I guess we can call this the least popular day in most peoples life. The LEG DAY! Very often, the day after can be called DEAD LEG DAY. Which does not help motivating you to go leg day in the first place.
Lets get on with it. The exercises are listed below with a link to a video.
- Barbell Full Squats
- Lever Seated Calf Raise
- Lever Standing Calf Raise
- Lever Leg Extension
- Lever Lying Leg Curl
- Sled 45 degree Leg Press
- Sled Hack Squat
During the podcast I mentioned that I do two different calf exercises for a reason, but I could not explain it. Well, here is the exercise that I throw in there. The Lever Seated Calf Raise.
Apparently, it works like this. When your knees are bent in that position you will not use gastrocnemius (a strong part of your calf) and instead you will activate soleus. Now when I read about it I can see that some think it is a small muscle not worthy of focusing on. But hey, I can´t see why I should not target it by doing one exercise. So I will keep doing it. It is like other exercises that focuses on the small muscles supporting your bigger ones, to avoid injury when doing the big exercises I would like to think it is an advantage to train the smaller ones as well.
Even if it is the big exercises that will give me the results of looking buff.
The other exercise I use to exercise the calf muscles is the Lever Standing Calf Raise or a seated version where I have extended legs. The standing one is having some down sides. Often those machines leave marks on your shoulders after a few sets. Since I load the machine with such heavy weights, the pads supposed to protect my shoulders are too weak. And I keep getting questions whether or not I went to the gym or hade crazy ass sex with some chick clawing at my shoulders.
Like always when working your legs you have to be careful not to injure yourselves. Your legs can carry huge weights and that means if you fuck up, it might cause some real damage. One thing I always think about is not to allow my knees to bend in the wrong direction. It is like your elbows when exercising other body parts. Make sure you don´t over extend them, keep them a little bit bent. If you keep it straight you lose strength and risk them bending in the wrong direction and that might be disastrous.
The big exercise for your legs is the squats. There are a lot of different ideas about how to do it. Some say that your knees takes way too much weights if you go all the way down while some says you have to do the full exercise.
I say always stay safe. Like Bas said on the podcast, you have to start out with low weights. Allowing your body to get used to the exercises, allowing you to learn how to execute the exercise properly. Then you can add weights without problems.
I enjoy this exercise and go a few sets as a warm up before I increase the weights. I usually go at least three sets with the heavier weights.
My favorite exercise is lever leg extensions. That is because I am an old soccer player and I still enjoy the advantages of all that training. Even though it was a long time ago I played soccer I still have quite strong legs. However I need to work out my legs regurarly just like anyone if I don´t want to lose that advantage.
I usually go a few sets with lighter weights here as well to make sure that my body is prepared for this movement with really heavy weights.
Leverl ying leg curl is not something I look forward to at my gym session. However I really like the effects from it afterwards. This is a exercise where you often can change a few parts of the machine depending on how long your legs you have. Make sure you tune the machine fo fit your body.
I had a few problems finding the correct setting for my legs and I often felt weird in the knee area. So start with light weights, does it feel good? Then you can start to use heavier weights!
The hack squat and the 45 degree leg press are nice exercises where you basically are in a machine with safety features. That is nice since you can go ham with heavy weights and be safe.
Like I said on the podcast I rarely do a "leg day". I go one part of the legs on "chest day" and then another part of my legs on "back day".
Work hard, stay safe!
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