bodybuilders because they stretch so much, so they grow with you). You can even get boots with a bit of a heal on them to make yourself look more proportional.
[/quote]
Holy shit man, you pay almost 200 bucks for a pair of britches? I get mine for 17.50 at the factory reject store and I think that’s highway robbery.
Get Diesel “Zaf” cut jeans. They cost 190$ US, but they have the space to fit your legs with a taper on the bottom to make them look even. Find the type with the wash on the top and darker colour on the calves part. You will look good in these jeans. Get a pair that’s tight on you, because they stretch like crazy (actually Diesel is good for bodybuilders because they stretch so much, so they grow with you). You can even get boots with a bit of a heal on them to make yourself look more proportional.
Holy shit man, you pay almost 200 bucks for a pair of britches? I get mine for 17.50 at the factory reject store and I think that’s highway robbery.
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When my legs get a little bigger I won’t be paying 190 bucks for some pants, by then I’ll just be stocking up on the MC Hammer parachute pants.
[quote]poper wrote:
Its pretty bad that people who come on the forums for help get shitted on. This guy isn’t retarded, he wants to build a porportionate body. That’s a fine goal.
-poper[/quote]
Just remember that the Original Poster titled this thread “Why Train Legs?”.
He didn’t get shitted on too bad (that’s relative). There was some good advice given to him on why he should train his legs. My favorite is the strong core to avoid lower back injuries.
[quote]Goal=Colossus wrote:
dr stig wrote:
If your legs are bigger proportionally than upper body, when you train legs less (but still train) and upper more it does even out. Then you can hit legs hard again and so it goes on. By cutting back on legs and training (for example) arms directly and in particular I just started doing press behind neck again, the reserve from cutting back slighly on legs aids the other parts.
But, if you stop legs altogether, the upper body tends to shrink back before your very eyes, no joke. The balance and integrity thing is very evident.
Too many guys have gig arms, big chest and maggot legs, they strut round the gym thinking they are massive. People always comment on my legs, its cold here, they are the most visible in trousers where the upper body is harder to evaluate in clothes. An issue when legs get big is for example when I go walking they chaff together on the inside, which is a pain in the ass.
I know how you feel about the chaffing on the inside of the legs. I’m a hairy bastard and i constantly have a bald spot on the inside of my thighs. It’s no fun.[/quote]
[quote]Hawkson101 wrote:
baby powder really helps. So does fitting boxers. Most of my boxers dont fit, and i too have a suspicous bald spot on my inner thighs.[/quote]
I have a bald spot too… but the fitting boxers help a ton.
[quote]Konstantine wrote:
3. the Johnny Brave look looks totally stupid in real life and you’ll look like you have Polio.
[/quote]
You know, I have honestly never seen anyone with a truly impressive upper body and little or no leg development. I often hear of the light bulb look or whatever, but have just never personally seen it. I have seen people with more upper body development than lower body development, but not a significant amount more. This leads me to believe that the body grows as one and you need to work both ends of your body to build significant upper body mass.
[quote]malonetd wrote:
You know, I have honestly never seen anyone with a truly impressive upper body and little or no leg development. I often hear of the light bulb look or whatever, but have just never personally seen it. I have seen people with more upper body development than lower body development, but not a significant amount more. This leads me to believe that the body grows as one and you need to work both ends of your body to build significant upper body mass.[/quote]
I’ve only seen one really bad case of it. This guy who used to strut around the gym in purple spandex. He made it worse by throwing his chest out and puffing himself up.
We used to joke that he looked like a bird: the Birdman. Decent arms and upper body (not massive, mind you), but his legs were so skinny that the upper body looked that much larger. It was just damned weird.
I’m with Brainfreeze. I don’t think anyone should train legs because society doesn’t care. Haven’t you guys all seen the cartoon musclemen? For example, The Crusher, from the classic Bugs Bunny wrestling episode. Check out his legs, if you can find them. Yet, his upper body is so massive and ripped, that he strikes fear in everyone - even Bugs (at first).
Taking my cue from the cartoons, I will only train upper body from now on.
[quote]dollarbill44 wrote:
I’m with Brainfreeze. I don’t think anyone should train legs because society doesn’t care. Haven’t you guys all seen the cartoon musclemen? For example, The Crusher, from the classic Bugs Bunny wrestling episode. Check out his legs, if you can find them. Yet, his upper body is so massive and ripped, that he strikes fear in everyone - even Bugs (at first).
Taking my cue from the cartoons, I will only train upper body from now on.
DB[/quote]
I agree. On that note I’m ditching all my food and supplements for spinach and pipe tobacco.
Oh man Johnny Bravo, I caught that cartoon years back, it’s a funny one for sure.
Personally I don’t think anyone should feel they HAVE to train their legs for appearance-related reasons (within reason of course).
But are we talking about completely avoiding the legs or just training them less? You could always cut back on them if they are not a priority. Less sets, less reps, not to failure, lower weights than you can handle, less often.
I don’t think it is wise to completely eliminate them.
Also if you do take them out of all movements, you lose a tonne of good exercises.
Do they cause more hormone release? Maybe, but maybe, because you are training your legs, you NEED more hormone release - to recover / build them. Does anyone have any hard evidence, or studies with measurements of hormone levels etc… and so forth?
Most of the answers to why train legs have been one of the following:
Because you look stupid with no leg development.
Because it’s functional.
Because it’s healthy/preventitive of injuries/trains your core.
Because the gh release will help build mass elsewhere.
I started by saying that I already have too much leg development RELATIVE to my torso (1). I started by saying I’m not looking to be functional since I’m not an athlete and have never been in a fight (2). There are a thousand ways to train your core that doesn’t involve training your legs (3). And no one has answered my argument that (1) and (4) can’t both be reasons to train legs as they are contradictory (i.e. if you can’t build mass on your UB without working your LB noone would be lightbulb imbalanced.)
