Need advice for building legs

Ok, I posted this in the female only forum and I haven't gotten any responses so I'm putting it out on the general forum in hopes that I can get some good feedback!

I'm a 27 yr old female. I tend to carry weight on my upper body and it's been a long and arduous process building leg and glute muscles. I have been lifting for the past year and a half with main focus on lower body.
The past few months I have been doing 3 days of lower legs (mainly glutes and hamstrings, some quads and calves) with at least 48 hours of rest in between each leg day, with one day for chest and arms and one for back (no cardio since I tend to lose muscle very easily).

My main question is: are 3 days of legs too much to see gains? I have not been progressing much in the past few months.
Should I decrease to 2 days of legs/week? I know every female body responds differently, but what is the general consensus for the most efficient way to build legs?

One word: lots of SQUATS!

Make the workouts more intense, cut back the number of days, and give your body enough time to recover. You should be able to hit all major leg muscles within the same workout, quads, hams, claves, and glutes. More is not always better. Once you have reached failure and given your body the proper growth stimulus, there is no need to keep hitting the muscle and breaking it down further. Once failure is reached, stop the exercise, move on to the next muscle, once all leg muscles have been stimulated, get out of the gym and rest. I wait 7 days inbetween my leg workouts but this will be more individual. If in doubt, its better to rest another day. -Cheers

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MuscleScience

One word: lots of SQUATS!

---

Yes and change it up a bit with the type of squat. Goblet, hack, reverse hack, Jefferson, front, and regular old school squats. LOL, don't try to get all.of those in at once, rather rotate through each exercise. If you find one particular squat you really like, save it for the leg days when you are feeling a tad low. ;)

Tempo Squats are the king for me. Only thing that made my legs grow.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MDelgado34

Tempo Squats are the king for me. Only thing that made my legs grow.

---

those make me poop sometimes, got to be careful...lol

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MuscleScience

those make me poop sometimes, got to be careful...lol

---

Duly noted. Thanks for sharing.

My legs exploded once I broke them into two workouts. Hams\quads. Mondays hams, Fridays quads. You will be happy you tried this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BG

My legs exploded once I broke them into two workouts. Hams\quads. Mondays hams, Fridays quads. You will be happy you tried this.

---

I second this^^^!!! Mine is a little different but same concept - I'll do all my quad work one day then 4-5 days later posterior chain... Which includes low back/glutes/& hammies! This has made all the difference in 2-3months that I've been doing this split - I don't think il ever go back to(quads/& posterior chain as I can't get in enough for my legs to grow like I want... Plus it helps with my upper body split giving it the rest/recovery it needs(due to injuries)

Once I split my quad work up from posterior chain... They've grew/& responded like never b4... Plus I get a much more isolated w/o which leaves me sore until literally I'm about to hit them again(roughly 7 + days from quad to quad or low back/hammies/glutes to next starting rotation)

Try it out can't hurt

Thanks for the advice! Do you pair glutes with both?

I will thank you! Although, I have noticed that with squats, I do tend to activate my quads a bit (not nearly to the extent that my hamstrings and glutes are). It's not my form, I've had it checked by several people. I think my upper body/lower body ratio might be a contributing factor...

It does make it a lot easier to break legs into two days. The muscle groups are just so massive and so labor intensive it's hard to maintain intensity through an entire leg workout with different kinds of squats, deadlifts, and various machine exercises. It's a hard sell, everyone hates leg day and no one wants to do legs twice, but sometimes you just have to!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sdesert

I will thank you! Although, I have noticed that with squats, I do tend to activate my quads a bit (not nearly to the extent that my hamstrings and glutes are). It's not my form, I've had it checked by several people. I think my upper body/lower body ratio might be a contributing factor...

---

I have to squat on fridays because of work, during the week just isnt do-able. I hit backs (closed stance) then burn out with deep light fronts, low footed leg press then kill front extensions. I alternate leg press with isolated v's and hacks. Its all how you do the movement to isolate what muscle group your looking to hit.

You want big legs? Do squats. Lots of squats. Squats are hard. No one wants to do heavy squats. But you must do heavy squats. If you want big thighs/glutes, that is.

