Hey guys, i have sinned for far too long, i was that guy who skipped leg everytime beacuse of some dumb excuses. Recently i have begun training my legs, beacuse i dont want to be that guy with chicken legs eany longer. Could you guys suggest some good exercises for legs, apart from deads and squats, im allready doing those. I have encluded some pics, so you can see how far along i am.
Typically, it’s not lack of exercise variety but intensity and consistency that keeps people from building legs.
But unilateral works tends to get neglected. Lunges are good.
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High Bar Back Squats, Front Squats, Deadlifts, RDL/SLDL, Lunges, GHR or Leg Curls.
That’s all I do for my legs and they’ve come out great.
Split squats and goblet squats.
Although my legs probably don’t look HALF as good as anyone’s here, I enjoy heavy leg extensions.
I was in the same boat for a while, but decided to fix it. Best thing was gratuitous amounts of squats for me. Specifically paused squats. (Which have an added benefit of teaching you good squat form in my experience as well) however, for pure size, I definitely second unilateral work. Lunges, split squats, etc. You can feel the muscle wanting to rip from the skin when you’re finished with a high rep set. While my legs arent anything to gawk at (thanks tall genes, I’ll beat you one day soon) I haven’t gotten a joke about my legs in year, and even received a few compliments.
Good luck my chicken leg brother. It can be done.
those kill my knees. can’t do them. even light ones. the knee shear forces are detrimental to the ACL in particular. I think a lot of people can get away with light extensions, but I would never advise doing them heavy for this reason.
Anyway, to the initial question: deadlifts won’t really put size on your legs at all. They’re a great lift, but not for that reason. Squats are king, and any variation of the squat is good.
I’ll also second unilateral work. Lunges and bulgarian split squats are excellent accessory movements.
Not a fan of leg press or leg extension. I think leg curls are fine, I do them occasionally.
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I love these, but my knees don’t. I heard many times they are bad for your knees and i agree. I still do them randomly, but not something I would suggest.
Guys, guys! Obviously, the trainee in question is simply missing the holy grail of leg training: the jumping pistol squat.
I mean really, do any of you even lift?
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What’s weird is it kill my knees to do curls but I never feel them on extensions
Single leg work: front foot elevated split squat or rear leg elevated split squat or lunges
Leg extensions or a leg curl version
Machine hack squats or heels elevated squat
Leg press
Banded romanian deadlift and top 4 inches glute hip thrusts (anything lower is a quad exercise)
1 leg calf raises or donkey calf raises
Follow Paul Carter and Coach Kassem Hanson of N1 education.
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How much do you squat?
Do a squat progression like Madcow 5x5 or 5/31 etc then follow with a bunch of these moves to get em burnin’…
Ive never had a problem with chicken legs, and leg day is my favorite, but to put in my 2 cents, i have tried a variety of exercises, and what i found to be the best in general and regularly is squatting, walking lunges, split squats, and rdl. I can do all these at my home gym. When i trained at a commercial gym, i found that leg press and leg ext gave me great pumps but not much else. However i do like hamstring curl, and i want to rig up a way of doing them at home. When i trained at a little hardcore gym, i found that the super squat machine worked really well for me too. But ultimately, you cant go wrong with a handful of basic exercises like squats and walking lunges and do them very regularly for a long time.
Pretty much everything everyone has said will work to put mass on your legs, but the real cheat code is eating, sleeping and training them consistently for a decade. As long as you’re consistent, you’ll grow.
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Train legs at least twice a week. One day quad focus other day glute/ham focus. Calves both days, I always start with calves. I also hit some quad on hamstring day and some hamstring in quad day. Do squats, walking lunges, leg extensions, stiff leg deadlifts, leg curls.