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Preists's Leg Training
by preist943, Senior Mod @ www.IronLife.com & Team IronLife.com Staff Writer
Let's first dispense of the myth of shaping exercises. A muscle will contract or it won't, plain and simple. When a muscle contracts, damage is caused to the muscle fiber, be it from squats or leg extensions. Those fibers only have one choice: to repair the damage! Absolutely any exercise that causes damage will be repaired. Most people forsake leg extensions in favor of leg presses and squats. Yes, squats and leg presses are better overall mass builders, no question; but nothing hits the teardrop of the quads like leg extensions. If you want to pack some mass right on top of your knees, heavy extensions are what you need. Since we are working quads here, it is important to isolate them first, so they will remain the number one target in the rest of the training session. Do at least 2 light warm-ups and then jump right to maximum weight for 10 reps. The amount of sets is up to you and your personal training ability.
Our second leg exercise would be squats. Let's first go over bar placement and breathing. Bar placement is very important when performing the squat. If the bar is too high then you will have a tendency to lean forward. Placing the bar too low is dangerous also. The ideal placement of the bar would be between the lower traps and upper rear delts. This will let you use maximum weights with the most comfort. When you grip the bar during a squat, if your shoulders hurt, then it's too narrow. If your grip is too wide, the bar could roll of your shoulders. I find that about 2-3 inches wider than shoulder width is best.
As for your stance if you have broad hips a wide foot placement is better, as your balance is better that way. If by chance, you have narrow hips and decent sized quads, just less than shoulder width might be better. When it comes to breathing, if you are using maximum weights, its better to hold your breath during the lift and exhale when the rep is finished and take another breath before lowering. Proper form and breathing is key to handling big weights.
When it comes to squatting I happen to like the Smith machine more than any other variation. The reason is that you can lean back into the bar and have your foot placement out in front giving you greater quad isolation. Because of this you can't handle tremendously heavy weights but the target muscle is worked to the limit. Reps should be 8-12.
Next on the list would be hack squats. This exercise is the best I have found for adding sweep to the quads. Full range of motion should be used; that means rock bottom. I like to keep the reps around 10-15. With this exercise you can really feel the quads working and you don't have to pay attention to balancing the weight (like squats). Rock bottom hacks are, in my opinion, the hardest exercise you can do for the quads. You won't see many people doing super heavy hacks, but if you do, chances are they have some monster quads!
This program is simple. Isolate the quads first, and then kill them with compound movements. Nothing fancy, just what works.
* Article by preist943, Senior Mod @ www.IronLife.com & Team IronLife.com Staff Writer.
* Back to This Issue's Frontpage
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