The Chicken-Leg Phenomenon

Squats are hard and popular belief is that they are bad for your knees/back so people use that as an excuse not to do them.

Also no one really wanting big legs when you start out (you don’t see them in the mirror) they are more concerned with arms and chest.
Most people don’t look at them and never compliment you on them. The only time people comment on legs is when you have all the muscles well developed… except legs (and waylander this look is really dumb, so dont defend it).

I’m a younger guy and I agree very few people who are young train legs. With the exception of those who either play hockey or football (atleast at my school).

Not to mention that most of the guys who do squat do a half squat at best with really light weight. I’ve even had a trainer tell me that going as low as I do (atg) is going to blow out my knees haha. Its actually very rare to see someone do more than 315lbs with good form. I just find it funny the amount of skinny guys who only seem to train arms and chest.

I never liked squats until this year, now its one of my favorites because it’s helped me gain so much size. If only calves grew as fast as quads.

If you don’t work legs and get chicken legs, it will only make your upper body look bigger!!!

Half the big guys in our college gym work out in sweatpants instead of shorts, prolly for this reason. I don’t seem to ever see them work legs either…

[quote]bluefingas wrote:
I’ve never heard a girl so “Oh scott, you have such sexy calves” fml.[/quote]

I have. Quite a few, in fact. As a Scotsman I wear a kilt quite often and I’ve had many compliments from women saying how good my calves look.

But then I’m blessed with half decent ones. I wish I could say the same about my quads which are puny in comparison, but I’m working on that.

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:

Secondly, a lot of this is just jealousy. You see someone who has a large upper body and it makes you feel shitty, so if they don’t have massive legs then you make fun of them. I know the drill…I used to do it too.[/quote]

This is absolutely true, and I did it for far too long. I’d see someone with a huge upper body and puny legs and think “I’m better than them” even though they were jacked up top. I’d see someone who could outbench me and think ‘I’m still bigger than him’. I’d see someone who was bigger than me and putting up huge weights think “yeah, but he lifts with crappy form”. Held me back for years. You can’t progress if you think you’re already the best around. I see a lot of that around here lately when someone posts a video or pictures.

When someone in the gym with tiny legs and a huge upper body? I ask him how he got so jacked. I might learn something, and it’s not like it will keep me from squatting.

I’m doing Smolov right now. Base mesocycle down, intense mesocycle to go.

Squatting is fun.

In the three months that I was given a membership to the local glo-bo gym in my area I have noticed the same thing.Squats and deads are rare.Is it possible maybe that I’m on a different split and they train legs on a different day? I have only seen one big dude squat and the guy’s that do are mostly skinny guy’s like me.I was expecting the opposite.

Twenty-five years of work boots and concrete floors have done a number on my knee’s,they sound like rice krispies when I go down the stairs but there I am every week in the rack.Not alot of weight but I still bust a nut.What’s their excuse?Now that I think of it I believe I’ve seen more women do leg work than men.That’s a good thing.

[quote]Growing_Boy wrote:
I guess not everyone has the same physique goals. I too feel your pain the in the thigh rubbing department, Mr. Popular. I’m bottom heavy but I’m 6’2 so I guess its a mixed blessing. I’m almost going to be donning MC Hammer pants in here soon, or maybe the American flag parachute pants Ronnie wore. Personally, its not jealousy waylander but amazement.

It took time for them to build their upper bodies but why not take the time and build the lower portion so you don’t end up looking dumb, goofy, odd, Palooka-like, etc. You look dumb! Its funky looking body. It isn’t bringing sexy back looking that way. No way! The sweatpants make it look worse IMO. No amount of lipstick will get this pig asked out to prom. [/quote]

couldn’t have said it better myself

Squats are an acquired taste. They suck if you suck at them. Once you get to a decent weight they are a lot more fun.

It’s like whiskey drinking, no one likes it at first but eventual you learn to enjoy the burn.

I’m currently squatting 3 times a week and am loving it. I like it that the cage is always empty at my gym. More squats for me.

[quote]Growing_Boy wrote:
As I wrap up shoulders, I realize I haven’t trained calves in several weeks if not a month. So I go ahead and get them ready for the high rep, heavy weight assault when I notice my other weight training brethren have congregated to my destination. They pile on the plates at the seated rise and move the pin to the bottom of the stack and throw a plate on it over at the standing rise. All in all they seem to be annihilating their calves.

One of the bigger ones goes ahead and exposes the target muscle only to reveal a calve around 12’ in size. I figure he must have poor genes and hey if Dexter can be Mr Olympia he’ll do just fine, but I realize that most of them if not all of them share in his atrophy. The entire group of lower body muscles has been neglected. They sport impressive and somewhat symmetrical upper bodies but they share the lower body of a wheel chair bound person.

