Originally Posted by
FireGuy1
Per Charles Glass on Leg Training.
The legs are already used to a certain volume of work from supporting your body weight as you stand, walk, climb stairs, etc. Further, the actual composition of muscle fibers is different, having a higher percentage of red slow-twitch fibers that are more suited to endurance than toward short bursts of power like a low-rep set of squats with a heavy weight. What does this mean? The legs can take a lot of work compared to muscle groups like the chest or biceps, and in fact, without an adequate amount of work, you can’t expect to see gains. Fifteen sets total for both the quadriceps and the hamstrings? Try doing around 20 sets for each, for starters. And the reps need to be a mix of high and low. You can go as low as sets of five reps, and as high as 50 or more. The quads, in particular, seem to really respond to occasional shock treatment workouts of 30 to 40 sets and reps that can go as high as 100.
Think about some of the guys with the greatest legs of all time. Tom Platz, the Golden Eagle, was legendary for his feats of endurance in the gym (and for the way he consistently trained far beyond the pain barrier). The man squatted 405 pounds for 50 reps. He would also take a weight like 315 and squat for 10 minutes non-stop. Do you think he would have had those awesome tree trunk thighs if he had been satisfied with the standard 10 or so sets of 10-20 reps? No way. And look at Lee Priest. It takes this guy at least two hours to get through his leg workouts. You can choose to say Lee is overtraining, but how can you ignore his enormous legs?
Don’t worry about overtraining the legs. Due to the unique nature of the legs, I don’t think it’s even possible to do, at least in one workout. Considering you are giving your legs a full week, or 168 hours to recover, whatever damage you manage to inflict in that workout will be repaired in that amount of time. With all this in mind, here’s a leg workout you can start following immediately. Stay with it just the way I have outlined it, and I guarantee that your legs will start catching up to your upper body in no time. You may choose to break up quads and hams into two separate sessions if it is convenient, to better allow you to focus on each individually.
Warm-Up: 5-7 minutes on stationary bike
Leg extensions
5 sets of 20, 20, 15, 15, 12 reps
Squats
6 sets of 20, 20, 15, 15, 12, 8 reps
Leg press
5 sets of 20, 15, 10, 8, 30 reps
Hack squats
5 sets of 20, 20, 15, 12, 8 reps
Stiff-leg deadlifts
6 sets of 20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps
Lying leg curl
6 sets of 20, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6 reps
Standing leg curl
6 sets (each leg) 8-12 reps
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