Legs growing out of proportion!

**charlieuk** · 11-04-2004, 05:35 PM

I have a problem with my leg training that I hope you can help me with.

A few stats first:-

34 yrs old
6 foot
205 llbs
18% bf

Training on and off 10 years, but really serious last 2 years
Train 4 days/week

1 cycle test/eq

Want to do another cycle, but not until I sort out my legs.

Ok the problem is I have what seems to be known as turnip legs!

My legs have always been long and thin, and my hips and arse have always been narrow....no problem so far, except the skinny legs.

So I train my legs hard, mainly leg press, leg extensions, ham curls but also some squats, hack squats and dead lifts.

What I have ended up with is wide hips, a big muscular arse and the top of my thighs quite big 25" but the bottoms still really skinny!

I have actually stopped training my legs for 2 months in the hope that I might lose some of the muscle on my thighs and arse.

How do I build muscle on just the bottom of my legs?

I figure I must either have terrible genetics or I am doing something wrong.

What exercises should I be doing and is there a range of motion (just top/just bottom?) that I should do.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

**znak** · 11-05-2004, 07:08 AM

Originally Posted by charlieuk

I have a problem with my leg training that I hope you can help me with.

A few stats first:-

34 yrs old
6 foot
205 llbs
18% bf

Training on and off 10 years, but really serious last 2 years
Train 4 days/week

1 cycle test/eq

Want to do another cycle, but not until I sort out my legs.

Ok the problem is I have what seems to be known as turnip legs!

My legs have always been long and thin, and my hips and arse have always been narrow....no problem so far, except the skinny legs.

So I train my legs hard, mainly leg press, leg extensions, ham curls but also some squats, hack squats and dead lifts.

What I have ended up with is wide hips, a big muscular arse and the top of my thighs quite big 25" but the bottoms still really skinny!

I have actually stopped training my legs for 2 months in the hope that I might lose some of the muscle on my thighs and arse.

How do I build muscle on just the bottom of my legs?

I figure I must either have terrible genetics or I am doing something wrong.

What exercises should I be doing and is there a range of motion (just top/just bottom?) that I should do.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Sounds like you are putting too much weight on the machines and doing partials.

Go back to the basics do squats past parallel. I put a lifting box under my butt and squat down to it to make sure I am going deep enough.

Do hacks butt to the floor.

Leg curl with FULL range of motion will help.

Full range of motion, full range of motion.

**charlieuk** · 11-05-2004, 10:21 AM

Thanks Znak,

I will start light and make sure my form is correct and that I have a full range of motion.

Its actually got me worried about working my legs again!

Cheers

**decadbal** · 11-05-2004, 12:59 PM

deads dont really hit legs enough to consider them part of a leg workout, squats deep, and heavy legpress, youve trained enough to maybe add hacks to. then leg curls, good range of motion and sqeeze at the top. then your ham exercises..

**arthurb999** · 11-05-2004, 01:28 PM

What about calves??

**63190** · 11-05-2004, 02:02 PM

Calves EOD! I like to go heavy and hit seated calves, Standing claves and then leg press calves, then the next time light and hit seated calves, single leg standing calves with a dumb bell in hand, then donkey calves. For shins I put a barbell on top of my toes as I hang them off a stepper. Put the barbell on vertical. That way, you can get forced reps out by pulling up on it with your hand.

**FLHRCI** · 11-07-2004, 10:19 PM

CALVES - try training upper calves doing them very heavy while you are on the leg press. train them 2x/week. Seated calf works the soleus and helps build the lower calf. go heavy and keep doing them till to failure. When doing calves also do some sets where you spring quickly (almost like jumping) with the heaviest weight you cna take... spring up and bounce at the top. Another trick is to do partial reps... so do a set from the bottom up half way then a set from the middle up to the top. When your calves get tired a lot of times the middle of the rep is really tough.

LOWER QUADS - try quad extensions.... do your max heavy for 10 x 2 sets. then do same heavy weight but hold at top for 3 seconds and lower slowly. this should trash you. then pull some weight off and do burn-outs with full extensions but be careful to lock out slowly and dont snap the lockout of the knee.. This gets your quads stressed by going heavy and then the burn-outs (30-40 reps x 2-4 sets ) will help pump the lower quad and give it definition.

LEG PRESSES - try then one leg at a time instead of two legs. start with the weaker leg (usually left). If you havent done these you will really feel it 1-2 days later.

DEEP SQUATS and LEG PRESSES - comments above about going deep on your squats and your leg presses - you can really tear your knees up doing this if you arent careful.. make sure to go light for a couple of weeks and do higher reps nice and slow at the bottom. If you get inflammation in your knees you have a problem that will haunt your workouts for months. Also, going deep on the squats and leg presses will work the glutes more and you said you had a butt problem.

