+ 1 i wanna know peoples opinions of leg extensions
I have been thinking a lot about leg extensions and how they give you good pumps and are a great part of building quads up because they force so much blood in the muscle. Now I will tell you my story of what a guy told me in the gym and I want to know other peoples opinions cause it has me wondering? Okay I have been lifting for at least 15 years and I have always incorporated leg extensions into my leg routine. I have had knee surgery on my right knee and I had a good amount of arthritis under the knee cap and I don't have a acl in the right knee either. This guy is in his 60's and he has been having troubles with one of his knees on the knee cap. He went to a orthopedic doctor and the doctor told him all of his knee was in great shape but the knee cap was pretty much gone and there was nothing he could do with it. He told the doctor that he had lifted for years and the doctor asked him if he did leg extensions and he said yes I have for years. The doctor then said that you should never do leg extensions cause this causes the knee cap to come out of alignment and tears up the cartilage underneath the knee cap. I have been wondering this for awhile myself cause I usually start out with leg extensions to warm up the quads but it usually does cause me some pain in the front of the knee. The doctor told him all leg exercises were good but those for the knees. I kind of wonder the same thing cause it causes me some pain in both my knees when I do them just till I warm up at least. So I want to hear peoples opinions on this. thanks everybody
- Bookmark
- 1
- 0
thanks everybody for the feedback I really appreciate it.
The leg extension places the weight across the ankles, which in turn puts a tremendous amount of torque on the knee joint as the weight is lowered during every rep. This movement is not sound mechanically even when performed according to guidelines. Of the multitude of leg exercises out there, this one should be avoided; your knee joint will thank you a decade from now.
Thats the best advice as i am living proof, been doing them for 30yrs now my knee is well knackered to the point i cant do any now without serious pain so i will never do them again. ALL the injuries you get as youngster WILL come back in later yrs to get you.
Solid advice. My orthopedic surgeon and my physical therapist advise against leg extension, unless they are done with very light weight. Otherwise, they are putting way too much strain on the knee and patella. If you want to use them to finish a pump, then just use light weight and higher reps and it should be okay. Otherwise, leg extensions should be avoided.
I don't like them at all. They hurt my knees when i go heavy because they overstretch my patella.
All i do for legs atm is squatting, and i rarely squat over 5 reps. My legs react very good to pretty much every type of training though. But for me heavy squats are king.
Leg extensions are an excellent exercise when preformed correctly. The danger and risk of injury lies when you trying to bang out the last few reps.
WE ARE ALL GUILTY OF THIS.
There will reach a point when to push one more rep you have to compromise your form. Your head and back come off the bench, some sit up and lunge back, ive even felt my legs role out a little which is very dangerous. In short your body will do what ever it has to do to preform one more rep.
Solution: If you are short of your target rep range and can not preform one more rep with out loosing your form quickly drop the weight and continue. I love using a long negative at this point. Awesome end to an exercises done safely and correct.
leg ext. are a peak contraction movement which means lighter weight should be used. if you can't bring the leg all the way up without momentum then it's to heavy. also if you don't have good quad development then i would focus on squats.
ClassyChassisYou know how they have the spot on the machine that is supposed to be the "axis of rotation"? Ok, well your knee joint doesn't work like that. Your lower leg doesn't rotate. It slides. Check out this video at around the 8:13 mark to see what I mean.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q-Jxj5sT0g
That's part of the problem. Other than that all I have to say is do nothing but leg extensions and see what kind of quad development you have. Waste of time imo, even if they weren't hard on your knees.
interesting vid, +1.
thanks man I will check this out thanks for posting
I too have knee issues. Leg extensions with any decent amount of weight are excrutiating, very high reps with light weight however are painfree and pump my quads up like nothin else.
Like youngtricep stated below its basically the design of the exercise/machine itself that is at fault due to the torque it puts on the knee, and the longer your leg is, the worse it will be.
so the taller you r the worse this exercise is for you then is that what your saying
IMO yes . If you are trying to loosen a nut with a wrench and you cannot put enough torque on it to loosen it, you can usually throw a bar on the wrench to lengthen it which in turn creates more torque at the nut.
Underated movement for Pre Exaust - but equally a movement that can be done wrong very easily.
I have found the best results with using them back to back with Squats and Leg Press - but have a 5 second negative with the Leg Extensions.
leg extensions are squats..only your sitting..
I tore my patella and quad tendon sending my kneecap halfway uo my thigh. Not fun. But after surgery during PT leg extensions were ine of the main exercises they had me doing. I still do them now. I am going to ask my doc and see what he says.
maybe it just depends on how much weight u do and if it hurts u I don't know. Im wondering this myself
Ace VenturaI used to love hitting heavy ass hack squats, then burn out the quads with extensions. Same here, my right knee bothers me so bad I can hardly do them. Sometimes I just do half reps and don't go all the way down. Just focus on the squeeze at the top.
Since I've mostly quit them, I still get sore in my quads from everything else I do, so maybe they're not so necessary after all.
yeah that's what im thinking I don't think im gonna do them I really like em but my knee caps don't
ive actually had to stop doing leg extensions because of a sharp pain i was getting on my knee cap in my right leg. this was caused by doing heavy leg extensions though so moderate/low amounts of weight will be okay
Agreed... I believe weight is relevant to injury. I am alternating pyramid with reverse pyramid, currently two weeks in on reverse pyramid. I am doing 225#-10, 215#-12, 205-15. During reverse pyramid the reps were 12, 10, 15, obviously starting with the lowest weight and increasing. What I noticed was that when my patella's started to bother me, was when the weight got heavier from each set. The alternation to reverse pyramid has yielded successful results with no pain.
the reason is because your pushing from your ankles. Placing a large amount of torque on your knee.
so do u think I should maybe place the pad higher up from they ankles to not cause so much stress? or just not even do them.
Well, I suppose if your locking your knees in anything really, squats, leg presses, leg extensions, you can cause damage.
Maybe if you dont lock out you would be a little better off. not sure, just throwin it out there.
that is true I do try and not lock the knees but it still hurts coming from the bottom I don't know good comment u threw in there
Dam :/ I just finished my leg day with leg extensions fml lol... good info
thing is I just found this out myself but I should have always listened to my knees lol
Anoni had knee surgery 11 months ago and stiil cant even do 15lb leg ext. both my surgeon and 2 PT's said leg exts are bad for the knees and they dont use or recommend them. for what thats worth.
ive had 3 knee surgeries on the left knee.. I still squat..DL and leg extensions..
hack squats ,etc...
are you Dr's weight lifters or BB ?.. probably not.. do what you can. and if it hurts work around it.
I agree with you if it hurts or bothers u work around it thanks man for the post
thanks I was wondering that now that's why I posted this cause I am thinking about not doing them anymore