Leg Machines

Hi all,

Thought I’d bounce this question off you guys:

Someone at the gym asked me about leg training the other day as I was leaving, and I basically just said what my routine was and outlined the movements and machines I use. Regarding machines, I said I use the leg press, hack squat, prone and seated ham curls, and leg extension.

He then asked about the other machines: the glute raise and the ‘good girl/bad girl’ machines. I never use them, but I hadn’t really given it any thought before either–I guess I just don’t use them because I’ve never seen a bigger guy using them and have never read anything about them on these boards.

So, do any of you use these machines? If so, what sort of protocol do you use?

I used the glute raise a lot before I found out about the hip thrust exercise to bring up my glute strength . It was very good for isolating the glutes, but if you squat any kind of weight, you will max out the weight stack pretty quickly once you get used to the movement pattern.

I prefer to train my hip abductors and adductors with compound movements. I think you get more bang for your buck this way. I can see the hip abduction machine being put to good use to train hip mobility though.

I definitely think that the Good Girl / Bad Girls machine(s) have some good merit when it comes to strengthening muscles used for squatting. Butt blasters and some things like that can be fun.

Personally, though, I love the extensions/ lying + seated curl machines. Such effective tools if used correctly with other big compound movements. I can’t even imagine training without them anymore.