Leg ext and curls before or after squats?

[heavyhitter]

John Meadows is a big proponent of at least getting a pump in the hams before training quads. Ive been doing this lately as well and hve noticed that a lot of the nagging pain in my knees has been going away.

 

[BigDM]

John Meadows is a big proponent of at least getting a pump in the hams before training quads. Ive been doing this lately as well and hve noticed that a lot of the nagging pain in my knees has been going away.

:yeahthat:

 

[Mike1980]

I usually jump right into some warmup squats, then do my working sets.

After I may do some leg extensions and curls

 

[james42]

I always do the main compound lift of the day first. I ramp up with 4-5 sets and then hit the work sets.

 

[alfresco]

on squats . . some things to consider

This is not intended to be a ‘know-it-all’ guide on squats or exercise, just some random thoughts
that may be of some value.

For any exercise to be optimally productive one must be injury free and healthy. If it hurts you,
does not suite you, it will not be as productive for you as it could be. (And that goes
for AAS too.) The disadvantages will soon outweigh the advantages and then you will maybe,
be back to square one, if you have not caused irreversible damage; hopefully having
learned something along the way.

So experiment, find out what works for you. Do not follow others advice ‘blindly’ but
do give every exercise routine a fair chance and use your common sense and experience
to help guide you. For instance I have found that doing an adductor exercise directly
prior to squatting actually ‘frees up’ my hips and lower back, making squats a much
less troublesome exercise. I have also found that something as simple as a ~ 2 x 4 under
my heels when I do squats helped me enormously, allowing me to squat in a more
up-right position, taking much strain off my hips and lower back.

It is my opinion, what exercises you choose to do for your legs, in what order you do
them, the number of reps, sets, etc., is almost immaterial as your genetics will eventually
determine your ultimate development and look. And how you got there is really irrelevant to
anybody else. Whatever you choose to do must be suited to you; you must be able to do it
and you must believe in it, want to do it, almost like doing it.

My wife has told me that I have outstanding legs . . . for a woman. While they are very
lean and muscular, their size is not the first thing one would notice. Suffice to say my leg
development is not my strongest body part judged either by poundage’s moved or by
observation, but I do know from trial and error what worked best for me and that would
be a pre-exhaust routine which I will get to in a moment.

I am a firm believer in squats, and squats I believe are the single best exercise you can do
for your legs. To reap the maximum benefits from squats for instance, it helps if they are
performed in accordance to your body type and disposition. Top Platz (I have seen him
train) squats with his heels fairly close together and his knees out. He moves up and down
smoothly, like his body is a piston contained by a cylinder, very little bending over. Not all
people can squat like him, will never be able to squat like him even if their life depended
on it. He has a combination of great ankle flexibility and very favorable bodily proportions
(which are genetic and not subject to change) and when you couple that with a willingness
and a determination to work unbelievably hard in conjunction with the appropriate
‘supplementation’ for him, you get a true freak. Many can and do duplicate what he did,
but few will equal the physical development of his legs and calves.

My experience and observations . . .

For legs, generally speaking, high repetitions (20 to 50) I think produce far better results
than lower repetitions (1 to 6/10) for maximum size. Eventually, if you stick with lower
reps long enough and as your strength increases out of proportion to you structural integrity,
you will forced in the direction of higher repetitions as a heavier load places enormous,
undue stress on your knees and lower back. That is why, in my opinion, some sort of pre-
exhaustion is a valuable and safe method that you may eventually be forced into. Some can
handle huge weights, some can’t. I’m one of them that can’t. I know that. I require a different
tactic. So find out what works for you and do it, don’t bail too early . . . give it a chance;
three to six months minimum.

Strictly speaking, a pre-exhaust routine is an isolation movement immediately followed by
a compound movement. When I say immediately, I mean three seconds or less because
if you wait over three seconds you will regain approximately fifty percent of your strength
back and in this case, that is not what you want. (While many will undoubtedly laugh at this
notion, I say don’t take my word for it, just try it, you may like it.)

For pre-exhausting the legs in preparation for squatting, what worked best for me was to start
with a set of 20 rep leg presses, immediately followed by a set of 20 rep leg extensions,
immediately followed by a set of 20 rep squats. And all sets were to failure, moving from
exercise to exercise as quickly as possible. I was fortunate to be close friends with the owner of
the gym I was training at when I did this and he humored me by letting me rearrange the
machines to suit my fancy. So I arranged the machines in sequence like a described, and tried
this routine. I achieved a muscular pump in my legs that I had not achieved before and have
not achieved since. My leg size and strength literally grew workout by workout but all that
came to an end when my friend, the gym owner, committed suicide and gym was closed for good.

So for me, doing squats with my legs previously ‘exhausted’ allowed my lower back not to be
the limiting factor which it was and still is to this day. And the above paragraph was my way
(although not an original concept) of resolving that weak link.

In summary, do whatever you can that will allow you to incorporate squats into your training
routine with no adverse effects.

FYI . . . Arthur Jones once contemplated designing and building a compound exercise machine
that incorporated leg extensions and a hip and back extension to be performed in single
movement, a ‘super squat’ if you will. To the best of my knowledge (and I knew him very well)
he never did build such a machine primarily due I believe to its inherent complexity but also
because of the ‘metabolic’ effect he feared it would have on the human body. He theorized that
it could quite possibly put the subject into circulatory shock which would be counterproductive.
And after all, what good would it do to have you lying on ground, vomiting, shaking, in a state
of shock after you completed a single set? Scratch one bodybuilder . . .

 

[Brotein]

Squats first I start with a couple warm up set then I go heavy

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[Enzo2010]

I've always did heavy squats first afterva good warmup. I haven't tried leg extensions or curlbefore bc my squats would suffer,