Bringing up your legs

[TheGiftToLift]

Would it make any difference if I were to stop/reduce training upper body and focus on legs? Would the reduced load on my body mean my legs can repair better? Or would it have no major impact?

 

[Shrek]

Dedicate a workout to legs and one to upper body.

For me I have the opposite. My legs are far better than my upper. (calves excluded)

Would suck to have lagging legs LOL

 

[jchen]

Hmm I have read many articles stating the whole body does not know if it is legs or arms or chest that has been taxed. That is why you CAN overtrain on a 6/7 day split since the body recuperates at a whole.

My advice to you would be to TRY it.

Find out for yourself, train legs 1/2/3 times a week. See if it works, then you will have the answer to your question.

 

[Goosey]

Would it make any difference if I were to stop/reduce training upper body and focus on legs? Would the reduced load on my body mean my legs can repair better? Or would it have no major impact?

What exercises would you choose and how many workouts throughout the week would you or could you do?

How old are you?

How long have you been training, seriously?

It would be quite difficult to stop using your upper body using a template focused on lower body exercises.

Having said that, a workout utilizing exercises designed around an emphasis on the lower body would be an excellent routine.

At the end of the day, regardless of what modality one uses, recovery comes from the same source.

 

[Bench Polkov]

Smolov

 

[Fadi]

Would it make any difference if I were to stop/reduce training upper body and focus on legs? Would the reduced load on my body mean my legs can repair better? Or would it have no major impact?

By analising your question, I’ve come to the conclusion that for whatever reason, you are holding or blaming your non leg workouts (upper-body) as being responsible for the lack of progress in your legs. Would I be right in my assumption? If so, why would you think that by further inflicting CNS stress by concentrating on your lower body would make things any better? Deadlifts, squats, and all compound exercises when done with mainly low reps (or even medium reps), would inflict a stress on the CNS system far beyond what a hard shoulders and/or arms workout would.

So if the issue is to do with recovery, then leaving upstairs to go downstairs would not be the solution I’d be looking for.

Time to reflect and go back to the drawing board for further analysis…


Fadi.

 

[TheGiftToLift]

What exercises would you choose and how many workouts throughout the week would you or could you do?

How old are you? 25

How long have you been training, seriously? 3 years serious training... but for reasons not worth explaining I didnt train my legs seriously until pretty recently. My upper body is pretty much exactly what I want it to look like. My quads and hams are alright and my calves suck balls. I currently do beginner 3 day full body workout... I can squat 85kg 3x10 and deadlift (SLDL) 90kg 3x10 (i can do 100kg, but form suffers and my lower back gets overworked).

It would be quite difficult to stop using your upper body using a template focused on lower body exercises.

Having said that, a workout utilizing exercises designed around an emphasis on the lower body would be an excellent routine.

At the end of the day, regardless of what modality one uses, recovery comes from the same source.

Shrek - like you my calves suck, my quads and hams are decent enough.

By analising your question, I’ve come to the conclusion that for whatever reason, you are holding or blaming your non leg workouts (upper-body) as being responsible for the lack of progress in your legs. Would I be right in my assumption? If so, why would you think that by further inflicting CNS stress by concentrating on your lower body would make things any better? Deadlifts, squats, and all compound exercises when done with mainly low reps (or even medium reps), would inflict a stress on the CNS system far beyond what a hard shoulders and/or arms workout would.

So if the issue is to do with recovery, then leaving upstairs to go downstairs would not be the solution I’d be looking for.

Time to reflect and go back to the drawing board for further analysis…


Fadi.

Fair point...

I probably didnt ask the right question, really its my calves that are lacking, and I mean really lacking. Everything has grown so that I am fairly built, but my calves are exactly the same - maybe a bit bigger. I've measured about a 1cm growth in two years.

Is it possible to change your calves? I've been told by a competent PT that if you grow your quads and hams your calves will follow... much like you need to lay foundations before you think about window treatments.

As a interesting side note - I did a pack test yesterday for fire fighting which involves walking with a weighted pack. Nothing fatigued except my calves and in particular the muscle at the front of my shins. Obviously I have weak lower legs. I'm thinking about walking around on tip toes and doing weighted walks (I live in Bondi so its pretty hilly).

It seems calves are impossible to grow... stupid genetics.

Smolov

probably a bit too advanced for my legs... (?)

