Best Leg Exercises

[jJjburton]

What would you consider the best leg exercises for mass?

Best overall, best hamstring, best glute and best quad.

No machines as gyms are closed, please.

cables, barbell, dumbell preferred.

 

[BiggD]

When I was younger it was heavy squat. Now I love my Rhino Belt Squat using bands for resistance. It is a leg destroyer!

 

[LocalRoller]

What would you consider the best leg exercises for mass?

Best overall, best hamstring, best glute and best quad.

No machines as gyms are closed, please.

cables, barbell, dumbell preferred.

Squats and more squats. All I do for legs are squats and I get lots of compliments about my ass. Leg day (when gyms are open) for me consists of:

High bar pause squats (glutes)

High bar heavy normal squats (quads)
-I bounce out of the hole when it’s really heavy, it beats the shit out of my quads

Lying hamstring curl (hamstrings)
-no gym = Romanian deadlifts

 

[BiggD]

Also back in the day we loved doing heavy alternate barbell lunges. We would usually go 225 or above. Also loved doing heavy barbell walking lunges as a finisher. Many would puke after that session [emoji23]

 

[jJjburton]

When

Squats and more squats. All I do for legs are squats and I get lots of compliments about my ass. Leg day (when gyms are open) for me consists of:

High bar pause squats (glutes)

High bar heavy normal squats (quads)
-I bounce out of the hole when it’s really heavy, it beats the shit out of my quads

Lying hamstring curl (hamstrings)
-no gym = Romanian deadlifts

When youdo squats to hit quads vs glutes do you yo change feet placment at all? Such as feet together for quads or feet shoulder with apart for glutes?

 

[jJjburton]

Heavy glute thrusts i feel so hard in my hammys and glutes.

but deadlifts and squats are really where it is at.

for quads i think nothing beats a quad extension.

 

[BigDaddyV]

Leg press, no more than 2 minutes rest between each set. Do not rack the weight before you competed the reps, taking a second and holding the weight up is fine but don’t do that for more than a couple seconds Complete sets as follows.
the amount of weight I put on here is what I currently do but you can adjust

Set 1 4 plates
70 reps.

Set 2 5 plates
45 reps

set 3 6 plates
25 reps

set 4 7 plates
10 reps regular paced followed by 10 reps going really slow the whole rep.

set 5 8 plates for as many as you can

you should feel this everywhere, not just quads but also hamstrings and glutes.

 

[jJjburton]

Leg press, no more than 2 minutes rest between each set. Do not rack the weight before you competed the reps, taking a second and holding the weight up is fine but don’t do that for more than a couple seconds Complete sets as follows.
the amount of weight I put on here is what I currently do but you can adjust

Set 1 4 plates
70 reps.

Set 2 5 plates
45 reps

set 3 6 plates
25 reps

set 4 7 plates
10 reps regular paced followed by 10 reps going really slow the whole rep.

set 5 8 plates for as many as you can

you should feel this everywhere, not just quads but also hamstrings and glutes.

Being that you are hitting the aerobic energy systems when doing more then 20 reps, do you feel there is a dimish return on the amount of reps.

I have done this too, but with not going over 20 reps. Its amazing. Talking about a burn!
when doing so many reps?

do you think it starts to be a waste of time used?

 

[LocalRoller]

When

When youdo squats to hit quads vs glutes do you yo change feet placment at all? Such as feet together for quads or feet shoulder with apart for glutes?

For quads my feet are closer but not so close to where they are touching. I don’t even know if that’s physically possible lmao. But yes I do bring my legs in closer to where it’s comfortable and I do not pause at the bottom to hit quads.

For glutes, I have my legs shoulder width apart or even a little farther and I pause at the bottom. Pausing at the bottom I can really feel my glutes being stretched.

 

[jJjburton]

For quads my feet are closer but not so close to where they are touching. I don’t even know if that’s physically possible lmao. But yes I do bring my legs in closer to where it’s comfortable and I do not pause at the bottom to hit quads.

For glutes, I have my legs shoulder width apart or even a little farther and I pause at the bottom. Pausing at the bottom I can really feel my glutes being stretched.

 

[jJjburton]

For quads my feet are closer but not so close to where they are touching. I don’t even know if that’s physically possible lmao. But yes I do bring my legs in closer to where it’s comfortable and I do not pause at the bottom to hit quads.

