Leg Day - love/hate relationship

Sunshynez21

Just wanted to grab some tips/advice/opinions about spreading out my leg workouts. I feel like I try to do too much on one day and leave too many days in between. Has anyone tried incorporating legs into their other routines? Like on my back/biceps day I also would throw in calf workouts. Would love to hear feedback from those who tried, failed, and succeeded!! Thanks

Hollywood_Porky

Yeah - I incorporate squats into a chest day - and deadlifts into a back/shoulder day. I then supplement with other leg exercises - mostly compound - so that it's balanced. To be honest, if you squat and deadlift correctly, you really don't need more than lunges and step ups - or bulgarian lunges - you could vary lunge on one day of squat and bulgarian on deadlift day with back. Something like that. Leg press could be incorporated on the deadlift day - as a squat day may make leg press much harder to do.

colors_fade

I started with StrongLifts. You squat 3x per week on that program. I found out right away that I liked it and my body responded well to it. The rest period was enough. I think folks don't squat enough actually...

Over the last year I've moved on from the StrongLifts program to something a bit more customized. I still squat 3x per week, and deadlift 2x to 3x per week depending on time constraints and how my body feels.

A squat routine doesn't have to kill you or take a lot of time. I do mine in 20 minutes, it's my first lift every workout, then I'm on to other lifts.

Typical workout days for me are like so:

Squat, Deadlift, Overhead Press, isolation work (dips, pull-ups, barbells; but these are minor and I only do if I have time after the compound lifts)
Squat, Bench, Row, isolation
Squat, Deadlift, Row, isolation
Squat, Bench, Deadlift, you get the idea...

I, personally, don't understand the logic behind split workouts that have folks destroying their legs only one day per week, and then doing nothing with them on the other 6 days. They're your LEGS man. You use them for everything; they are huge, strong muscles. They need the work, IMO. And what a great core exercise too. And they recover faster than people think (when you're not focusing an entire workout to kill them). You can recover from a regular squat routine in a day.

I'm all for squats.

As for the rest of it.. I find calf raises to be a complete waste of time. The Leg Press doesn't provide the core workout that a squat does. I think Ted has the right idea; if you are squatting and deadlifting, you're doing enough, and if you need to augment, lunges and/or step-ups. Everything else is noise.

Sunshynez21

I definitely like the 3x per week with squats/lunges/deadlifts. That shouldn't be hard to do with my existing routine. I'll give it a whirl and see how things go. As for the calves....maybe because I wear heels a lot I'm more self-conscious about how they look lol!!! Thanks for the tips both of you!!