 

[Sticky]

Smolov didn't make my legs explode, maybe 1cm in 3-4 months.

It did however, give me a pretty good squat.

 

[Bench Polkov]

I grew out of my jeans after a full Smolov cycle.

Can you squat 150?

 

[Bench Polkov]

probably a bit too advanced for my legs... (?)

I grew out out of my jeans after a full cycle of Smolov.

Can you squat 150?

 

[TheGiftToLift]

I grew out out of my jeans after a full cycle of Smolov.

Can you squat 150?

Dunno, probably not - I haven't tested 1RM on squat. I currently do 80kg 3x10 - 3xper week, fairly comfortably. That's not outstanding, but I want to get my form perfect before going up in weight.

Did your calves grow? or just your quads and hams?

 

[The Hamburgler]

Your 1RM couldn't be any more than 120 going off 10x80

 

[TheGiftToLift]

sounds about right.

Might have to give smolov a go... I'm kind of worried that my quads and hams will get bigger but my calves won't. Which will make them look even smaller :\

 

[walt]

80 x 10? That is why your legs are lagging, when your squatting 150 they will have gained size. But don't just do squats - Front squats, deadlifts, leg ext, sldl, hammy curls.

 

[unt0uchable]

sounds about right.

Might have to give smolov a go... I'm kind of worried that my quads and hams will get bigger but my calves won't. Which will make them look even smaller :\

You don't need Smolov. You need progressive resistance and a caloric surplus.

My legs grew to massive sizes on Starting Strength, which took me up to an (albiet ugly) 1RM of 175kg. I suggest you do the same.

 

[The Hamburgler]

Unless you have a broken arm or something like that and can only squat Smolov is completely unnessecary.
Actually, even if you did have a broken arm I would say it was over the top.

Just keep squatting. If you're squatting 150 for reps and your legs are still small then you can winge lol

 

[jet]

Squats will grow your quads and hams

For calves you need direct calf training in the 15-20 rep range.

For some reason or another legs seem to respond better to a high rep range.

 

[The Hamburgler]

Everyone tell him to do 20 rep squats lol . . .


You should do a 20 rep squat program
squat 2x20
bench 2x7
romanian deadlift 2x20
bb o/h press 2x7
bb row 2x7

 

[0ni]

I have no idea what you're squatting but the chances are that if you're not making progress then you are either A) Being a pussy and not pushing the weight or B) Training wrong for your body type. Here is what I want you to do:

Record your vertical jump. Objective is to jump as high as possible
If you dip down past a 1/4 squat and take a long time switching from the eccentric to the concentric, you have mostly slow twitch muscle fibers
If you dip down very little with a very fast switch, you have fast twitch muscle fibers.

What this means:
If you have fast twitch muscle fibers (like me), great! Your legs will respond better to a higher weight and lower reps. I built my legs with 10x3 and have killer quads. Try 5x5 for squats and see how you get on. Do this for 3 weeks, then deload on week 4. On week 5, do 6x4 and see if you can push the weight faster, if not then go back to 5x5. If you can then try 7x3.

If you're mostly slow twitch, I still recommend 5x5. But after you do that, I want you to hop on the leg press (yes, the leg press) and press a weight you can do for ~10reps for 20 reps. Now you're probably thinking I'm crazy but listen in. You should lower the weight in 5 seconds and explode the weight up as fast as you can on every rep. At the top, take 15 deep breaths then go for another rep. By rep 12 this should hurt, by rep 15 you will hate me, by rep 20 your spleen will be coming out of your mouth! Next squatting session, increase the leg press weight by 5kg. Increase it by 5kg every workout

Don't forget to drop me a PM the day after doing the 20 reps on the leg press to tell me how much you hate me! And just to clarify, adding the 20 rep leg press onto the fast twitch workout will give you amazing results as well. Many people when squatting just don't have the right amount of time under tension to get growth due to them doing the eccentric fairly fast in order to use max weights

 

[Dancelot]

I just squat and my quads, hams and calves all grow fine. I'm 5'7", 90kg, legs are 27.5", calves 16". The only high reps squats I've ever done were the widowmaker 20 rep breathing squat. I mostly do between 3~6 reps for strength, and total between 25 and 50 reps over a large number of sets every session.

0ni, you sound like you have a ton of knowledge on growing legs, how come yours are like a pair of toothpicks?