How to build legs with a Fake hip?

[PistolPete33]

Luckily I have good genetics as far as my legs go. (Kinda) Before my hip surgery I always had very large quads and calves which was always fantastic. In 2011 I had such major hip pain and absolutely no range of motion left I had no choice but to replace my right hip. It's a newer procedure called Burmingham Hip Resurfacing so it's a great option and my range of motion is much better and I'm no longer in pain and I can still workout which is awesome.

Post op I had to take a year off from doing much of anything. My right quad atrophied a TON but luckily now is much better. I use to have quite crazy strong legs for squats and leg press etc but obviously that's no longer the case. The past few weeks I've been pushing things and really paying for it so I decided to back down. I worked up to 600lbs on the leg press which is 300+lbs off what I use to press. I was happy with the progress but realistically it's too much for my hip so I need to bring it around 400-450.

Squats are another story. I will only squat now in a Smith Machine and it's for safety reasons as it's better for me to have the bar stabalized when I'm squatting. I'm also only squatting a measly 230-250 for sets of 10-15. My range of motion is pretty poor on this as well as on the leg press. Again, I can't afford to reinjure my hip and eventually I'll need the left hip done as well and I don't want to accelerate that.

I never want to be the guy with stick legs (never have been and I'm def. not now) but I wasn't sure if there was anything else I could do to build quad size without over stressing my hip.

Thanks in advance

[Times Roman]

Was there a question in there, or just relaying some information?

Either way, my knees are shot. Had surgery on one, the other is starting to "talk" to me.

I'm now on the leg press machine too. I keep the weight low, 5 or 6 plates on a side, and that's about it. But, I try to get great ROM. With the weights light, I can get away with the added stress of bringing it all the way down to me.

I'm thinking something similar with you.

Try dropping the weight low enough until you can get 15 reps with full ROM. Who cares if it is just 1 plate per side? Fuk em. If you can do that pain free, over time, then hopefully you will be able to add weight in that rep range. Maybe a plate and a half at 10 reps, and somehow step up.

There's no way in hell I'm going to be "that guy" that sits there with ten plates per side, and then only have the sled travel five inches as my range of motion. But I see it all the time. Weird, huh?

So the sled travels to me, and my heels come close to touching my ass. And at that point when I push the sled back up, my ass intentionally leaves the seat. It's not a great compound motion, but I feel it is better than if my ass does not leave the seat.

Im sure you are hitting the leg extension machine too? I don't want to state the obvious, but that is a pretty good isolation just for the quads. Squats are king, but when you can't do that, the leg press/extension combo isn't too shabby.

[PistolPete33]

Thanks for the input. Yes, I hit the leg extention and try to hit all angles with it. Toes in, toes out, toes straight etc. Good idea with lowering the weight until I can get the full range of motion. I'm def. cutting the reps short as I don't have the hip flexibility that I use to where I would basically get my knees to my chest.

[Times Roman]

Thanks for the input. Yes, I hit the leg extention and try to hit all angles with it. Toes in, toes out, toes straight etc. Good idea with lowering the weight until I can get the full range of motion. I'm def. cutting the reps short as I don't have the hip flexibility that I use to where I would basically get my knees to my chest.

it must be a bit awkward to know where you WERE at before, and then drop the weight by 50% or so, and still lose ROM. There is this bloke at my gym, uses a cane, maybe my age, has a bad hip. He doesn't use much weight on the leg extension. I don't think I ever see him on the press. And I never see any real intensity. He really doesn't care what people think when he uses these really light weights. But your situation is different. To me, it looks like this bloke is purely in "atrophy prevention mode" where as you want to gain and probably identify more with your gym results?

Not too many years ago, I was getting hurt in the gym, because I still identified with what I could do in the past. Muscularly, I could still make it happen. But those damn connecting tissues! So I started to wise up, and dropped the weight. Now I'm really into perfect form, and strict adherence to the 15/10/5 rep range. If I have steam left, I try to fail in the last set where the weight is still heavier. But not every time.

So, and I know this is hard to do, but you have to somehow let go of the past. Focus on what you can do now, and with good form. There is no dishonor with having some mileage on the body. There is dishonor (for some of us) when we simply give up.

Don't give up! I know you won't. Just focus on what you can do, and forget about what you cannot do.

Good luck!
---Roman

[PistolPete33]

Thanks I appreciate it. I was so proud the last 2 weeks doing legs and getting up to 600lbs. but the past week has been brutal on my hip. I don't really care what others think of me in the gym as I look better than 95% of them. I just don't want to be the jacked guy doing 90lbs. leg presses... haha Although, my surgeon wanted me doing 50-75lb leg presses post op but I was OK with that because I was still on a cane.

I don't dwell on the past as I have a bunch of injuries preventing me from what I was once able to do. Nearing 40 in a year and a half and my body feels like it's 70.

[RangerDanger830]

This is great advice by roman. I am sort of in the same boat as you, except my lower back is shot, virtually no discs in it. It gives me a lot of pain, especially when I lift heavy.

I want bigger legs so I feel like I need more than just the leg extensions and curls that I cling onto. I can bench press, curl, and generally do a fairly high amount of weight on all of my exercises.

When I get to leg day though, I go heavy on the leg extensions and curls but you will never see more than one 45 on each side of that bar for deadlifts and squats. I tried two 45s one day, and while my muscles had no problem pulling the weight, my back hurt so bad the next day I could barely walk.

It is humiliating sometimes on leg day because I am used to having guys stare at me for being able to do high weight. We just have to learn to lift within our means. I do find that I can grow muscle just as effectively with lower weights and higher reps, it is the muscle failure part that is most key.

[RangerDanger830]

I just saw where you had liked my post Daniel and after re-reading the post I forgot to mention something I put into practice and really have been seeing better results from it ever since.

I already told you I refrain from deadlifting or squatting a lot of weight. Even so I have still made very good gains in my legs and I really started noticing my gains take off when I started re-arranging my exercises.

I cant go heavy on squats or deadlifts but I can go heavy on leg extensions and curls so I do those first. I do a few sets of pretty much every exercise I have planned for that day then do deadlifts and squats last. Some guys cause this pre-exhausting, I am not sure if there are other names for it.

This allows me to lift heavy in the beginning doing exercises I am able to and when the ones that are hard on my back come around I am already tired enough to not need as much weight on those. I think that might help.