does anyone ever use the leg press machine on this forum our gym recentlygot one and i havent used it yet.
anyone used it and increased or what?
i was thinking of not bolering becuase its a fixed movement.
I am a recreational and future competitive powerlifter. I feel the leg press can be used as an accessory, bodybuilding exercise if placed in a routine properly. I use it occasionally, when I am not doing lunge or stepup variations on my max effort deadlift/squat day for 3 to 5 sets of 8 to 12 reps, working up to 2 heavy last sets. Contrary to the posterior chain craze, your quads DO have a place in powerlifting!
I have also started incorporating the leg press into my routine once a week to focus on teh quads. It isn’t ideal for strength development, but it is great for hypertrophy IMO.
I haven’t leg pressed in 6 months, but do enjoy the movement. I think it is a good exercise to incorporate every once in awhile. However, I don’t think it should be the bread and butter of any leg program.
[quote]BradleyGrunner wrote:
I am a recreational and future competitive powerlifter. I feel the leg press can be used as an accessory, bodybuilding exercise if placed in a routine properly. I use it occasionally, when I am not doing lunge or stepup variations on my max effort deadlift/squat day for 3 to 5 sets of 8 to 12 reps, working up to 2 heavy last sets. Contrary to the posterior chain craze, your quads DO have a place in powerlifting![/quote]
Who the hell ever thought quads DIDN’T have a place in powerlifting?
I use it every other leg day.
One thing that most people don’t do when using the leg press it go down far enough. That’s the key. Go down far enough before putting massive weight on.
I swore off leg presses for a long time in favor of more squats, GM, DL and all variants thereof. However, I have come back around to the leg press and will use it sometimes as a second lift after squatting or pulling.
Things I like: the fact that I can load a fuckwad of weight on it and train my legs hard without really giving much thought about technique or spotters; if my back is feeling beat up from squatting, etc., leg presses let rest my back but still work legs; and leg press rigs are pretty easy to find- just look in any commercial or university gym- try finding a Hatfield bar or a reverse hyper bench at your local LA Fitness.
Things I don’t like: the footplates are usually narrower than I would like; instead of beating up on my lower back, I beat my knees to hell; and also, it is not a replacement for barbell work.
Regarding going down far enough:
I hate the damn leg press because it seriously hurts my ribcage when I use a correct range of motion. Why is that? Anyways, I just use the damn leg press for single leg presses, I don’t know why, but that’s what I use them for…occasionally.
In case it hasn’t been mentioned before, Poliquin has specifically stated (and I’m sure that many other coaches have too, but I can’t remember who) something to the effect of: “Although I hate telling anyone to go leg press instead of squat, for pure quad hypertrophy, the leg press can be a better choice than squats.”
I never use it, so I wouldn’t know how to put it in a program. But it’s one of the few machines that can be useful.
[quote]lostinthought wrote:
Who the hell ever thought quads DIDN’T have a place in powerlifting?
[/quote]
You’re right, probably no one. But he referred to the posterior chain CRAZE, in other words the pendulum swinging TOO far in favour of posterior chain work that quads are being neglected. I agree with this observation.
Quads need work, and I use the leg press for it too. No reason to leave it out completely.
It depends on what your goals are.
Are you more concerned with hypertrophy, or strength? Are you, or do you wish to be, a competituve powerlifter, or do you consider yourself a bodybuilder?
The leg press is great for hypertrophy and strength increases while not necesarily correlating in squat increases.
The leg press can definately promote massive growth in the quads and hams depending on the foot placement, they are also good for those with back injuries in order to heavly train the quads with out taxing the spine to much.
As for knees hitting the rib cage etc. not all leg presses have fixed seat backs and the angle of the seat can be changed.
As for not increasing strength that depends on what is being refferanced here will a big leg press translate into a big squat probaly not at least not directly but seeing people including myself who have leg pressed over a thousand pounds yeah strength does and will and can increase.
I have to second the person who commented on most peoples range of motion I have witnessed this ad nauseam you think watching the after school bench press crew doing there quarter squats are bad how about close to a quarter leg presses with enough weight plates to cause Ronnie to cringe.
Even people who don’t pile on the weight still seem to be afraid of the necesarry depth of the movement.
Leg press grinds my knees up sometimes. I’d rather squat.
Shadow
At the beginning of the summer I squatted like 180. Then I didn’t have access to a squat rack for a while so I just did leg press. At the end of the summer… I still squatted about 180. Food for thought.
I included Leg Presses after squats in my workout some weeks ago, and my squat increased a lot.
I don’t know if it was the leg press or other changes in my routine, but I don’t think it’ll hurt to use a Legpress from time to time.
The cool ting was also that I was able to increase the load by 10kg each week.
I use the leg press as part of my warm-up. 50 reps at a light weight gets me ready to go.
Use it, it can’t hurt. I’m a big fan of the leg press machine, as long as its a good one with a nice smooth natural feeling motion. The one I use is supposed to simulate a squat (although the best simulation for a squat is well … a squat).
I like being able to go really deep (knees to chest) with a few sets at 600+ and work some half reps in that range. It’s nice because you can focus on strength in the really deep areas and not have to worry much about your form.
So give it a shot and let us all know how its working out for you!
[quote]BradleyGrunner wrote:
I am a recreational and future competitive powerlifter. I feel the leg press can be used as an accessory, bodybuilding exercise if placed in a routine properly. I use it occasionally, when I am not doing lunge or stepup variations on my max effort deadlift/squat day for 3 to 5 sets of 8 to 12 reps, working up to 2 heavy last sets. Contrary to the posterior chain craze, your quads DO have a place in powerlifting![/quote]
Right on the money!!! I do the same thing!!! Everything serves a purpose… Even the Smith Machines once in a while…
Why?
[quote]ScottL wrote:
Vertical leg presses are nicer then the usual:
http://www.megafitness.com/bsi0010.html
[/quote]
well i guess vertical ones actually have the correct weight ratio ( 1:1)
rather than the leg press.
1000 pounds on the leg press is alot less than 1000 pounds in real life depending on the angle.
weight* sin(angle of elevation) = actual force on your legs.