I still don’t understand, I thought that by my new location this flaw would be limited to a few but it seems that the norm is to have a puny, no let me correct that, a girly man’s lower body. I have no clue on the reason of the neglect. Does squatting suck? Is the day after a Armageddon caliber leg day that unbearable? Are the chicks put off my a massive set of quads? Are thigh exercises considered only for women? The answer to this enigma escapes me. What do you guys think? [/quote]

Wait…so you are talking about guys who WERE training calves because they had small calves?

I train my calves almost daily and they still don’t look “big”. I hope no one is judging what I train based on a muscle group this reliant on genetics.

[quote]Growing_Boy wrote:

Does squatting suck? Is the day after a Armageddon caliber leg day that unbearable? [/quote]

Yes…would be the answer given by those with chicken legs.

[quote]waylanderxx wrote:
Growing_Boy wrote:
So true, blue. Whenever your asked the ambiguous request of showing our “muscles” it always is a bicep pose. It not like I’m going to pull down my sweatpants and do a thigh pose. Aw, the folly of society.

Oh the hipocracy! You just said “sweatpants make it look worse”. Yet you profess to wearing sweat pants!!!

lol jk[/quote]

I like the greater range of movement they offer. I don’t want to sound lame, but seriously in my closet I only wear 3 pairs of jeans because they are the only ones that work. The other ones look like hot pants or nut huggers. I wear sweatpants to give me some room not to hide the fact that I was wheelchair bound for the greater part of my life and have been recently rehabilitated.

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Growing_Boy wrote:
As I wrap up shoulders, I realize I haven’t trained calves in several weeks if not a month. So I go ahead and get them ready for the high rep, heavy weight assault when I notice my other weight training brethren have congregated to my destination. They pile on the plates at the seated rise and move the pin to the bottom of the stack and throw a plate on it over at the standing rise. All in all they seem to be annihilating their calves.

One of the bigger ones goes ahead and exposes the target muscle only to reveal a calve around 12’ in size. I figure he must have poor genes and hey if Dexter can be Mr Olympia he’ll do just fine, but I realize that most of them if not all of them share in his atrophy. The entire group of lower body muscles has been neglected. They sport impressive and somewhat symmetrical upper bodies but they share the lower body of a wheel chair bound person.

I still don’t understand, I thought that by my new location this flaw would be limited to a few but it seems that the norm is to have a puny, no let me correct that, a girly man’s lower body. I have no clue on the reason of the neglect. Does squatting suck? Is the day after a Armageddon caliber leg day that unbearable? Are the chicks put off my a massive set of quads? Are thigh exercises considered only for women? The answer to this enigma escapes me. What do you guys think?

Wait…so you are talking about guys who WERE training calves because they had small calves?

I train my calves almost daily and they still don’t look “big”. I hope no one is judging what I train based on a muscle group this reliant on genetics.[/quote]

No, Senor X not at all. I no longer partake in such juvenile activities ie judging other trainers, minimizing their efforts due to their quad size, etc. It was merely my unbiased observation of said trainers. I’m talking about the growing population of trainers that neglect their lower bodies for whatever reason suits them.

[quote]Growing_Boy wrote:
No, Senor X not at all. I no longer partake in such juvenile activities ie judging other trainers, minimizing their efforts due to their quad size, etc. It was merely my unbiased observation of said trainers. I’m talking about the growing population of trainers that neglect their lower bodies for whatever reason suits them. [/quote]

That may be the case, but people working on their calves shouldn’t be a part of this critique just because they have small calves. Many black guys have high calf insertions which makes it near impossible to get “HUGE” calves no matter how much they get trained.

I am making that point clear because while you may just be more discriminatory in how you judge others, some here may just be laughing and pointing fingers at guys who in reality work way harder than they could ever dream of in the gym and have achieved more.

I have big quads but you won’t see them unless I roll my shorts way up. I also train legs at one gym and not at the other so I wonder if some of those people are claiming I don’t train legs simply because they don’t see me do it.

I too am afflicted with the dreaded chicken leg syndrome. It doesn’t seem to matter what I do, my legs just don’t want to grow. while we’re on the subject of leg growth, can anyone explain why I can get three sets of 10 reps at 810 lbs on the leg press (full range of motion)but can barely squat 225 lbs?

[quote]Professor X wrote:
Growing_Boy wrote:

No, Senor X not at all. I no longer partake in such juvenile activities ie judging other trainers, minimizing their efforts due to their quad size, etc. It was merely my unbiased observation of said trainers. I’m talking about the growing population of trainers that neglect their lower bodies for whatever reason suits them.

