Want to practice legs? Does it feel right?

 We can tell you a lot of training actions and plans, but this is not the point. The key is to find the sensation of stimulating the muscles in training. The growth of leg muscles is directly proportional to the effort you put in. In order to train the legs, hamstrings, and buttocks muscles of the starting point, you have to put in a lot of effort.

Of course, you also need to follow some reasonable training plans. You can continue to practice leg flexion and extension to burn your quadriceps. This will definitely make your quadriceps very sore, but it will not necessarily bring muscle gain. It is true that burning is part of the training, but not all.

The next training is around the basics, involving the squeeze time and training range. The training is very efficient, but not suitable for beginners. There are some movements that require more technical skills, so you need time to learn them and increase the difficulty.

If you are ready, then we will start!

Start training with free power squats

Squats are great for starting your training. The squat is the most difficult leg exercise. In squats, you will use the maximum weight and will stimulate all the muscles of the lower limbs, and the effect of squatting to promote hormone secretion has been proved to be the most obvious.

The squat is actually a comprehensive exercise that combines the flexion and extension of the hip and knee joints. There are many styles, and each squat has its value. These differences mainly lie in the position of the barbell, the equipment used, and the distance between the feet.

Start your leg training with a one-leg squat or front squat. But for most plans, we prefer a high back squat, where the barbell is in the position of the upper trapezius muscle. This squat can evenly stimulate the leg muscles and can use more weight.

We usually recommend that fitness enthusiasts at least squat to a position where the thighs are parallel to the ground, but this is usually related to everyone's own and flexibility. No matter where you squat, keep your spine upright.

To maintain flexibility, the tightness of the hip flexors and calf muscles will also affect the depth of the squat.

Practice multiple warm-ups and increase the weight as the training progresses, but don't practice to exhaustion. In most actions, the range of each group is 8-12 reps.

But in the first few sets of each action, your strength is the fullest, so heavier weight is reasonable. Therefore, instead of choosing the weight of 8RM, it is better to choose the weight of 6RM. This will stimulate the muscles more obviously.

Practice other types of squats, adjust the intensity and angle

This is not the time to practice fixed equipment. In this training, you will only be exposed to fixed equipment at the end. We will still pay attention to the flexion and extension of the hip and knee, so choose the type of squat that can best overcome your weakness. Most quadriceps development is lacking, so the front squat is an ideal choice.

Simply adjusting the barbell from the back to the front can change the stimulation of the lower limb muscles. The front squat mainly stimulates the quadriceps, which means that your weight will be relatively small. Likewise, keep your torso upright so that it puts less pressure on your back and can squat lower.

Because you have already practiced each group of 6 reps, it would be more appropriate to practice each group of 10-12 reps with a smaller weight at this time. There will be many different muscles being stimulated, but you have to find the target muscle.

 

The weight of the rear chain action should be increased

The Romanian deadlift is very suitable for rail squats. It is an upper hamstring and gluteus maximus exercise, but it is different from other single-pass joint exercises because you can overload it. In addition, most hamstring exercises are leg bends, while the Romanian deadlift is done by bending at the hips.

But like most heavy weight training, you can't make mistakes, which will increase the risk of back injuries. During the deadlift, don't hunch your back or shake the barbell. Fully stretch, keep your back upright and then descend as far as possible, then return to the original position.

It is necessary to learn the correct movements. So in the first semester, you can use a smaller weight to practice, once you master the technique, you can start to increase the weight. But remember, always keep your back straight.

 

Add some one-leg movements

Two-leg exercises are enough, so it’s time to practice some single-leg exercises. The Bulgarian lunge squat is an ideal choice. You can stabilize your body by placing your legs on a flat bench behind you. This action will bring a very strong stimulation to your legs, especially the quadriceps.

Don't think that the Bulgarian lunge squat is your weakness just because the weight of the Bulgarian lunge squat is not as big as the back squat. In fact, you can practice this movement first. According to the data of the muscle point test, the effect of practicing four sets of Bulgarian lunge squats with 10rm is basically the same as the effect of back squats. Similarly, these two actions have similar effects on stimulating the secretion of testosterone.

If you pursue pumping, then increase the amount of training

Fixing equipment alone is not the most popular exercise for leg muscles. However, fixed equipment training increases the amount of training, and the requirements for balance and movement are not strict.

Moreover, you can also change the emphasis on muscles by adjusting the posture of your feet. The higher position mainly stimulates the hip muscles and hamstrings, while the lower position mainly stimulates the quadriceps muscles. Moreover, the lower the drop, the greater the stimulation of the hamstring and hip muscles.

If your goal is to get a strong sense of pumping, then practice decreasing groups. Pump sensation promotes muscle growth by driving blood to flow into muscle tissue.

End the training with a single-joint hamstring exercise

The hamstrings and quadriceps are antagonistic muscles, so make sure to give them enough training.

The leg curl mainly emphasizes the part of the hamstring above the knee of the thigh, so it can make up for the Romanian deadlift, and end the leg training with 3 sets of leg curls.

Leg training

The following training does not list the warm-up set, warm-up fully but not to exhaustion.

Choose the right weight. Rest as needed, but you need to slowly reduce the intermission time.

In the fifth and sixth moves, practice a set of double drop sets in the last set. In other words, once you reach muscle exhaustion, reduce the load by 25% and continue training.

In the first week of the trial training, the two groups of the first two exercises were used to control muscle soreness, and then all training was stopped. As you progress, certain adjustments to your training are necessary.

Barbell back squat 3x6

Front barbell squat 3x10-12

Romanian deadlift 4x8 2x12

Bulgarian lunge squat 3x8-10

Leg lift 3x10-12 (the last set of decreasing group)

Supine leg curl 3x8-10 (the last set of decreasing group)