BUILD BIG LEGS
BRAV·ER·Y: courageous behavior or character.
In this day and age BRAVERY is a forgotten virtue, most of us don't know what struggle really means, there are hardly any real battles to be fought, there is little to no urge for sacrifice, no need for us to be COURAGEOUS, we get soft, we are consumed by demons of our own creation because, at the end of the day, most of us are sound asleep with a full belly.
We all think twice before squatting— we all wish to skip training legs from time to time— shutting down that weakass inner voice takes COURAGE— RESILIENCE— DISCIPLINE.
Being consistent with leg training is the main reason that GRRLZ that go to the gym for 1-2 years usually get fit EVERY SINGLE TIME— and there is an army of dudes doing curls in front of the mirror for years and still look like the a Mclovin looking Harry Potter motherfucker.
Wanna get stronger? Train your legs.
Wanna get more muscular? Train your legs.
Wanna jump higher? Train your legs.
Wanna run faster? Train your legs.
Wanna punch harder? Train your legs.
Wanna have a solid mid-section? Train your legs.
Wanna have an Adonis Belt? Train your legs.
Wanna lose your love handles? Train your legs.
Wanna have BIG LEGS? Train your legs.
It's the FOUNDATION of your physique— LITERALLY— it's what connects your body to the ground and allows you to STAND!
This post is part of a series on hypertrophy for each body part, here's what is ready so far:
BUILD A BIG BACK (In production)
TRAINING LEGS.
When it comes to building a GIANT LEGS we need to attack three different focuses, the QUADS, the HAMSTRINGS, and the GLUTES, training legs is a science in and of itself, it's THE HARDEST training of all, and what will build the most muscle in your body, even upper body, YEAH, since the muscles in the leg are SO GODDAMN BIG, training them spikes all kinds of goodies in your body, like TESTOSTERONE, making you stronger and muscular SYSTEMICALLY.
LEG VOLUME.
The legs require A LOT of volume, and frequency is KEY, I highly recommend that you do one leg movement every day, not only because of volume consideration but to build momentum, when you train your legs often, you start to crave training them, and training other muscles starts to feel like NOT TRAINING AT ALL.
We'll not split the volume considerations into Quads, glutes, and hams, because there is a lot of synergy going on with the movements, I tried to use MAV (Maximum Adaptive Volume) for glutes, quads, and hammies, and at the end, I was doing close to 60 sets of leg work, which is INSANITY, of course, I failed to understand that I should consider the synergy between the lifts, yeah, Barbell Back Squats are not directly targeting your hamstrings like an RDL, but it counts as hamstring work, so to keep things simple, we'll add it all up:
MINIMUM VOLUME (MV): To keep your leg gainz requires: 8-12 working sets a week.
MINIMUM EFFECTIVE VOLUME (MEV): To get some gainz requires: 13-20 working sets a week.
MAXIMUM ADAPTIVE VOLUME (MAV): To get OPTIMAL gainz requires:21-30 working sets a week.
MAXIMUM RECOVERABLE VOLUME (MRV): To go FULL BEAST MODE and brag about your TEARDROP 30+ working sets a week.
Keep in mind to split these working sets in order to equally emphasize each specific part of the legs, let's say you're doing 12 working sets, make sure that 4 of them target the quads, 4 of them target the hammies and 4 of them target the glutes.
LEG EXERCISE SEQUENCING.
When it comes to leg training I use the following sequence:
Activation sets
Overloading sets
Finisher sets
Stretch under-load sets
When it comes to LEGS pay close attention to your activation exercises, make sure every single muscle is lubed up and full of blood before starting to introduce the ANNIHILATION, after really getting your body primed to work you need to HIT THEM HEAVY OVERLOADING SETS always make sure to increase your performance on the lifts, especially SQUATS, DEADLIFTS and its variations, after that, it's IMPERATIVE for maximum leg development to do high-rep excruciating pain work, single leg work, and so on.
And the ICING ON THE CAKE, that will really FUCK YOU UP, is stretch under load exercises, you'll see.
Activation Sets
Activation sets are designed to pump blood into the muscles that will then get SMASHED in the workout, their main focus is keeping your body primed to work, reducing the risk of injury, and extending your longevity.
When it comes to leg training, I really like to use natural movements like DEEP bodyweight squats with pauses, sled pulls, pushes, lunges, and split squats.
