The most common mistake made when training legs muscles is to train them the same as you would any other muscle
It is common knowledge a great majority of men suffer from a disease called ‘bad leg genetics’. Don’t get me wrong, genetics do play a role in muscle growth! And some people, men and women alike, can blame at least a fraction of their disappointment on this. However, this tends to be more of an excuse than anything.
If you already have legs the size of Peruvian tree trunks this article probably isn’t going to help you much. Now, if your legs look less like pillars from ancient Rome and more like the saplings your grandma planted last week this is something you need to read!
The most common mistake made when training legs is to train them the same as you would any other muscle.
Say you train your biceps and triceps twice a week, for arms that look like pythons. So, you follow suit and train your legs twice a week, in hopes of eventually standing on a couple anacondas.
Now I need you to shift your thinking for a minute. Instead of thinking in terms of training sessions, I want you to think of everything you do when you are not working out. See where I am going with this yet? That’s ok, let me explain. Day to day the things you do with your arms are fairly menial. Especially if you work a desk job or at least something that is not physically demanding, maybe you are a real estate agent or a salesman.
There isn’t a whole lot of arm activation in these professions. But I have known real estate agents who show multiple houses a day everyday and walk upwards of 5-10km per day including all the flights of stairs they climb.
To understand how this correlates to a different way of training your legs you first have to understand the weight being placed on different muscle groups daily.
Every step you take while walking on a flat surface, places somewhere around 2 times your BW on that leg. Anytime you take a small leap off the final step or jog from your vehicle to the front door you place anywhere from 3-11 times your BW on that leg. This said, your legs see an extreme amount of weight and volume every day. So going into the gym and pumping out a quicky on legs does them absolutely no good.
Do the math on how much 11 times your BW is, then try and tell me the folder you carried with you or the cup of coffee you lifted up worked your arms as much as your legs were.
The simple hack is that you need to train your legs using heavier weights and possibly more sets. This should not be news to those of you who have seen some growth lately. To those of you who cannot seem to grow your legs, I would bet my house this is what you are missing.
Of course, when I say heavy, I mean 80% of 1RM or better, for 4+ sets of the appropriate rep scheme. If going heavy decreases your overall volume by too much I would recommend adding a third leg day into your training regimen.
Seem over the top? Ask Ray Williams or Eddie Hall how many of their workouts include leg work.