For glutes, I have my legs shoulder width apart or even a little farther and I pause at the bottom. Pausing at the bottom I can really feel my glutes being stretched.

Do you go just as low for both?

 

[LocalRoller]

Do you go just as low for both?

Yeah, only difference is I go really heavy when I don’t pause and I use the bounce at the bottom to my advantage. Bouncing helps me use less glutes and really focuses on my quads. At least that’s where I feel it the most. I’ve heard mixed reviews that bouncing is bad for the knees while others say it’s healthier to bounce out of the hole. I will find out in 20 years if I start developing knee problems.

 

[EazyE]

My training has evolved over time. It used to be squats and front squats. Now it’s safety bar squats due to shoulder issue and vertical leg press because they are more readily available now. For a pure quad move, leg extension cannot be beat. For hams it’s seated leg curls.

 

[jJjburton]

My training has evolved over time. It used to be squats and front squats. Now it’s safety bar squats due to shoulder issue and vertical leg press because they are more readily available now. For a pure quad move, leg extension cannot be beat. For hams it’s seated leg curls.

Crap that vertical leg press, how in the world do you get in that position?lol. Tried it once, it was very odd.

 

[EazyE]

Crap that vertical leg press, how in the world do you get in that position?lol. Tried it once, it was very odd.

Takes some getting used to...

 

[BigDaddyV]

Being that you are hitting the aerobic energy systems when doing more then 20 reps, do you feel there is a dimish return on the amount of reps.

I have done this too, but with not going over 20 reps. Its amazing. Talking about a burn!
when doing so many reps?

do you think it starts to be a waste of time used?

Personally, I don’t think so. As far as time goes, if you’re following the rest periods you can finish this in 25 minutes. To the point of the repetitions though, I feel we use our upper body muscles a lot more because they get used as secondary muscles even on days we aren’t training those body parts. For example arms get hit on arm day and then a little on chest day and a little on back day. Legs only get hit on leg day and during deadlifts. So if you counted the reps where these muscles get used as secondary muscles and primary your weekly repetitions for each upper body muscle would be way higher than your lower body muscles. Increasing the reps on leg days will help keep total repetitions equal, if that makes sense.
The reason I do this is because I had a lot of trouble growing my lower body since I started lifting until I did this routine. I’m sure you could cut the reps down a little but there’s something about the insanely high reps that is unmatched in any other leg routine I’ve tried. This routine made me proportionate and made my woman’s legs huge. I’m a believer the legs can handle large amounts of reps, some people’s legs even need it to grow

 

[jJjburton]

Romanian deaflifts are doing wonderf for my hamstrings and glutes at the moment. Never really did them before.

also smith machine squats are targeting the quads more as it acts like a leg press.

being there is not gym. I am growing quite well especially my legs.

My calves are being neglected, i can find anything as good as the calf presses at the gym.

 

[BigDaddyV]

Romanian deaflifts are doing wonderf for my hamstrings and glutes at the moment. Never really did them before.

also smith machine squats are targeting the quads more as it acts like a leg press.

being there is not gym. I am growing quite well especially my legs.

My calves are being neglected, i can find anything as good as the calf presses at the gym.

Romanian deadlifts are stiff legs, correct?
i fucking love those. I also like use the lying hamstring curl machine and do 21s
So 7reps of only the top part of the motion 7reps of only the bottom part of the motion and then 7 full range reps.
super set that with the Romanians. Fuckin sick.

 

[jJjburton]

i fucking love those. I also like use the lying hamstring curl machine and do 21s
So 7reps of only the top part of the motion 7reps of only the bottom part of the motion and then 7 full range reps.
super set that with the Romanians. Fuckin sick.

Romanian are pretty much stiff leg, but having the tiniest bend in knee, only going from top standing straight up then the movement going down to just below knee cap, never touching the ground like a deadlift. I am not flexible enough for stiff meg anything lol:

21’s are great too to pump.

 

[BigDaddyV]

Romanian are pretty much stiff leg, but having the tiniest bend in knee, only going from top standing straight up then the movement going down to just below knee cap, never touching the ground like a deadlift. I am not flexible enough for stiff meg anything lol:

21’s are great too to pump.

that sounds like it would be way better on the knees. Since I started yoga my range of motion has increased dramatically. I used to not be able to do stiff legs either