What’s a winning physique? It’s surely not a dude with bulging shoulders and pecs strutting around on chicken legs. Look, a lot of guys avoid leg day, but you’re doing yourself a disservice. Stop running away. Smash your goals.
Here’s exercises that are proven to help you get massive gains that are also safe and smart. Let’s check them out.
How To Work The Legs
Before we get into the exercises, though, let’s get a general understanding of working the lower body. You need proper form. Work on proper form first, and you will have better results from the beginning. Lastly, don’t focus too much on higher repetitions. Work within the 80-85% 1RM range for the most growth.
Recommended Leg Exercises For Growth
With some basic information out of the way, it’s time to introduce the exercises.
Barbell Back Squat
Note: Best performed inside a rack for safety.
3-4 sets x 8-10 reps
Rest: 3 minutes
How to do:
Start with your feet under the bar, hands in position. Get under the bar. Adjust your grip if you need to. Keep the chest up and the elbows down. Squat up to unrack the bar and keep your core engaged, back long. As you continue to perform a rep, keep your heels under your shoulders with the toes out on a slight diagonal. Get your backside as low to the ground as comfortable for your joints. To get up from the squat, drive through glute and hamstring muscles, squeezing and pressing.
Barbell Front Squat
3-4 sets x 8-10 reps
Rest: 3 minutes
How to do: Bring your arms up under the bar. Keep the elbows high, upper arms parallel to the floor. The bar should rest atop the deltoids when your arms are crossed. From there, lift the bar from the rack by pushing with your legs up and keeping the torso straight.
Step away from the rack and take a squat position—feet under shoulders, toes pointed outward. This is the starting position.
Lower down slowly. Maintain a straight posture as the knees bend. Eventually, the thighs should be below parallel with the floor. As you start to lift from the bottom position, exhale and push the floor through the middle of the foot while engaging the quads.
Repeat.
Barbell Lunge
3-4 sets x 8-10 reps on both sides
Rest: 3 minutes
How to do: Once you have unracked the bar, step forward with either your right or left leg. Maintain balance and squat down. Think about lowering the hips, not bending the knees in order to keep your form. The torso remains straight. Knees bend to 90-degrees. Don’t allow the front knee to go beyond the toes. Once you reach the lowest point, power back up through the feet. Repeat this movement 9 more times on one leg then switch.
Leg Press Machine
3-4 sets x 8-10 reps
Rest: 3 minutes
How to do: Start by sitting at the machine with your back firm against the seat. Your feet are flat on the foot plate, slightly wider than hip-width apart. Grab the handles on either side of the seat. From there, push the plate away by extending through the knees and hips. Turn the locking safety handle so you can move freely. Then, keep pushing through the feet until you’re extended. Bring the plate back slowly. Never fully lock the knees as your work. Repeat the motion.
Leg Curl Machine
3-4 sets x 8-10 reps
Rest: 3 minutes
How to do: Once you’ve readied the machine for use, place the back of the lower leg on the padded lever. Second the lap pad against your quads, above the knees. Grasp the side handles. Make sure you start with the legs fully straight out behind you. Now, exhale, pulling the machine lever back as you bend the knees and lift your heels towards your back. Hold the contraction for a second. Slowly lower back to starting position. Repeat.
Standing Calf Raise
3 sets x 8-10 reps
Rest: 3 minutes
How to do: [Use dumbbells or the machine] On a workout step or platform, stand with your feet under your shoulders. The balls of your feet are on the top half of the platform/step, and the heels are hanging off. Push up, extend the knees, and keep the torso erect. Never lock the knees as you rise. Continue raising the heels as you breathe then lower slowly to starting position, feeling the calf release and stretch. Repeat.
Romanian Deadlift
3-4 sets x 8-10 reps
Rest: 3 minutes
How to do: Hold a bar at hip level with palms facing down. Shoulders are back, the back is arched, and the knees are slightly bent. This is where you start. From there, lower the bar down by moving the butt back. Keep the bar close to the body as you move. When done correctly, the maximum range is just below the knee. At the bottom position, squeeze through the back body and drive the hips forward to return to standing. Repeat.
That’s it! You don’t need anything else—just consistency and determination.
You can’t spell legendary without “leg day.” With these exercises, you can grow your legs and get that bodybuilding physique and strength you’ve been working hard to achieve.
Enjoyed this article? For more tips and tricks and information on how to train effectively, check out my YouTube channel and hit that subscribe button.
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RunThaCity’s 300 Pullup Challenge: Ultimate Pullup Training
There is nothing that says you need to be big to be strong. Even if your build is thin, you can build muscle that gives you more strength. Your size is no indication of how strong you actually are. One way to build better muscle is by mastering the pullup. Some trainers say that the pullup puts smaller-framed body builders on a level playing field with those with large frames. You may be able to deadlift hundreds of pounds, but if you cannot meet the 300 Pullup Challenge, you’re not really as strong as you think.
300 Pullup Challenge
The 300 Pullup Challenge is relatively simple. The goal is to complete 300 pullups in one hour. The easiest way to do this is by breaking them down into sets of 10. Complete 30 sets of 10 in one hour and you’ve conquered the 300 Pullup Challenge. The only equipment you need is a pullup bar, which you can probably find on a local playground, music to get you moving and a pair of gloves to protect your hands. Do ten pullups in quick succession, stop, walk around for 30 seconds to a minute, then do the second set. Continue until you have completed 30 sets of 10.
300 Pull-up Challenge Workout:
Feel free to do these in any order you choose.
Pullups Keep You Honest
One of the best things about pullups is that they keep you honest. Many bodybuilders claim that a pull-up is an unfair test for larger people, but this is far from true. A 250-pound person should be able to master the 300 Pullup Challenge as easily as someone who weighs half as much. The only reason pull-ups may be difficult for a larger person is if they have excess body fat. If you find that your form is lacking or that you are having difficulty completing the challenge, you may need to include pull-ups in your workout more often.