That may be the case, but people working on their calves shouldn’t be a part of this critique just because they have small calves. Many black guys have high calf insertions which makes it near impossible to get “HUGE” calves no matter how much they get trained.

I am making that point clear because while you may just be more discriminatory in how you judge others, some here may just be laughing and pointing fingers at guys who in reality work way harder than they could ever dream of in the gym and have achieved more.

I have big quads but you won’t see them unless I roll my shorts way up. I also train legs at one gym and not at the other so I wonder if some of those people are claiming I don’t train legs simply because they don’t see me do it.[/quote]

I completely understand. To the experienced eye, one can tell when someone is hitting their calves hard because they need to bring them up. I know people personally that train them so. Twice a day, every day, with the same intensity that one has with the glamour muscles. Said people are different from regular trainers (like the ones I mentioned to start this topic) because they bodybuild. They are trying to build a body that is symmetrical not simply to score chicks. That is usually a side-effect of such pursuits.

Squats (or should I say the 2-3 days of recovery after squats or general leg work) HURT, even when done properly.

That’s why a lot of guys shy away from them to stick with the more mirror friendly self affirming easier to gauge development beach muscles such as the chest/back & arms.

Some guys don’t even care about full or lower body development, to each their own.

Then you have the group of hardcore lifters that are impeded by genetics but jump out of the gym, spike a volleyball on a 2nd floor ledge, squat and calf raise 600 lbs, BUT still have sticks for lower limbs despite their efforts.

I’m not even sure if women check out a guys’ legs. If that were so all guys would be squatting tons LOL

All I know is that any given day at the gyms I go to the squat rack is always free for me - unless some beast is doing curls in it :stuck_out_tongue:

810 * cos(45) = 573 lbs of force on you.

573 lbs - 200 lbs (whatever your bodyweight is) = 373 lbs (you no longer lift your BW)

lets say you move the bar 1 ft on squats and 3 inches of your squat travel is from back angle (just a hypothetical)

1 ft - .25 ft =.75 ft (distance from knee angle)

.75 ft * cos(45) = .525 ft ( of verticle distance weight moves on leg press)

work done:
squat:
225 Lbs(force) * 1 ft = 225 lbs*ft

810lbs leg press:
373 lbs * .525 ft = 195.825 lbs*ft

This makes several ballpark guesses as to distances and no you don’t lift your entire BW the entire distance on squats, but you can see why leg press and squats don’t really compare. This also doesn’t take into account the need to balance during the squat and feet positions possible on leg presses that are not on squats to reduce ROM.

[quote]Growing_Boy wrote:
As I wrap up shoulders, I realize I haven’t trained calves in several weeks if not a month. So I go ahead and get them ready for the high rep, heavy weight assault when I notice my other weight training brethren have congregated to my destination. They pile on the plates at the seated rise and move the pin to the bottom of the stack and throw a plate on it over at the standing rise. All in all they seem to be annihilating their calves.

One of the bigger ones goes ahead and exposes the target muscle only to reveal a calve around 12’ in size. I figure he must have poor genes and hey if Dexter can be Mr Olympia he’ll do just fine, but I realize that most of them if not all of them share in his atrophy. The entire group of lower body muscles has been neglected. They sport impressive and somewhat symmetrical upper bodies but they share the lower body of a wheel chair bound person.

I still don’t understand, I thought that by my new location this flaw would be limited to a few but it seems that the norm is to have a puny, no let me correct that, a girly man’s lower body. I have no clue on the reason of the neglect. Does squatting suck? Is the day after a Armageddon caliber leg day that unbearable? Are the chicks put off my a massive set of quads? Are thigh exercises considered only for women? The answer to this enigma escapes me. What do you guys think? [/quote]

The average human being is inherently lazy. They love lifting arms for the instant gratification of bigger/pumped looking arms in a muscle shirt. They hate lifting legs because they and others at the gym and in society can’t see their legs because they are wearing shorts. The avg. person will ask someone how much do you bench, not how much do you squat which would be a better question to access that person’s overall strength.

The average person will complain that squats hurts their back and therefore they dont do them and revert to other excercises… Namley hammer curls … This used to upset me but i’ve come to grips with it.

For me the truth is that life is easy and therefore boring. The globe is mapped, boundaries have been set and war’s have evolved into more of a technoglogical affair than anything. I live my daily life and it is easy yet many times it is so routine I truly don’t feel alive. The only times I do feel alive is when I’m having sex, fighting, or pushing myself to my outter limits on a SQUAT day.

Yet many can not relate because I am not average or Human. :]

That was one of the finest pieces I’ve read thus far Drew. I applaud at such a blatant demonstration of eloquence.