Priority principle - try doing your quad extensions first instead of later in your workout after your squats and leg presses.

**SwoleCat** · 11-08-2004, 07:36 AM

Originally Posted by FLHRCI

LOWER QUADS - try quad extensions.... do your max heavy for 10 x 2 sets. then do same heavy weight but hold at top for 3 seconds and lower slowly. this should trash you.

Trash you is not the correct term. This is an OPEN chain movement, HEAVY should NEVER apply here, unless you want to snap your knee joint in half!

Hold heavy weight for 3 seconds in this position, with all of the pressure going through the knee joint? Dumb...............very dumb.............

Wait until you develop tendonitis or tear your knee tendons doing this. Rep ranges for these "SHAPING" movements (NOT MASS BUILDING MOVEMENTS) should be in the upper rep range, usually 12-15 reps, or 15-20.

Heavy weight on this movement does nothing to build size, but does aggravate the sh*t out of the knee joint, and sooner or later, it catches up to you.

Closed chain movements you can go heavy on, open chain - NO!

~SC~

**FLHRCI** · 11-08-2004, 10:24 PM

Originally Posted by SwoleCat

Trash you is not the correct term. This is an OPEN chain movement, HEAVY should NEVER apply here, unless you want to snap your knee joint in half!

Hold heavy weight for 3 seconds in this position, with all of the pressure going through the knee joint? Dumb...............very dumb.............

Wait until you develop tendonitis or tear your knee tendons doing this. Rep ranges for these "SHAPING" movements (NOT MASS BUILDING MOVEMENTS) should be in the upper rep range, usually 12-15 reps, or 15-20.

Heavy weight on this movement does nothing to build size, but does aggravate the sh*t out of the knee joint, and sooner or later, it catches up to you.

Closed chain movements you can go heavy on, open chain - NO!

~SC~

swolecat... question for you...

By holding for 3 secs - meaning to fully contract the quads in a full extension and then lower slowly... go ahead and school me dude cuz I know you are a pro and Im definitely not.

going heavy - I do these at 300# cuz that is all the machine takes. If I do them after squats and leg presses I can do several sets of 10-15 no problem. If I do them b4/instead of squats and/or leg presses I can easily do the higher rep sets of 15-20 sometimes more.

Knee pain - I have had some discomfort in my left knee lately but is in the bent position not the extended position and I figured it was from heavy leg presses (650-800 range single leg or 1300-1500 range two legs). I was under the impression that if you didnt snap the leg into the lock position when doing quad extensions then you would be OK.

Regarding quad extensions - they do their best work at the extension part of the rep, right? Not the bottom/resting part of the rep, right?

thx for you opinion bro.

**Jock191** · 11-09-2004, 01:32 AM

Originally Posted by FLHRCI

swolecat... question for you...

By holding for 3 secs - meaning to fully contract the quads in a full extension and then lower slowly... go ahead and school me dude cuz I know you are a pro and Im definitely not.

going heavy - I do these at 300# cuz that is all the machine takes. If I do them after squats and leg presses I can do several sets of 10-15 no problem. If I do them b4/instead of squats and/or leg presses I can easily do the higher rep sets of 15-20 sometimes more.

Knee pain - I have had some discomfort in my left knee lately but is in the bent position not the extended position and I figured it was from heavy leg presses (650-800 range single leg or 1300-1500 range two legs). I was under the impression that if you didnt snap the leg into the lock position when doing quad extensions then you would be OK.

Regarding quad extensions - they do their best work at the extension part of the rep, right? Not the bottom/resting part of the rep, right?

thx for you opinion bro.

I think you misunderstood SC he was saying NOT to do them heavy and NOT to hold for 3 seconds.. Saying its putting to much pressure on your ligaments. You go do 600 to 800 Single leg presses?? HOLY CRAP..

**bluethunder** · 11-09-2004, 09:23 AM

What he said (swole) was leg extentions are a open-chain type of movement meaning single joint movement where as a closed chain is basically compound movements involving more than one joint like squats knee joint & hip joint. Extentions are not the best for mass building but rather for shaping purposes. If you go very heavy you might be bouncing /lifting your butt off the chair and swinging the weight up. Overextending the knee joint. Yes you can lock it out and hold the contraction but not with the max weights you are refering to. And as far as single leg presses are concerned that can be your problem with pain in knee now. I do not advocate single presses like some do as the risk of injury is greatly increased. You put you body in a unnatural position straining half escpecially when going heavy like you do. Now leg extentions on the other hand I do recommend one leg at a time but again with much lighter weights. It is true that its okay to full extend to lockout but the pressure of excessive poundages STILL gets tranfered through the complex knee joint. And if one already has ligament/cartiledge issues you are asking for trouble. Holding the contraction for 3 seconds with that weight could pop the knee cap..