My BodyBlog

I caught a glimpse of the back of my legs in the mirror today and I had one of those ‘holy crap’ moments! This is when you realize that all your efforts are paying off and you are getting some great results - in this case it’s my hamstrings that caused this reaction.  I guess I’m used to seeing the front of my legs and the changes don’t seem as dramatic, but man, those hamstrings sure made me stop and take notice today!  Looking at my legs overall, they are growing really well, and it made me stop and think about how I’ve done it (the exercise part, I won’t talk about the diet, but that’s a crucial part of course!).  I’m no expert, and I’m sure many out there do it better than I do.  I’m hoping my experience will be a help to anyone who has struggled with getting results, or even with getting motivated to work on legs.

I don’t have a ‘leg day’ very often.  I’ve read many posts from bodybuilders who do intense leg workouts that make them collapse, have trouble walking after their workouts or for a day or two after, or even workouts that finish up with puking!  Now that doesn’t sound like much fun to me!  Don’t get me wrong, I make my legs sore all the time, but it’s a good feeling that doesn’t make it hard to walk!

I think my success has come from a combination of a few things - first is walking.  I’ve been walking almost daily (thanks to my wife) for many years, long before I started bodybuilding.  I know this had a great impact on my leg growth, and still does.  My treadmill work at the gym doesn’t hurt either.

Another thing is that I’ve always treated legs on an equal basis with every other bodypart.  I think this is one thing many new bodybuilders fail to do.  It’s easy to put off doing legs when you can have fun doing chest and biceps and when you get some results in these areas that other people notice.  Not so easy for people to notice leg growth when they’re usually covered by pants.  I knew from the start if I was going to grow muscle I wanted to grow it everywhere and have some good symmetry between all my muscle groups.  To me, nothing looks sillier than a bodybuilder showing off a huge upper body while standing on stick-looking legs!

Like I said, I rarely have leg days.  Instead, I work legs 2 or 3 times a week, changing up different exercises every time.  I’ve never done the same leg workout two weeks in a row. Here’s an example:

Week 1, Day 1 - Quads (Leg extensions, thigh adduction, dumbbell lunges)

             Day 2 - Calves (Barbell calf raise, presses on leg press machine)

             Day 3 - Deadlifts (great for hamstrings, more on this later)

Week 2, Day 1 - Full Squats (great compound exercise, I use full range of motion using low weight and high reps and then next squat session I use heavier weights, lower reps, don’t go as deep)

            Day 2 - Calves (Smith calf raise, dumbbell calf raise) On calves I go for high reps (25-30) using the most weight I can.

           Day 3 - Hamstrings (Stiff-leg deadlifts, lying leg curls)

I do other exercises besides the ones listed.  For quads and hamstrings, I change from high weight/low reps to low weight/high reps randomly from workout to workout.  The legs never know what I’m going to throw at them from day to day, I think this is a very important strategy to keep the muscles shocked and growing.  For me, doing different things makes leg workouts fun, which keeps my motivation high.

Now a further comment about deadlifts.  I know I have this exercise to thank for helping my hamstring growth so much in recent months.  I have gone from lifting 135 lbs to 350 lbs and there’s no telling how far I’ll go.  The key to doing this lift injury free and for big weight is using proper form.  You lift with your legs, not your back.  It’s much the same motion as a squat, and you use your legs to give you the power to lift the bar.  When I’m in the grove I can feel my hamstrings working, and they’re sore the next day.

A last word about hamstrings - I used to have terrible cramps after working hamstrings hard - I solved that problem by stretching once in awhile during a workout - I just bend over, keeping my legs straight, and stretch to touch my toes 4 or 5 times.  This keeps the cramps away!

So keep working on those legs using a lot of different exercises and you can get great results too! 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 5:53 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.