Irishbomber86's picture
Irishbomber86
  • 13
2834

leg day

ad

I often hear ppl say " todays my leg day." This makes no sense to me...do you do upper body on one day? Why do legs on one day? Just curious what other people are doing to develop huge wheels...thoughts.

AmericanDream's picture

Today may just be "leg day". That doesn't mean necessarily than in 2 days later it will not be "leg day" again. I personally have had multiple leg days in the same week. That being said, training H.I.T. style, there may only be just one.
"Leg Day" is also a psychological term that when stated , everyone in the game knows that today will be an especially hard training

I found my greatest strength developments came with H.I.T. style training one session per week. The greatest size Ive achieved was incorporating multiple "leg days" in a week utilizing many more reps per exercise. Also I would never just have "quad day" or " hamstring day". That being said, one could and should also train calves more than just on "leg day" but on multiple times per week.

DfromPhilly's picture

Just seeing this. My wheels are not anything significant but I'm making good progress in changing that by doing legs twice a week. I also finish with rear delts and traps on these days since I'd like to hit them more often.

One day is heavy quad/glute dominant (squats) followed by higher rep hams/chain (RDL's, GHR's, Leg Curls)

Second day is heavy Ham/chain dominant (deads) followed by higher rep quads & glutes (Hack Squats, Hip Thrusts, Lunges)

And yes I know glutes are part of the chain technically, but it's easier to split it up that way.

Christophany's picture

Dorian Yates supposedly only trained legs once per week and got amazing results!

Owes a Review × 2 In a promo × 1
Preacher's picture

Depending on your split leg day may be one day two days three days, what ever is working for you and follows your regimen. For example I do squats and dead lifts three times a week as well as work my calves because the legs are a large group of muscles that really need to be shocked into growth. I also have a set leg day where I hit the entirety of the group. Now keeping them growing is the trick, and like any muscle group the use of different methodologies comes into play here: high reps low weight, low reps high weight( mike Mentzer's super heavy duty works great for legs) super setting, all the tricks its the details that keep the wheels on task. For me its never been hard I’m all back and legs, chest arms I have to work at like a dog… but I digress. Time Under Tension is really what you need to focus on the more time your legs are under that load over the full range of motion the more you are going to get out of that exercise. I have to be a little cautious as my left knee is well the ortho said it needs replaced but I am still squatting 315 with my wraps and brace… But Squats and Deads you cant go wrong will honestly build whole body strength, and if you get into variations front squats hack squats, split leg deads hex bar sumo ect You will end up with a nice even build in your legs and a big up in general power over all. Hopefully that makes sense and you get some thing from this little rant.

Makwa's picture

Maybe leg day doesn't just mean they do legs one day a week. I usually train legs 2x/wk and if someone happens to ask what I am working today and it happens to legs, then of course it is leg day.

Caeser's picture

I agree brother!
Tends to be Monday = International Bench Press Day & Friday = Int'l Leg Day... and many skip Friday

AmericanDream's picture

Always leg day Mondays. Nothing but miles and miles of empty squat racks with tumbleweeds blowing through. All while the other bros are curling and asking "how much you bench , brah?".

exoticnfit's picture

Its frigging international Chest n' Arms day (lady pleasers) at one of the gyms I trained at for the past few years every Monday and Friday.

Having been prepping for a show I am training at a smaller gym usually at times when most are not around and my trainer/coach and I (yes...even coaches should have coaches when prepping) have the gym to ourselves.

Seriously, Mon/Fri are the worst two days to train anything but legs!

So, I usually try to hit them twice a week on those days Smile

daksmack's picture

I would just say, good on you bro. See to many people trading in leg day for skinny sweat pants, this seems to be the common theme at my gym. I train legs twice a week. On Mondays I do leg curls hamstring curls to warm up. 5 sets of each until failure. Then I move into squats. I don't go over 3 plates each side anymore. Once I get to 3 plates I go 12, 10, 8, 6. Follows by machine hack squats. I finish with smith machine lunges with one plate each side for 3 sets. I do calves ED btw, to start my workouts, 10 sets till failure on calf machine.

My 2nd leg day is on Fridays. Warm up the same, followed by leg press. Usually I don't keep count if sets, I just go high weight and pyramid down. Followed by deadlifts. Each week I alternate on my deadlifts. One week I do 2 plates each side, 12 sets of 12. Next week I get up to 4 plates each side at your reps and pyramid down. After deadlifts run some later pull-down and call it a day.

