How to build leg muscle. Questions of theory and practice.

Well, build leg muscle. Yes, if you are a medium-statistical amateur, you can say with confidence that your feet are very far from ideal. You are asking where to start? Yes, even with these seven rules! Before you are the theoretical foundations of an effective “foot” program.

how to build leg muscle

1. Understand the difference between exercises

First, understand the features of the “leg” anatomy. Your lower limbs have three joints – the knee. ankle and hip. Each joint serves its muscles, so if you expect to load your legs, which is called from bottom to top, you need to choose an exercise that “includes” all three joints. The choice here is small. Speech about squats and their options – bench press and gak-prisds.

In the extension of the legs, one joint works – the knee joint. In the folds – too, one knee. Ascent to socks is the work of the ankle. One can think that single-joint exercises are “build leg muscle“. Suppose, in squats, the weight of the bar is sprayed throughout the array of legs, but in the extensions the entire load is accurately accommodated in the quadriceps. However, it is not.

For reasons of anatomical order, you are able to sit down with a huge weight, and in the specific calculus for quadriceps the burden is certainly greater than the one you can give them in the extensions. Why then need extension?

Firstly, due to the extensions, you can selectively add a load to the quadriceps if they are behind you. Secondly, the extensions form a rounded-convex shape of the quadriceps, which is not done by squats. From squats, in many, the knee-length part of the quadriceps increases. In other words, we are talking about a targeted “cosmetic” effect on the muscle. Well, multi-joint movements work “on weight”.

building leg muscles

2. Work out

We used to think that a warm-up is an insurance against injuries. Articular tissues like clay. As the temperature rises, they become softer, more elastic. So at the expense of warm-up, indeed, you can lower the risk of stretching, micro-breaks, etc. On the other hand, the amplitude of “leg” exercises is not so great – what to be afraid of? But with a warm-up you can lose the forces that are so necessary when pumping your feet with huge weights. So even the guys with experience try to “save” on the warm-up. Make a couple sets of bench presses with low weight, and that’s enough. But here’s a new discovery of sports medicine. It turns out that the giving of exercises depends on the strength of the nerve impulse that the muscle receives.

How to build leg muscle

Do not confuse power with force. The strength is when you try to pick up a bag of potatoes alone, and the power is when ten people grab for the same bag.

So, the power of the pulse grows gradually, according to its laws. In the muscle there are “generators”, which first accumulate nervous energy, and then send it further along the nerve axon – into the depth of the muscle tissue.

Again, to the strength of the muscle all this has little to do with it. Immediately after a couple of warm-up sets, you can easily go for a record weight in the squat and defeat it. However, in the sense of the subsequent muscle growth, the impact of such squats will be minimal. In other words, the muscle should be treated as a car stagnant in a garage. First you need to “drive” her at idle. This activates the neural muscle networks, and the effectiveness of exercise will increase many times.

So, how do you warm up? Start with a 10-minute aerobic workout on a stationary bike or stepper. The load should be such that you slightly sweat. Next, do a couple of light exercises for stretching quadriceps, buttocks, biceps hips and calves, always staying in the stretched position (without spring-loaded) 20-30 seconds.

Many try to stretch their leg extensions, but this exercise acts mainly on quadriceps. Preferably press foot, as it is accompanied by movement in the hip joint. Due to this, the muscles of the pelvis, waist, buttocks and hamstrings are stretched out. Do three warm-up sets with a light weight and a large number of repetitions (15-20) – in no case to muscle “failure”! – and consider that you are ready for serious work.

 does running build leg muscle

TIP: For pumping feet as a warm-up exercise, use the pressure to kick.

3. Begin training with “mass-transport” movement

Now comes the turn of the big weights – for this you, in fact, were warming up. Therefore, the first exercise should be very serious (extension of legs to those obviously does not apply).

So, which exercise to choose? We need to start with squats, gak squats or bench presses, although squats with a barbell are a little more preferable. Here it is necessary to maintain balance, and this is an additional load on the musculature. Together, many useful muscles are strengthened, including in the lumbar region. It is believed that squats are dangerous for the waist, but this opinion of the pros Milos Sartsev considers amateurish: “Do not listen to those who call squats a” dangerous “exercise. Dangerous not sit-ups, but excessive weight. All that is required of you is to start with an “empty” neck to learn the right technique. Well, then start to increase weights, not allowing technical errors. Squats injure those who have not yet had time to understand the technique, and already trying to overpower a huge weight. ”

“Star” of fitness Monica Brunt usually squats in the simulator, Smith: “I recommend this simulator to all women. There is almost no difference with squats, but it’s convenient and safe. Squats require an insurance partner, and he does not always happen at his side. Simulator Smith allows you to train alone without losing the “quality”.

