Struggling to grow my legs

[Bashmannutter]

Getting back on my mobility work and touch wood, some litle niggles are begining to subside.

I feel my legs have just not really grown as much as I feel they should have and would appreciate anything you guys have found to help.

I've started to get someone to spot me on the hack now to really push myself as I'd like to do my 1st show in classic category, but I feel my legs will def be holding me back.

I've def made some good strides in strength especially for my hams and the one thing I feel I may need to do now is put quads before hams or seperate them, as I always do quads after my ham work and def does impact the amount of weight and effort I can put into them.

Below is post legs after my 1st set of hacks. Although they are decently lean, they still lacking a lot of size.

I've got around another 6 months offseason, after I use the rest of this year to diet down and maintain and before I decide to prep for a show mid/late next year.

You think its doable to get them to a point where they can look generally competitive/impressive and not look lagging?

 

[Bashmannutter]

PS I know my calfs are shit

 

[Fleezy]

I started doing leg press the way nick walker does them

Turned leg press from an ok exercise into an awesome one that fries my quads

What do your quad workouts look like with volume and frequency?

 

[Bashmannutter]

I started doing leg press the way nick walker does them

Turned leg press from an ok exercise into an awesome one that fries my quads

What do your quad workouts look like with volume and frequency?

Thanks mate Ill take a look.

Legs Workout is as below. Currently volume titrated down to min volume before I go into a dieting phase. Most sets eithe close or taken to failure with some rest pause on last sets. Reps are generally around 8-15, with compounds on lower end. Right now legs are only hit once a week, just moved back to a bro split.

Lying Hamstring curl x 2 sets
HS upright hamstring single curl - 1 set with rest pause
SLDL x 2 sets
Leg Extensions - 3 sets with Rest pause
Hack Squat - 3 sets - all to failure
Seated hamstring curl - 2 sets, rest pause

Maybe its just not enough volume, but intensity is there are got doms for days afterwards.

 

[cage99]

Post up your last leg training workout? Ooops I was just tad late here…

Cage

 

[td]

I train legs differently than I lot of people... But everyone I've convinced to try it has benefited.

I don't do full range of motion. I find a big exercise that fits me and I maintain tension through the whole rep, eccentric and concentric. No bouncing out of the bottom. No pausing at the top. It. Fucking. Hurts.

I have worked up to where I do 5 x 20 (work sets) on either a hack variation or a belt squat. I stay at a particular weight until I can do all 100 reps perfectly. Do not speed up the tempo. Do not quit. Pick an exercise that you can fail safely. But your brain will probably give up before your body. At least initially until you realize that it's only pain. Take ample rest between sets but none during.

I think it's working.


I've seen @dave87 execute a similar style on the leg press.

 

[td]

For calves, I do 20 minutes of fasted cardio every morning. I set the incline to 6% and I walk at 3 mph (in my flip flops) until my calves are burning. I'll slow it a little at that point but essentially every step is a rep.

I got the idea from watching heavy people walk around Walmart. I also noticed my calves actuality grew during prep last year as I was doing HOURS of incline walking.

 

[xpoc]

Thanks mate Ill take a look.

Legs Workout is as below. Currently volume titrated down to min volume before I go into a dieting phase. Most sets eithe close or taken to failure with some rest pause on last sets. Reps are generally around 8-15, with compounds on lower end. Right now legs are only hit once a week, just moved back to a bro split.

Lying Hamstring curl x 2 sets
HS upright hamstring single curl - 1 set with rest pause
SLDL x 2 sets
Leg Extensions - 3 sets with Rest pause
Hack Squat - 3 sets - all to failure
Seated hamstring curl - 2 sets, rest pause

Maybe its just not enough volume, but intensity is there are got doms for days afterwards.

Almost identical workout to mine...except I hit them 2x per week. I would dump the standing ham curl and replace with adductor. I had pretty subpar legs until I started blasting adductors. I am 57 and really didn't have impressive legs until I started doing this about 2-3 years ago. I have never competed so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Although, for a regular jabroney, I am pretty happy with my wheels at this point.

 

[Siggy]

The thing that makes me apprehensive about saying this is the fact that you are very sore using your current protocol.

But still, your volume looks very low and also you dont have any leg press in there.

I would suggest titrating up the volume and decreasing the frequency and adding leg press and maybe squats too.