Owes a Review × 2 In a promo × 1
giardap's picture

Big muscle group, takes a lot to grow them significantly, so people tend to do a leg day or, splits with quads glutes (+/-calves), hams glutes (+/-calves), etc
Squats are heavy on the CNS, you know, tends to fatigue people when done properly that is, and everyyyyyybody seems to think they should squat first

Rule of thumb; periodise everything, most people in the gym haven't a notion of what they are doing, same for the so called PT's god bless them

Irishbomber86's picture

Understood..but if you did a split in two days you still wouldn't provide the same volume as you would with upper body. Think about it ..you do a total of how many sets for all the muscle groups of your upper body? At least 9 sets per group right? So 60 sets or so in total for your whole upper body. Can you do 60 plus sets of "legs" in a day? In two days? Heres what I do just to share

Back and ass/inner thigh/outer thigh
Chest and shoulders and hams
Biceps/triceps/calves
Quad day (compound and isolation movement )

giardap's picture

depends on the split,
you can split any which way you like, for example, train 3 times a day (quads, calves+ glutes), hams) - do that 6 times a week
I am exaggerating for effect (obviously) to make the point that everything needs to be periodised, there is no one size fits all
don't forget, 'leg day' might also just mean its the day they do their legs on! But, a well designed periodised program will have a solid split

as for 9 sets per muscle group, thats not very much unless the mg is a hyper responder - this said, if its 9 sets with a very slow strict tempo, then it may be more than enough - its all relative

You need to look at the big picture in 6 month blocks imo and break down from there, and definitely not; this is what i do in a week, unless you are talking about 1 phase in a program

Irishbomber86's picture

Agreed that is on the low side...just used a reference point. I guess what I'm saying is that a lot of people don't realize how much benefit you can gain from working those smaller groups in your legs in the long run. Its all about muscle balance..no way you can have balanced proportions training all leg muscle groups on one day.

giardap's picture

This is a glance at my current program as it pertains to legs. Its a 7 week cycle. I drop some of the calf sessions when I need to, with time constraints or fatigue etc. This said, I stopped considering calves as part of the legs (leg day!) a long time ago, they need extra attention to bring them up, hence the frequency

Week 1: Day 2 calves ¦ Day 3 quads & hams ¦ Day 6 quads hams calves
Week 2: Day 2 calves ¦ Day 3 quads & hams ¦ Day 6 quads hams calves
Week 3: Day 3 quads calves ¦ Day 5 calves ¦ Day 6 quads hams
Week 4: Day 1 calves ¦ Day 2 hams ¦ Day 3 quads ¦ Day 5 Squats ¦ Day 6 calves
Week 5: Day 2 quads calves ¦ Day 3 hams ¦ Day 5 calves ¦ Day 7am quads hams calves ¦ Day 7PM quads hams calves
Week 6: Day 2 quads hams calves ¦ Day 3am hams ¦ Day 3PM hams ¦ Day 4 calves ¦ Day 5 quads hams
Week 7: Day 3 quads hams calves light

Irishbomber86's picture

how about the abductor adductor machine? I know its used more by girls but it made my squat increase over 150 pounds in a year (no gear btw) at the end I was able to low box squat 605 for 3...in the summer I push my truck for 20 yard bursts (6,000 pounds)

giardap's picture

I personally dont use it fella, but I well believe it helped you jump so much
When I squat, to get the muscles engaged, you sort of need to put the intent outwards (see ben pakulski explain how to squat and where his 'intent' goes when squatting for this to make sense)

I reckon an abductor would make you expert at that whether you know it or not

Sounds like a great way to help increase the squat

giardap's picture

Depends on how long you spend in the gym!!!
;-P

Irishbomber86's picture

I see two many guys benching 3 plates and they cant squat 225 for a single set ...they cant seem to figure out why? Then I see that the have a "leg" day...a few sets of squats...ham curls..leg extensions. Done.

helloBrooklyn's picture

"A few sets of squats" can accomplish a hell of a lot if done properly. The guys who can't squat 2 plates probably aren't squatting at all.

giardap's picture

"A few sets of squats" can accomplish a hell of a lot if done properly x2 - I agree 100%

When I teach my mates, who think they are great squatting 4-5 plates, and teach them how to engage their muscles properly and focus (either quads or calves, say) I do it with one plate per side and they are fucking crippled by it within a minute or 2. Throw a band on for glutes activation or for making the rep harder at the easy/top end of the ROM and they will cry

And this lark of ass to the grass bouncing up and down, fucking crossfitters

More by Irishbomber86