Substitution for Leg Extension & Curls?

SuperCrsa

Hiya all you iron junkies.

I am weight training at home, and I have a bar thingy that fits onto my bench for leg extensions and leg curls.
I hate it! I am 6ft tall and these exercises in particular are really awkward to do, my legs are too long to get a proper motion going and the weights bump me on the shins! (This in itself is quite funny to watch seeing that I add an extra weight under the bench to lift it up higher for my legs!:laugh: )

What could I substitute these with? Obviously with free weights/barbell?

FYI my current leg routine looks like this:

Lower Body A
Squat
Stiff leg Deadlift
Leg Extension
Leg Curl
Standing Calf Raise

Lower Body B
Deadlift
Leg Press modified
Lunges
Seated Calf Raise

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Pinkranger626

There's lots of stuff you can sub for leg extensions and leg curls! Leg extensions focus on the quadriceps so you could replace it with a wall sit (lean against a wall and lower your butt down to a 90 degree angle and hold 30-60 seconds), you could do weighted lunges, single leg squats, front squats, curtsey lunges, walking lunges, pendulum lunges (step forward, complete lunge, then step backward with the same leg, complete a lunge= 1 rep).

As for leg curls that works the hamstrings so deadlifts are awesome. Since you're already doing stiff legged deadlifts try single leg deadlifts, killer for hamstrings and core strength! You could also do weighted step ups onto a bench. Or you could replace leg curls with a deadlift drop set or pyramids. Drop sets are when you do a few sets in a row starting with a heavy weight and then lowering the weight on each following set until you complete your sets. I usually do 3 or 4 sets. Pyramids (sometimes also called a ladder) You complete your first reps say 15, then the next set you complete 14 then 13, then 12 etc. all the way down to 1.

Happy leg day!!

Huffdogg

Can you use the "leg thingy" to do GHR's? Arguably the best hamstring out there is the Russian Hamstring Curl, and if you can do one of those you're straight up hardcore. SLDL's are incredible hammy trainers, too, so I don't think you're losing anything dropping the leg curls out of your rotation. Just do more of the SLDL or up the weight. For quads, I'd go high bar (oly) squats or front squats as accessory work on DL day.

SuperCrsa

Awesome!
Thank you both so much!
Will check all suggestions see if I can do them at home and decide from there.

Have a great day!

jacksonpt

Your routine looks pretty good. Only thing I'd add/suggest is GHR. You've got squats, deads, and lunges already... no reason you couldn't just drop leg extensions/curls from the routine if you wanted to - you don't have to substitute them with anything else. If you felt strongly about replacing them with something, you could look at different variations of squats and deads.

SuperCrsa

Your routine looks pretty good. Only thing I'd add/suggest is GHR. You've got squats, deads, and lunges already... no reason you couldn't just drop leg extensions/curls from the routine if you wanted to - you don't have to substitute them with anything else. If you felt strongly about replacing them with something, you could look at different variations of squats and deads.

Thanks! I am not sure why I don't just drop them totally, I only started 7 weeks ago, so slowly upping weights. Want to get the best out of it all!! Lol.

Going to try some different squats!

Can't wait for leg day tuesday!

FrnkLft

I think you're probably doing too much in your training. Theres a lot of fluff in there. Why leg press when you can squat more?

Quads (leg extensions):
The squats are already hitting your quads. If you want to hit them more, forego isolation, and just squat more.

Posterior Chain (hamstrings, glutes, etc... / leg curls)
You're already doing stiff legged deadlifts. These are great for this. Do them more, or introduce the GHR like everyone has said, and alternate it with the SL Deads

You really don't need all this stuff though to have a good program. Keep it simple and efficient.

For example, my lower body days look like this:

Lower A:
BB Squat - Heavy/Strength
SL Deadlift - 5x10
BB Calf Raise

Lower B:
Deadlift - Heavy/Strength
BB Squat - 5x10
BB Calf Raise

That's it, and my strength continues to climb.

Showcase_Brodown

I would say simply drop the leg extensions and curls if you are already doing squats and deadlifts.

Lofteren

Doing leg extensions and curls isn't necessary at all. Squats, deadlifts, front squats and MAYBE lunges and calf raises are all you need to build an impressive set of wheels. I would drop the isolation work completely. If you are dead set on doing it, you could sub ghetto glute ham raises and sissy squats if you could rig up a way to keep your feet in place.

Iron_Siren

Your routine looks pretty good. Only thing I'd add/suggest is GHR. You've got squats, deads, and lunges already... no reason you couldn't just drop leg extensions/curls from the routine if you wanted to - you don't have to substitute them with anything else. If you felt strongly about replacing them with something, you could look at different variations of squats and deads.

this

I'd add a Sumo Lift ..... sweet burn

CoachDreesTraining

80% of your results come from 20% of what you do....

Squat, lunge, deadlift, repeat.

SuperCrsa

Awesome!! thank you, thank you, thank you all for the suggestions!!
Learned a lot from this post!

I just found a routine online (http://www.simplyshredded.com/the-ultimate-female-training-guide.html) and decided to get cracking on it, will look at more variations of the squats.

SuperCrsa

Can you use the "leg thingy" to do GHR's?

I dont have any equipment to do this but holy crap that is hectic!
Ah one day!