Pullup Bottom Position Pullup Top Position Watch Your Form
Before you attempt to conquer the 300 Pullup Challenge, make sure that you can do one rep with proper form. Grab the bar tightly, keep your legs straight and brace your body as you lift with your arms to pull your chin over the bar. Your torso should not fall too far forward or backward. You want to keep your body as tight as possible. You can use an underhand, overhand or neutral grip, but be sure to come to a full extension at the bottom of each rep. You also want to be sure your chin goes above the bar at the top of the reps.
How many pull ups should i do a day to see results?
I regularly perform 5 sets of 10 as a warm up to most of my workouts.
Work toward the 300 Pullup Challenge once each week and be sure to give yourself plenty of recovery time between sessions. Continue working other muscles during your week, but keep in mind that pullups will work your back and biceps, so you may be able to eliminate some of those exercises during the week. For more tips on getting the most out of your workout, subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
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Over 100 Motivational Fitness Quotes With Images
Are you looking for the perfect motivation quote, meme, or image? Click to find the perfect one for your day! Feel free to download, share, etc!!
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What is Hypertrophy?
So, you want a sculpted, muscular physique? First, ask yourself what your prime motivation for this is, because if it’s solely for aesthetic purposes, this could be mentally unhealthy – body image is a complicated thing, as is the social pressure on it.
That said, if healthy and self-confidence is your main motivation, what’s wrong with looking good while living a healthy lifestyle? The thing is, people oversimplify the human body when they consider the effects and implications of exercise. Well, that’s not really surprising, the “why and how” of this is only guaranteed knowledge if you’re either a fitness professional, a medical professional, or a biologist.
Unfortunately, to get the most out of your exercise and diet regimen, and most efficiently achieve that swole look, you kind of need to understand it. Specifically in this case, you need to understand anaerobic respiration, basic metabolism, and the concept of hypertrophy.
What’s Hypertrophy
While it may sound like a bonus prize better than first place, hypertrophy is a biological/medical phenomenon wherein muscles are stressed in various way (and to an extent, damaged), thus increasing the density and cross section of muscle present.
Proper exercise intended for body building and muscle gain, induces hypertrophy. Here’s the thing though, hypertrophy, and the things that induce it, will hurt. You will experience fatigue, soreness, cramps and just general aches and pains from it.
Well, the old saying goes, no pain no gain, right? We’ll talk in a minute about how this is induced, but let’s talk about the two scientific phenomena taking place during hypertrophy, and how it results in increased muscle volume and density.
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy is an increase in what’s known as sarcoplasm. This is a fluid volume inside muscles, that gives it that kind of “jelly” fluidic nature while relaxed. This creates muscular bulk, but being noncontractile, sarcoplasmic hypertrophy doesn’t increase strength per se. It is however necessary for the function and tensile power of your muscular tissue.
Myofibrillar hypertrophy is the increase of myofibrils, which are the thread-like contractile components which actually do the mechanical work. The increase of these is the increase in actual physical strength.
It is important to achieve the proper balance of myofibrillar and sarcoplasmic hypertrophies, though generally, the body manages that on its own. However, if you see increasing muscle mass, but the expected strength increase intended to come along with it isn’t present, you may need to see a dietitian or even a physician, because something may be wrong.
Stimulating Hypertrophy
Before we go over the ways to stimulate this, I want to again emphasize that some of this can be dangerous if you don’t do it properly. Consult your physician, and use your best judgment with this. Seriously, stressing your body can be dangerous!
Progressive Tension Overload
This sounds fancy and complex, but in all reality, it’s just what any good lifting regimen does – increase what you can and do lift over time, stressing your muscles and causing them to grow. Some of the best are curls, deadlifts, squats, military presses and bench presses. While the more dramatic increase in reps and lifts you can do will be logarithmically proportional to the resulting hypertrophy, this is where the being careful I talked about comes into play.
Muscle Damage
It’s commonly said that you have to break muscles to make muscles. This is actually completely true. This is also why constructive exercise is painful – you’re breaking the myofibrils and losing some of your sarcoplasm by overexerting your muscles.
When the body takes damage, it will reactively begin building more tissue to replace what was lost, or to bridge gaps formed by strain. While some tissues don’t heal gracefully (hence scarred skin, and misshapen bones that weren’t set right), muscle is very good at healing itself in an effective and constructive way.Metabolic Stress
On top of tension stress/breakage, there’s also metabolic stress. This is where anaerobic versus aerobic respiration comes into play. Anaerobic respiration involves little to no exercise (where aerobic is very oxygen-heavy). Most lifts and similar exercises are anaerobic, and since anaerobic respiration is less efficient and more stressful, muscles are strained by it, causing them to “double up” to better handle the stress of it all.
On a side note, anaerobic respiration produces lactic acid, which causes that really sore feeling you get from an effective work out, where a burning sensation comes from broken muscle.
Supplements
You can make induction of hypertrophy safer by reducing the physical extremeness of it with supplements that let muscles rebuild faster, and stimulate muscle growth naturally.
Creatine
You may have heard some bad things about creatine, but seriously, it’s all bunk. Creatine has been clinically proven to be harmless, and effective. Creatine will help boost sarcoplasmic hypertrophy as well as stimulate more effective respiration all around. It also abates the soreness of lactic acid production, which quite nice.
Protein Powder
Muscle has to have raw materials to build with, and that means protein. Protein powders are an excellent way to deliver this rich nutrient to your body, while eliminating fats and other undesired things that come from animal protein.
To learn more about hypertrophy, and the science behind supplements and exercises, subscribe to my YouTube channel today!
