Laggy Legs

[mitch911]

Currently im pretty satisfied with my body. I know theres always areas for improvement but from what i was til now has become a huge transformation as far as fat loss muscle gain. I dont want to be a big mofo or bodybuilder, just have a lean muscular look. I know alot of you guys are gunna hate me for that, but thats just what i want right now. So basically im trying to maintain what i have at the moment. On the other hand my upper body overpowers my skinny chicken legs. I dont wanna feel embarassed to wear a baithingsuit or shorts come summertime. How do i go about training to bring up my legs without adding more mass to my upperbody, without loosing what i have on my upperbody. I have always trained my legs, but the upperbody grows so much faster or its the fact that my leg genetics suck as i look at my dads legs and he has the same structure, athough hes not built so his physic doesnt look funny.
my leg routine goes something like
leg ext 4 sets super set
leg curl 4 sets super set
calf press( seated sometimes standing sometimes)
squats 4 sets
all in the 15-20 rep range

Should i hit my legs at a lower rep range less sets and maybe every 4 days, and split the upperbody up for 2 other days with less sets higher rep range?

[mitch911]

Bump..

[IBdmfkr]

If you want to grow you'll first have to eat enough calories to enable your body to grow to the desired size. That being said, I'd drop the isolated movements from your leg routine for now and concentrate on heavy squats/leg press/good mornings/Straight Leg Dead Lifts/Weighted lunges etc...
Your goal is to cause the muscle as much trauma as possible on each leg routine for optimal growth, on top of this I'd work them only once/wk as the time between will be just as important as the actual lifting day.
goodluck and don't be scared to get a little bigger as working legs will generally cause your whole body to develop faster with proper caloric intake and rest.

Btw, here's a few pics from when I changed from half-assed isolated movement routine to something similar to what I listed.

[Superballer]

^^^^^ excellent advice, as always...

1 more thought was to put legs at the beginning of the week (after your biggest break from weights during the week)

Also, start with squats most the time... again and again you will read about the importance of squats for building leg mass. They are a staple.

[Sanecrazy]

Ive had a huge lagging leg problem too. Probably because I had two herniated discs and had to have a back operation last year.
Recently Ive been doing this routine for legs:
Squats: 2x warm up
1x 10 reps
1x 6-8 reps
1x 3-5 reps
Leg Curls: 1x 15 reps
1x 10-12
1x 6-8 reps
LegExtensions: 1x 15 reps
1x 10-12 reps
1x 6-8 reps
Ive been doing my calf raises on back day. This has really been pounding in some results for me.

[IBdmfkr]

Sanecrazy, I used to do a similar routine. Since I've switched to more power/compound movements my legs have taken a whole new shape and growth. Try dropping the extensions/curls or atleast keeping them until the end of the workout and throw in some Leg Presses or Straight Leg Dead Lifts inbetween squats and isolated movements. JMO

[mitch911]

If you want to grow you'll first have to eat enough calories to enable your body to grow to the desired size. That being said, I'd drop the isolated movements from your leg routine for now and concentrate on heavy squats/leg press/good mornings/Straight Leg Dead Lifts/Weighted lunges etc...
Your goal is to cause the muscle as much trauma as possible on each leg routine for optimal growth, on top of this I'd work them only once/wk as the time between will be just as important as the actual lifting day.
goodluck and don't be scared to get a little bigger as working legs will generally cause your whole body to develop faster with proper caloric intake and rest.

Btw, here's a few pics from when I changed from half-assed isolated movement routine to something similar to what I listed.

Wow you dont know how inspiring those pics are. Ive got the same size maybe a tad smaller as ur first pic...how long did that transformation take. Also..i just posted another thread but..my upper body im pretty happy with right now, so how do i just maintain what i have up top while i let my legs catch up? High reps? I dont want to be a huge body builder, just have a well porportioned body thats well defined.

[boondockSAINT]

If I were you, I would do squats in a 5x5 manner, and also stiff legged deadifts in the same 5x5. Make sure you are going deep on the squats. The lower reps and the heavier movements will help bulk you up. Then, you would add your leg curls / extensions in the higher rep range to burn the muscles out.

You should not do legs more than once a week. And as for calves, I've never really trained them because I am more of the powerlifting type, but they are still a good size. I have found that calves are very genetic. My friend can squat 785 in a suit, and has no calves whatsoever, and saw no change in their size when he added them to his routine. Good luck.

[IBdmfkr]

Wow you dont know how inspiring those pics are. Ive got the same size maybe a tad smaller as ur first pic...how long did that transformation take. Also..i just posted another thread but..my upper body im pretty happy with right now, so how do i just maintain what i have up top while i let my legs catch up? High reps? I dont want to be a huge body builder, just have a well porportioned body thats well defined.

I was in the same boat Mitch and it was very frustrating. I begin doing legs at the start of each week no matter what. I had to train myself to not skip leg workouts and force myself to do them because I hated them so much, so If I didn't start the week with legs I just wouldn't lift until I did my legs lol..
After I got over this, I started doing them in this fashion:

Mon: Quads, calves (Squats, hack squats, sissy squats, extensions, lunges etc)
Tues: Chest, Tri's
Wed: OFF
Thurs: Hams, calves (Leg press, Straight Leg Dead Lifts, good mornings, leg curls, etc..)
Friday: Back, Bi's
Sat: OFF or Shoulders.
Sun: OFF

That was my routine for the first 9months or so, then I switched to a 3day/wk routine like I'm doing now. *No isolated movements*
Mon: Legs (SLDL, Leg Presses, Squats, Weighted lunges, no isolation)
Tues: OFF
Wed: Chest, calves (All presses)
Thurs: OFF
Fri: Back, traps (Heavy compound movements, Deads, Rows, weight pull-ups etc..)
Sat: OFF
Sun: REPEAT.

It's been about 3yrs inbetween the two pics, but I had the size in my legs within about 1.5yrs and then just gained more development and seperation in the last year and a half. Legs take time, don't expect a transformation over night. Learn to love working legs and look forward to the workouts is all I can suggest, otherwise you'll make excuses and eventually fade them out of your routine as I did for many years.


Sorry for the length.

[mitch911]

great help brother! definatly going to use this and look forward to finally seeing some results.