April 18, 2019

The ultimate leg training program

Nothing makes or breaks your physical appearance more than the development of your legs.

Many exercisers regularly neglect their legs and if I'm honest, I can even understand the temptation to do so. I used to make this mistake myself regularly until I regretted it at some point and changed the way I train my legs. It took quite a long time for my legs to finally keep up with the rest of my body and now I actually enjoy my leg training.

The bottom line is that it takes time and work to achieve impressive leg muscle development. Of course, squats are an essential part of leg training, but if that's all you're doing for your legs, then you're giving away a lot of potential. In this article, I want to share with you what I've learned about building muscular, strong legs:

The most effective way to put together your leg workout.
The best leg exercises and how to do them.
My favorite leg workout program that you can use right away.
And much more...

Let's get started!

The anatomy of the leg muscles

Before we get to the actual workout, I want to take a quick look at the primary muscles of the legs so we know what we're about to train.

The quadriceps, which are located on the front of the thigh and make up the majority of the anterior thigh muscles, consist of four muscle heads:

The rectus femoris
The vastus lateralis
The vastus medialis
And the vastus intermedius

There are three muscle heads on the back of the thigh that are responsible for flexing the leg:

The semitendinosus
The semimembranosus
And the biceps femoris

And then there are the calves, which consist of two muscles:

The gastrocnemius
And the soleus

As you can see, the gastrocnemius makes up most of the muscle mass of the calves, while the soleus is located under the gastrocnemius.

So these are the primary muscles we are concerned with in the visual development of the leg muscles. There are a number of smaller muscles that will greatly affect your ability to train these larger muscles, but we'll skip them here as you'll be training and developing them in the exercises described below anyway.

The science of effective leg training

The three biggest mistakes exercisers make in their leg training sessions are as follows:

1. using the wrong exercises

Many people focus too much on machines and isolation exercises, which should be seen as supportive training and not the core of your leg training.

2. incorrect execution of squats

At this point, I'm not just talking about partial repetitions. There are a whole host of other mistakes, such as rounding the lower back, excessive hip and gluteal movement and incorrect knee flexion.

3. too much training with high repetitions

This mistake will affect the growth of every muscle group in your body. One of the most important lessons I've learned about training and building muscle is that the more you emphasize basic exercises and heavy weights (80 to 85% of your 1RM weight and above), the better your results will be.

And don't think that just because you see fitness models and bodybuilding pros doing countless reps and still have phenomenal body development that this isn't true. When illegal performance-enhancing compounds come into play, different rules apply, but I'm talking about training programs for natural exercisers here.

To build impressive leg muscles as a steroid-free exerciser, all you need is some knowledge, hard work and patience. The strategy is simple:

1. focus on using heavy weights in your leg training sessions

If you want your legs to become muscular and strong, focus on a repetition range of 4 to 6 or 5 to 7 repetitions.

2. focus on leg exercises that allow you to progressively overload in a safe way

As a natural exerciser, you can bet your money on this: If you're not consistently getting stronger, you're not going to get more muscular. The most important rule of steroid-free bodybuilding is progressive overload, which means that you increase the weight on the bar over time. Now, certain exercises are not particularly well suited to heavy training and progressive overload. Leg extensions, for example, put a lot of strain on the knees (1).

Another aspect of your leg training is that you need to find the right volume or the right amount of total repetitions per training week. This is especially important if you are doing a lot of heavy training as the general rule is:

The heavier the reps, the fewer reps you can do per week.

Heavier weights require more recovery, which means you can't do as many reps per week without risking overtraining. I have tried many different training splits and training frequency schemes and the one that works best in my experience is consistent with extensive study reviews on this topic (2, 3):

If your workout emphasizes heavy weights (), an optimal volume seems to be 60 to 70 reps every 5 to 7 days.

This applies not only to the legs, but to every major muscle group.

Now that we've got the basic training theory out of the way, it's time to take a look at the best leg exercises for building muscle and strength.

The best leg exercises

As with most muscle groups, there are tons of leg exercises to choose from, but only a small handful of these exercises are actually necessary. As you'll see below, the list of the best leg exercises is quite short: a few variations of squats and lunges and a couple of machines - that's it. Before we take a closer look at these, I'd like to say a few words about the multi press...

And what about the multi press

When it comes to squats, the biggest disadvantage of using the multi press is that it produces lower gains in muscle mass and strength than squats with free weights (4). One of the main reasons for this is that the bar on the multi press moves on a fixed vertical plane. A free weight bar, on the other hand, requires you to stabilize it to prevent horizontal movement of the bar.

I used to do all my squats on the multi press and never managed more than 110 kilos for a few repetitions. When I did free squats for the first time, I was already struggling with 85 kilos. That was a few years ago and I've since increased my free squat reps to 2 or 3 reps at 170 kilos and front squats at 130 kilos (which of course is by no means outstanding but still acceptable - and I'm still working on it).

The power rack is your best friend

A squat rack is a great thing if you have a training partner - if not, you probably won't push yourself to your limits because you're afraid you might not make it all the way to the top on the last heavy repetition. Even if you have plenty of training experience and a good feeling for when you reach the point of muscle failure, there will always be situations in which you could have forced another repetition or simply can't get back up.

