I need help with legs...

Sup ya'll,

I do the following exercises for legs,

Squats, Calf Raises, Leg extensions, Leg curls

That's it, those 4 exercises, twice a week. Now, my legs are already pretty big, and they even look kinda muscular, but they aren't very strong. For example, I do squats on the Smith machine, and all I can do is about 185lbs. I don't know what i'm doing wrong!!! I usually have my legs twice shoulder length apart, and I usually come all the way down, so that my ass/quads are parallel with the floor.

Why can't I increase my strength in my legs??? Am I doing the squats wrong?

Plz help!

By the way, the rest of me, the upper body is fine, and is getting stronger over time, but not the damn legs :(

Thnx

try not goin so far apart .shoulder width should be good with the feet SLIGHTLY pointed outwarsds. And legs can probabaly be trained only once a week ,it a big muscle unless your juicing at the moment then that ok.You may want to add hack squats in there to add to your workout .

I train legs once a week and i am seing great development and strenght gains but i pound the shit out of them where my legs are sore for 3 days .

Well hope this helped ,

Try doing box squats.

Oops, sorry about that, I meant once a week, not twice. I do them every Thursday.

Actually, when I put my legs closer together, like shoulder length apart, I need to even lower the weight more! To like 155lbs or so. What about the bar itself? How should you be standing compared to the bar. If i'm holding the bar on my traps, should my legs be straight, like my whole body is straight? Or should my feet be a little more forward then the rest of my body? I think I usually keep my feet more forward, like 1 foot ahead of the rest of my body. I know this sounds kinda weird, but do you get what I mean??? Basically instead of my WHOLE body being 90 degrees with the floor, it's probably like 100 degrees angle. Just off by a bit. As if i'm leaning a little backwards, then I squat down, and up again. Did I just confuse you more? :D

Thnx

Make sure you are changing up the excersices, it's important to SHOCK the muscles. Or else they'll adapt to the training, and you don't want that to happen.
9

Terinox,

I use a smith at home for squats, You want to keep your feet out far enough in front so that your knees at the lowest point are not past your ankles. I really like the move but I am a hard head when it comes to getting in that last rep I think I should do. Last time I used the guide rod and my lower back to push up the last rep on my heaviest set and blew my back to hell. Just a muscle pull, but really couldn't move for a couple of days and it will probably be 2 weeks before I attempt another squat. Be carefull and stop when you think you might have to modify form in order to get in that last rep because you will pay for it.

I had never done squats until late march this year, was doing 400 + leg presses(horizontal) and I did one set of 10 squats at 125 and was sore for 3 days. Now I am up to 225 for 6 on my 5th set. Always had skinny legs but I can now see the shape I want starting to come out. Squats are now my favorite, with barbell rows 2nd. Good Luck.

Alright, thnx for the help, i'll see what happens tonight :)

Hey T i do my leg extension ,followed by leg press ,then hack squats and i finish them off with squats.I find it prevents injury as my kness are bad but yet the legs will handle alote of weight .

The feet in front of the body bit made sense.You have to in order to make sure your legs are at 90degees at the bottom and no less .
AS Scott mentionned ,try the smith machine for form and prevent injury.

Alright, but I already use the smith. I don't, maybe i'll try and add some other things like leg press and hack squat :)

thnx again

do you do alote of cardio because if you do the legs may be weaker from it .I ran(treadmill) and played a round of golf then worked out my legs and for the love of god was it ever hard and painful .I just made through the workout.

I dont know what else to suggest bro ,try something new ,switch things around .
When you say you cant go heavy is it due to the fact that your pushing at 100% effort and just cant or that it's the mobility (range of motion) that wont allow you to.

The other thing is just dont worry about the weight ,it's not how much you lift bro but what your doing with every lift, and that should be growing .The less weight the less chance of injury so if your legs are growing thats good .

It's like getting drunk on 5 beers vs 12. lol its cheaper ,less weight is safer and you get the same results as long as your giving your all .

Anyways i'm out of here before you fall asleep ,just trying to help, good luck

I will always suggest, get off the smith. If you using a guide the legs will not properly develop as in stabilizer's and synergysts. It doesnt matter the weight being lifted, weights are just relative to your state of mind, get your form good, use absolute controll,slow eccentrics , explosive conncentrics (box sqauts are a great idea). But do so on all leg lifts, also try to pre-fatigue them, extensions first with forced reps, also try weighted lunges, painfull, keep a puke bucket near.I know thats alot of info but I think its very commendable that you want your legs to progress, hopefully more lifters will follow suit.

-anabolicmyo

hehe, dude i appreciate the help bro!

as a matter of fact, i actually don't do any cardio at present, that's why i find it weird

in terms of my form, i THINK that it's pretty good, i mean, i don't think i'm doing anything wrong, it doesn't look wrong, and i don't feel any pain from being in bad form, so, i mean my form i think is okay, but the weight is the same, about 155-185 or so. my legs get damn tired after 8-12 reps, so i can't go on, and i def. can't upgrade the weight

i know what you mean in terms of weight, i don't really care about the weight either, cause it's not like my legs don't look big and musclar, cause they do, and that keeps me happy, so i'll settle with the weight for now, but once i start my cycle, if my legs don't get any stronger, then i will know something is def. messed up!!!

thnx again
take care

I think you CAN up the weight, but you need a gradual plan to do so ... whether for strength, size, or both, you'd be suprised what you can accomplish over time

I added 90 lbs (two 45s) to my leg press in about a month by increasing the weight on one or two sets each week:

180,180,180,180
180,230,230,180
180,230,270,230
180,230,270,270
180,270,270,270
etc

by doing it gradually, I psyched myself out and overcame my mental limitations of believing I couldn't ...

this is what worked for me ... perhaps your increases (and depending on the exercise) will start with just 5 or 10 lbs ... just try it for ONE set ... I know you can do it!

thnx for the info skid, and the motivation :)

I will def. give it a shot, and see how my leg strength increases, i will def. keep you updated!