Focus:
Prevent Injury.
Exercise suggestions:
Split squats, sled pulls and pushes, bodyweight squats, walking lunges.
Rep range: 10-15
RIR: 3-6
Primary Progressive Overload strategies:
Increase the weights.
Increase sets.
Overloading Sets
Your bread and butter to overload the legs are SQUATS & DEADLIFTS, pick your favorite variations and go BANANAS.
These movements ARE ALL ABOUT TECHNIQUE, so I highly suggest you work heavily on your form before starting to chase getting stronger and stronger.
You can adjust the number of reps and the weight jumps according to your preference, but always remember, it's a technical move, every single rep you do is adding to your muscle memory and creating adaptation for your brain and body in order to become more efficient.
Focus:
Lifting as heavy as possible.
Exercise suggestions:
Leg Presses, Squats, deadlifts, and all its variations
Rep range: 4-8 on top sets.
RIR: 0-3
Primary Progressive Overload strategies:
Increase weight.
Improve technique/form.
Finisher sets
Finisher sets often go to failure and/or beyond, the idea is by the end of your workout you should EMPTY THE GAS TANK, take every single last drop of glycogen within the muscle OUT, they often include SPECIAL METABOLITE TECHNIQUES like partial reps, supersets, paused reps, rest pauses, and dropsets, they can be used in every single part of your training, but for the legs, I consider them especially valuable in order to create roundness and achieve a great leg pump.
This is the time to unleash the MEATHEAD inside you, pick a machine or exercise and GO NUTS, really make sure you're feeling your legs BURNING.
I strongly recommend using CIRCUITS in this phase of the workout, pick 2-3 exercises and do crazy supersets.
Focus:
Going to failure and BEYOND.
Exercise suggestions:
Seated Leg extensions, Hamstring Curls, Sissy Squats, Bulgarian Split Squats, RDLs, Lunges, Belt Squats.
Rep range: AMRAP
RIR: 0- (-1)
Primary Progressive Overload strategies:
Increase reps.
Stretch under-load sets
Primarily the hamstrings, but also the hip flexors REALLY benefit from stretching under-load, really exaggerating the range of motion and stimulating the muscle fascia in the eccentric part of the movement, and to really take it to the next level using this opportunity to REALLY SQUEEZE your muscles and feel them in the concentric part of the movement, stretching in and of itself is conducive of hypertrophy, stretching the muscle under-load is OPTIMAL.
Focus:
Stretch the muscle, feel the muscle.
Exercise suggestions:
RDLs, Good mornings, sissy squats, Jefferson Curls, Nordic Curls
Rep range: 8-10
RPE: 4-5
Primary Progressive Overload strategies:
Mind-muscle connection.
EXERCISE SELECTION
A brief Tier list of my favorite exercises for the muscle group.
Tier S - Exercises that beginners, intermediate and advanced lifters SHOULD be doing to maximize hypertrophy.
High Bar Squat
Hack Squat
Leg Presses
SLDLs (Stiff-Legged Deadlift)
RDLs (Romanian Deadlifts)
Tier A - Exercises that beginners, intermediate and advanced lifters COULD be doing to maximize hypertrophy.
Deadlift.
Trap Bar Deadlift
Leg Extension
Dumbbell Walking Lunge
Dumbbell Split Squat
Dumbbell Stiff-Legged Deadlift
Lying Leg Curl
Tier B - Exercises that beginners don't need to do, but intermediate and advanced lifters can incorporate in their workouts.
Glute Ham Raise
Barbell Hip Thrust
Barbell Walking Lunge
Machine Glute Kickback
Machine Hip Thrust
Split Squat
Sissy Squats
Belt Squat
Front Squat Cross Grip
High Bar Good Morning
Low Bar Good Morning
Seated Leg Curl
Hip Trusts
Tier C - Exercises that are NICHE and designed to a specific goal.
Deficit Deadlift
Sumo Deadlift
Sumo Deficit Deadlift
Sumo Squat
Front Squat
TIME TO BUILD THEM TREE TRUNKS!
Stay on the IRON PATH!
Big KISS,
THE POTATO MAN
Yo, please, consider a paid subscription to this substack so I can keep producing content for you guys, yo, thx for reading this anyways, it TRULY means a lot to me.
BANG IRON, MY BRUDDAH!