Squats may not fit you anatomically – due to high growth or a clenched hip joint. In this case, choose bench press and gak squats. In any case, you should begin to swing your legs with an exercise that makes two joints work – knee and hip.

Gakk-squat is a difficult basic exercise

4. Choose the second complex exercise

Legs are a huge muscle mass, and one multi-joint exercise is not enough for them. If, say, you started with sit-ups, do a “stint” with your feet or gank squats: if the first one went to press with his feet, the second number can go to gak squats. The main thing is that you do not violate the optimal sequence of exercises: first a movement with free weight, and then in the simulator.

Exercises with free weights that require muscle coordination can not be done in a state of physical and psychological fatigue. First, the risk of injury increases, and secondly, you can not do it 100%, because the task of maintaining equilibrium will become much more difficult. In the end, you will only think about not to fall in with the bar.

The falls are the best exercise for the gluteal muscles . Do not make attacks with the barbell. Dumbbells are better.

5. Make attacks

The falls are the best multi-joint exercise for the buttocks. In fact, the same muscle groups work as in squats, but the lion’s part of the load is on the buttock muscles. At your disposal a wide range of options.

The most basic thing (the poet would say “software”) is considered to be a “stationary” attack. You arrange your legs in the manner of open scissors (one foot in front, the other at the back). Well, then you squat on the “front” leg a predetermined number of times. Completing the set with one foot, change the position of your feet and squat on the other leg.

Falls are not recommended to do with the bar – too dangerous. It is better to take in hands on a healthy dumbbell, and even to attach each to the brush with a gym strap.

Second in value are lifts to the support. You put a foot on the surface of the bench and with the strength of one foot climb the bench. There are also lunges in walking, side attacks, back attacks. In any case, start with a minimum weight, so that the muscles “remember” the movement. And in general, do not really lean on the weight. Make an amendment to the fact that this is your third exercise.

Isolating exercises should be put at the very end of the complex.

6. Add exercises to “isolation”

After “heavy” multi-joint exercises, it’s time to move on to “single-joint” movements. Now you can “isolate” the quadriceps with the help of leg extensions. It seems to many that the phase of recovery is the most important. In fact, this is not so.

Unbend your legs with a powerful dynamic movement, but lower the weight emphatically slowly. In this case, the muscle stretching “works” the phase of muscle stretching (rather than contraction, as in other exercises). For the legs, there are two more good “exercise” exercises: on the adductor muscles located on the inner surface of the thighs, and on the outgoing muscles occupying their (hips) outer surface.

In the first case, you lower your knees sitting, and in the second – plant. In these isolated movements, it makes sense to do more repetitions – then you will “get” the deepest layers of muscle tissue. You can even apply something from “shock therapy”, for example, forced repeats or drop-sets – this will only strengthen the effect. Just remember. that both exercises can not be done on one workout – either lower your knees or divorce. If you do the exercises at once, they lose their effectiveness.

7. How many repetitions?

Optimal is the weight that causes a muscle “failure” somewhere in the 8-9 repetition. If you can easily “rattle off” 10 repetitions, or even more, then the weight for you is too small. If you can hardly hold out until the 6th repeat, then with weight you obviously overdid it.

On the other hand, do not do all the exercises according to the same standard scheme – three sets of 8-10 repetitions: this is the right way to the notorious “plateau”. If the first set is done in 10 repetitions, then in the second it is necessary to raise the weight and reduce the number of repetitions to 8. In the third set it is necessary to lose weight and make at least 15 repetitions. And do not be afraid to try new things.

Many professional bodybuilders shake their legs with a huge number of repetitions. So you try to experiment with schemes of 12, 15 and 25 repetitions.

Legs usually train three times in two weeks. However, once a year you should conduct a program of “foot” specialization. For 6-8 weeks, swing your legs twice a week. The third day, dedicate the rest of the muscles. For each make 2-3 sets of 8-10 repetitions – no more! Spread out on this training is not necessary, it has a supporting character. Put all your strength in pumping your feet!

Tags: , , ,