Shorts season is upon us, which means you’re running out of time to make it look like you’ve been paying as much attention to your legs as you have your biceps.
Lucky for you, it’s not too late.
"There's more muscle tissue in the legs than there is in the upper body, so we can generally expect faster results with the legs than with the upper body,” says Luke Carlson, founder and CEO of Discover Strength.
Just one thing. While kickstarting your leg development can be relatively straightforward, it shouldn’t be too easy. “The legs are not going to develop unless you put a lot of effort and intensity into it,” says Eddie Baruta, global head of gym floor personal training at Ultimate Performance in Los Angeles.
“The good news is, most guys haven't trained their legs very intensely, so there's a wonderful opportunity to really, really add some muscle to the legs," says Carlson. “The delta between where you currently are and your potential is huge."
Here, Carlson and Baruta break down their favorite leg exercises to pack on muscle in a hurry.
Leg press
Make the leg press your first stop, says Carlson. The exercise targets the quads and hamstrings—two of the biggest muscles in your legs—as well as the glutes. There are two reasons why Carlson recommends the leg press over the barbell squat, despite the two movements hitting similar muscles. First, the leg press removes your lower back from the equation, allowing you to zero in on your legs. “When you barbell squat, your lower back is always going to be weaker than your powerful quads and glutes,” he says. “So, when you reach fatigue, you're really fatiguing because your lower back is the weak link.” The leg press also sidesteps spinal compression, a necessary evil inherent to traditional squat variations. “If you put a barbell on your back, you are vertically compressing the spinal column. It's not a matter of having good form, it's just what it is; it's the nature of the exercise, and that can be dangerous long term,” he says. “The beauty of the leg press is that we don't have to vertically compress the spine.”
How to do it:
- Sit back in a leg press machine and place your feet flat on the platform, about shoulder-width apart.
- Create tension in your legs by pushing against the plate, and then disengage the safety lever and grab the handles on either side of the seat.
- Slowly, and with control, bend your knees to allow the platform to come towards you, keeping your lower back flush against the seat. (Avoid arching your back.)
- When you’re ready, extend your legs all the way out in front of you, stopping just shy of lock-out. That’s one rep.
Trainer tip:
If your gym doesn’t have a leg press, see if there’s a hack squat machine. Like the leg press, the hack squat supports your lower back, allowing you to place all of your focus on your legs. “A hack squat is going to have a little bit more compression on the spine, but I think it's a decent substitution,” says Carlson.
Read on for how to sculpt the “six-pack abs” of the legs and more.