In this situation, a power rack can be your best friend. It's the safety racks that make it so useful. Position them at the right height and they will catch the weight when you can't get any further.

Okay, now let's get to the actual exercises

1. classic barbell squats with the bar on your back

It should come as no surprise that this is my first exercise. Classic squats are simply by far the most effective leg exercise for building muscle mass and strength. Many people think that squats are simply a leg exercise, but they are much more than that - squats are a full body exercise as they involve almost every muscle group in your body apart from your chest. It's important to perform squats correctly, as poor form not only makes the exercise less effective, but also increases the risk of injury.

Before we move on to the next exercise, let's talk briefly about deep squats performed over the maximum range of motion. Even though deep squats have their benefits (they make the legs and especially the glutes do more work (5)), this variation requires an amount of mobility and flexibility that exceeds what most people have. For this reason, I only recommend deep squats for experienced exercisers who

know the correct form of the exercise
are flexible enough to perform deep squats correctly.

If neither of these apply to you, then you should only go down as far as your thighs are parallel to the floor. Deep squats are not necessary for developing a strong posterior chain.

2. barbell front squats

Barbell front squats are my second favorite leg exercise. Scientific research shows that front squats emphasize the quadriceps more than classic squats (which involve the hamstrings more), while putting less stress on the knees and lower back (6), making this exercise ideal for anyone who struggles with knee problems. Front squats may feel quite strange and uncomfortable at first, but the more you perform this exercise, the more you will get used to it.

When I started doing front squats, my shoulders were already hurting at 65 kilos, but I now train at 130 kilos without the slightest problem.

3. barbell lunges

Although lunges are generally thought of as a quadriceps exercise, scientific research shows that they rely more on the hamstrings and gluteus. However, lunges are a great addition to your leg workout.

4. the Romanian deadlift

Romanian deadlifts are my favorite exercise for isolating the muscles of the hamstrings.

5. bulgarian split squats

You don't see many people doing Bulgarian split squats in the gym, but it's still not some useless exercise. The fact is, split squats are quickly becoming an increasingly popular exercise among top-level strength trainers, and for good reason (8). Scientific research suggests that split squats are just as effective as classic squats themselves for increasing the maximum weight of classic squats, while placing less stress on the lower back (9). In addition, split squats differ from front squats in that they put more strain on the hamstrings (10).

6th Hackenschmidt squats on a machine

Even though I'm generally not a fan of machines, I like the Hackenschmidt squat machine to emphasize the quadriceps. Just like front squats, Hackenschmidt squats are an effective way to train legs and hips with minimal stress on the lower back.

7. leg presses

The leg press is another worthwhile machine for leg training and especially for building strength in the quadriceps area. However, most gyms have two different types of leg press machines. On one you sit more or less upright and press the weight straight away from you and on the other you press the weight upwards at a 45 degree angle. I prefer the second version as it allows a greater range of motion.

8. hip thrusts

Although this exercise may look a little silly, it is one of the best exercises for developing the gluteus (11). You can perform this exercise without weight or with weight.

9. standing calf raises

This simple exercise is a proven exercise for building the calf muscles.

10. seated calf raise

This is another worthwhile variation of the calf raise. It has the advantage of putting less strain on the lower back as the weights get heavier.

11. calf raises on the leg press

This is another good calf exercise that I like to incorporate into my leg training sessions.

Always remember - progression is the key to muscle growth

That's it for leg exercises. However, the key to success is not to simply perform these exercises, but to perform these exercises with progressively increasing weights. This means that you need to keep increasing the amount of weight you can move over time.

If you don't get stronger, your muscles won't grow. However, if you work on increasing your strength with these exercises and eat enough to grow, then your legs will respond to the workout.

The ultimate leg training program

A good leg training program works both the quadriceps and the hamstrings and focuses on heavy multi-joint exercises. It can also include gluteus and calf specific training if necessary.

Just like any other muscle group, the leg muscles can benefit from training with higher repetitions, but you need to focus on heavy resistance training if you want these muscles to continue to grow over time.

At this point I would like to introduce you to a simple but effective leg training program that you can use for the next 8 weeks to see how my advice works for you. Do this workout once every 5 to 7 days:

Classic squats:

After warming up, perform 3 sets of 4 to 6 repetitions (men) or 8 to 10 repetitions (women).

Front squats:

3 sets of 4 to 6 repetitions / 8 to 10 repetitions

Bulgarian split squats:

3 sets of 4 to 6 repetitions / 8 to 10 repetitions

Optional: Hip Thrusts:

3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions

Optional: Standing calf raises:

3 sets of 8 to 10 repetitions

That's it - 9 heavy sets for quadriceps and hamstrings plus optional training for gluteus and calves.

Rest for 3 minutes between sets, this will give you enough time to recover sufficiently so that you can give it your all on each set.

As soon as you reach the top of a repetition range, increase the weight. For example, if you can do 6 repetitions on your first set of squats, then increase the weight by 5 kilos for the next set and train with this weight until you can do 6 repetitions, and so on.

I guarantee that if you follow this training program for the next 8 weeks and eat right, you will be very happy with how your lower body responds to your training.

References:

Source: https://www.muscleforlife.com/best-legs-exercises/

By Michael Matthews

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