 

[sickboy]

Not sure where you live but I mountain bike on the streets in my area. Low gears and 5-7 miles 4-5 times a week in the mornings after my workouts and food.
I’m in Vegas and have good weather. I ride until December then I train legs more at the gym until March. Absolutely smokes my legs from front to back. I train calves every time I go to the gym. I always do them first too. When I’m riding a lot I still stiff leg deadlifts and standing leg curls but no direct quads until December.
IMO big legs are built with high reps. I prefer 15-25 for leg presses and hacks. I’m also big on high rep sissy squats at the end.

 

[AllOkJumpmaster]

I would run a few specialization cycles.

 

[BigBaldBeardGuy]

I don't do full range of motion.

I might be reading it too literally but do you mean you don’t hit depth/ass to grass? If so, how deep do you go?

 

[Sectør]

Like others said you definitely need more quad volume and maybe even another excersise or two

Also could help starting your workout with quads if that’s your main focus point

 

[AllOkJumpmaster]

Not sure where you live but I mountain bike on the streets in my area. Low gears and 5-7 miles 4-5 times a week in the mornings after my workouts and food.
I’m in Vegas and have good weather. I ride until December then I train legs more at the gym until March. Absolutely smokes my legs from front to back. I train calves every time I go to the gym. I always do them first too. When I’m riding a lot I still stiff leg deadlifts and standing leg curls but no direct quads until December.
IMO big legs are built with high reps. I prefer 15-25 for leg presses and hacks. I’m also big on high rep sissy squats at the end.

@sickboy bringing the Fankhouser calves to the fuckin table lol

 

[Elvia1023]

Getting back on my mobility work and touch wood, some litle niggles are begining to subside.

I feel my legs have just not really grown as much as I feel they should have and would appreciate anything you guys have found to help.

I've started to get someone to spot me on the hack now to really push myself as I'd like to do my 1st show in classic category, but I feel my legs will def be holding me back.

I've def made some good strides in strength especially for my hams and the one thing I feel I may need to do now is put quads before hams or seperate them, as I always do quads after my ham work and def does impact the amount of weight and effort I can put into them.

Below is post legs after my 1st set of hacks. Although they are decently lean, they still lacking a lot of size.

I've got around another 6 months offseason, after I use the rest of this year to diet down and maintain and before I decide to prep for a show mid/late next year.

You think its doable to get them to a point where they can look generally competitive/impressive and not look lagging?


View attachment 237145

This type of question needs 1 hour in the gym to go over most things. There are also many possible "correct" answers. To keep it brief I will go over a few general points. Incidentally whilst your pic isn't a great indication your legs look fairly proportional to the rest of your body but I could be wrong.

Full ROM and partial ROM all works but generally speaking you want a full ROM for most movements. Well you don't need them for calf raises, ham curls and even a lot of the quad stuff but for the big quad movements (squats and leg press) I would recommend controlled and deep reps with full knee flexion. Partials can work but my legs were genetically shit and I built them through years of hard training but they only started to look impressive when I focused on full knee flexion leg press and hammering them with leg extensions.

You need slightly more quad volume. 3 ham and 3 quad movements for example. Even just a leg press in there could make the difference. Form/execution and intensity are far more important than lifting as much as possible. Nick Walker was mentioned and his leg training is perfect to watch. His form and tempo are great and very effective. Heavy weight but not weight for the sake of it. I would also recommend some hip adductors because they can make a massive difference to making legs look bigger/thicker.

Pick safe movements you can go crazy with that come with no negatives. Examples could be belt squats, leg press, hack squats and leg extensions. 3 of those 4 movements would suit most people. Full rom, constant tension and explosive but controlled concentric reps.

The more frequently you can train and recover the better when trying to build muscle. If you can't do twice weekly at least try every 5 days and make sure nutrition is spot on. I would recommend higher carb days on your leg training days as well. That can easily be attained by keeping meals the same and adding in an intra shake of EAA's and HBCD's etc.

 

[td]

I might be reading it too literally but do you mean you don’t hit depth/ass to grass? If so, how deep do you go?

You are reading that correctly. I want to stress the muscle, not the connective tissue.

I never squat "ass to grass." Tom platz could. How Tom Platz' femurs are set in his pelvis is different then mine though. How deep can you squat without the sacrum tucking under? That should influence your training range.