Depends on where you are in your training for how often you should hit legs. As a beginner you can squat 3x/week and make gains pretty quick if you've never squatted seriously before. Otherwise, if you are lifting heavy, you may want to go down to 2x/week as others have said, and maybe throw in a light recovery day where you do 70-80% of a normal day's weight.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sdesert

Thanks for the advice! Do you pair glutes with both?

---

If your glutes are firing as they should... They'll get hit with pretty much most movements... IMHO, pairing glutes w/your posterior chain they get isolated far better than pairing with quads(practice pulling your hips thru on all movements w/your posterior chain)... I'd leave glutes for hammies(ex good mornings into a squat) your using your hips Moreso but those glutes, hammies & low back are torched after that or deadlifting) also conventional and sumo(will hit your glutes much more - at least the medial glute) are great to alternate between especially breaking your legs up like so....

I think if you did some accessory work on glutes on another day that could work - or just tear up your w/o and you'll be sore everywhere. Best of luck!

Any sort of lunge is good for leg development too. Finally I like to torch my legs at the end of a workout with body weight squats. It's also my favorite active recovery technique for the days afterwards when you are terrified of having to sit on the toilet, when you have to do a controlled fall down. I try to avoid machines for the most part. They have their place but nothing replaces squats and RDL

20 rep breathing squats. Once a week. Full ones mind, not half assed.

Hip thrusts. Love these!

I do too GGR! But no matter how heavy I go (I'm doing about 180 pounds and I weight 105), my glutes aren't sore the next day. Do you do anything special?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sdesert

I do too GGR! But no matter how heavy I go (I'm doing about 180 pounds and I weight 105), my glutes aren't sore the next day. Do you do anything special?

---

For optimal glute soreness, go with Romanian deadlifts and stiff-legged deadlifts. They can be technically demanding and you want to make sure your form is good. Not because I am the form police, but there is a much higher likelihood of injury when these exercises are performed with bad form than most others. However, when performed correctly, they are wildly effective for the entire lower posterior chain, i.e glutes, i.e. dat azz lol.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sdesert

I do too GGR! But no matter how heavy I go (I'm doing about 180 pounds and I weight 105), my glutes aren't sore the next day. Do you do anything special?

---

Its not about how much weight you use per say, focus more on doing the movement slow and controlled with a good contraction at the top. I like doing these with a folded up yoga mat on my waist and using a heavy dumbbell. Really slow 5/2/5 cadence. My glutes are on fire around the 15th rep. Soreness doesnt really mean much, so dont focus on it. Focus on progress and how your bum is looking in the mirror. If soreness is your objective then do nonstop drop sets to failure and Im sure you will feel it the next day :) -Cheers

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BG

My legs exploded once I broke them into two workouts. Hams\quads. Mondays hams, Fridays quads. You will be happy you tried this.

---

After reading this a couple of days ago, I started doing this today. Quads and calves today. Thanks BG. Let's see what happens. Guess my 8-day split will now be a 9-day split. Oh well..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Rusty11

After reading this a couple of days ago, I started doing this today. Quads and calves today. Thanks BG. Let's see what happens. Guess my 8-day split will now be a 9-day split. Oh well..

---

Make sure when you do your exercises, isolate the muscle you are targeting. If it takes just doing 1/2 reps, high or low foot placement on hack or V's. Really have mind/muscle connection and isolate.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BG

Make sure when you do your exercises, isolate the muscle you are targeting. If it takes just doing 1/2 reps, high or low foot placement on hack or V's. Really have mind/muscle connection and isolate.

---

Any advice? For quads today, I did squats, BB lunges, and
Leg ext. Added calves at the end. On Thursday, was thinking of sldl, good mornings, and leg curls.

I squat,front,low close footed leg press then burn out with extensions. I'll swap out leg press with hacks or v's.

I'm sorry, this might seem a bit off topic, but reading your topic I've remembered about Dan Bilzerian and all the internet jokes about him. Just thought that he should ask for advises on how to build legs :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sdesert

I do too GGR! But no matter how heavy I go (I'm doing about 180 pounds and I weight 105), my glutes aren't sore the next day. Do you do anything special?

---

Serious question: How deep are you going? Be honest.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oldnsedentary

Serious question: How deep are you going? Be honest.

---

Going deep on hip thrusts??

Hummm...

LOL! Squats . . .