When I coach athletes that aren't powerlifters (from adolescents to NFL players), I box squat all of them above parallel and I teach them to hinge back, not squat down.

But for strictly hypertrophy?

I look for examples of populations that have built significant amount of muscle without trying. What are they doing? Can that be extrapolated.

Consider sprint cyclists. They have some of the largest quads you'll see outside of bodybuilding. The quad is never taken to complete flexion or extension in cycling. But it is high amounts of effort with constant tension and no rest for extended duration.

I rarely post training videos because people will tell me I'm wrong. But I'm not selling anything. I'm simply suggesting an alternative with my umdetly reasoning.

 

[AllOkJumpmaster]

You are reading that correctly. I want to stress the muscle, not the connective tissue.

I never squat "ass to grass." Tom platz could. How Tom Platz' femurs are set in his pelvis is different then mine though. How deep can you squat without the sacrum tucking under? That should influence your training range.

When I coach athletes that aren't powerlifters (from adolescents to NFL players), I box squat all of them above parallel and I teach them to hinge back, not squat down.

But for strictly hypertrophy?

I look for examples of populations that have built significant amount of muscle without trying. What are they doing? Can that be extrapolated.

Consider sprint cyclists. They have some of the largest quads you'll see outside of bodybuilding. The quad is never taken to complete flexion or extension in cycling. But it is high amounts of effort with constant tension and no rest for extended duration.

I rarely post training videos because people will tell me I'm wrong. But I'm not selling anything. I'm simply suggesting an alternative with my umdetly reasoning.

Dr. Scott @homonunculus talks about this in Fortitude, not necessarily shortened range of motion per se, but never actually stopping the continuous motion of the reps. I'm not going to be able to word as eloquently as he does but i.e. if you are doing hacks, and pause at the top for a few breaths you can eek out more reps, but all you are really accomplishing by doing that is creating a bunch of extra fatigue, and at the cost of little to no benefit. The split second you hit the bottom of the rep, you begin ascending, and the split second you hit the top of the range you begin your descent on the next rep. This may result in fewer total reps, but the constant tension is the goal, and also managing fatigue.

 

[Fleezy]

I don't do full range of motion. I find a big exercise that fits me and I maintain tension through the whole rep, eccentric and concentric. No bouncing out of the bottom. No pausing at the top. It. Fucking. Hurts.

like Jason Huh?

 

[Elvia1023]

Dr. Scott @homonunculus talks about this in Fortitude, not necessarily shortened range of motion per se, but never actually stopping the continuous motion of the reps. I'm not going to be able to word as eloquently as he does but i.e. if you are doing hacks, and pause at the top for a few breaths you can eek out more reps, but all you are really accomplishing by doing that is creating a bunch of extra fatigue, and at the cost of little to no benefit. The split second you hit the bottom of the rep, you begin ascending, and the split second you hit the top of the range you begin your descent on the next rep. This may result in fewer total reps, but the constant tension is the goal, and also managing fatigue.

He is talking about something different. What you write is likely the best way to train to attain the most muscle recruitment whilst minimizing fatigue. All those rest paused sets enable the trainer to keep going for longer as they are essentially resting mid set so whilst it enables more reps it massively builds up fatigue. Whilst I say that I am actually a fan of both approaches.

 

[bbxtreme]

You are reading that correctly. I want to stress the muscle, not the connective tissue.

I never squat "ass to grass." Tom platz could. How Tom Platz' femurs are set in his pelvis is different then mine though. How deep can you squat without the sacrum tucking under? That should influence your training range.

When I coach athletes that aren't powerlifters (from adolescents to NFL players), I box squat all of them above parallel and I teach them to hinge back, not squat down.

But for strictly hypertrophy?

I look for examples of populations that have built significant amount of muscle without trying. What are they doing? Can that be extrapolated.

Consider sprint cyclists. They have some of the largest quads you'll see outside of bodybuilding. The quad is never taken to complete flexion or extension in cycling. But it is high amounts of effort with constant tension and no rest for extended duration.

I rarely post training videos because people will tell me I'm wrong. But I'm not selling anything. I'm simply suggesting an alternative with my umdetly reasoning.

I’ve seen the videos. He does not mess around with legs. Extremely controlled form, slow with a LOT of weight.

I’ve implemented much of this into my training this past year on legs and it’s been very effective.