Can't seem to grow legs and quads

I cannot seem to grow my legs/quads. I've been working out, eating an adequate amount of protein and eating enough too. The only reason I raise this comcern is because my arms/biceps are growing so fast and I don't want them to grow out of proportion with my lower body. Is there anything I can do to grow my quads and legs?

Replies

  • Mycophilia
    Mycophilia Posts: 1,225 Member
    Are you skipping leg day? Come on, be honest.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    working out. eating adequately.

    those are very vague terms. care to provide any relevant details?
  • _benjammin
    _benjammin Posts: 1,224 Member
    Squat 3x a week and DL 2x a week, gained on inch around my thighs in a year. No idea how much was quad or hamstring but happier with how my legs look from any angle.
  • Giolis
    Giolis Posts: 1,204 Member
    are you doing squats and deadlifts? You should do squats every workout.
  • jakehope87
    jakehope87 Posts: 22 Member
    I disagree with working a big compound every work out, you give time for adequate growth, definitely hit squats, presses and lunges in one workout, hitting legs like that on three big movements is more than enough to shock.

    Also try pre exhausting your quads or hams prior to a big lifting exercise like squats bro.

    I.e. A lightish/comfortable weight at 4-5 sets of 12-15 reps on curls or extensions before hitting the rack! You'll definitely know about in the following days!!!
  • yusaku02
    yusaku02 Posts: 3,472 Member
    Squat (with weights obviously) three times a week
    Your legs will grow.
  • _benjammin
    _benjammin Posts: 1,224 Member
    jakehope87 wrote: »
    I disagree with working a big compound every work out, you give time for adequate growth, definitely hit squats, presses and lunges in one workout, hitting legs like that on three big movements is more than enough to shock.

    Also try pre exhausting your quads or hams prior to a big lifting exercise like squats bro.

    I.e. A lightish/comfortable weight at 4-5 sets of 12-15 reps on curls or extensions before hitting the rack! You'll definitely know about in the following days!!!
    ^All broscience

  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,970 Member
    If they aren't growing, then normally it's due to lack of intensity and/or exercises for them.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    9285851.png
  • Giolis
    Giolis Posts: 1,204 Member
    _benjammin wrote: »
    jakehope87 wrote: »
    I disagree with working a big compound every work out, you give time for adequate growth, definitely hit squats, presses and lunges in one workout, hitting legs like that on three big movements is more than enough to shock.

    Also try pre exhausting your quads or hams prior to a big lifting exercise like squats bro.

    I.e. A lightish/comfortable weight at 4-5 sets of 12-15 reps on curls or extensions before hitting the rack! You'll definitely know about in the following days!!!
    ^All broscience

    Agree!
    jakehope87 wrote: »
    I disagree with working a big compound every work out, you give time for adequate growth, definitely hit squats, presses and lunges in one workout, hitting legs like that on three big movements is more than enough to shock.

    Also try pre exhausting your quads or hams prior to a big lifting exercise like squats bro.

    I.e. A lightish/comfortable weight at 4-5 sets of 12-15 reps on curls or extensions before hitting the rack! You'll definitely know about in the following days!!!

    Bad idea. This is a good way to break form and hurt yourself. Gains come from progressive overload. Isolation exercises are for tweaking muscles that are already there. Main growth is from compound exercises.

  • KittensMaster
    KittensMaster Posts: 748 Member
    A combination of good heavy dead lifts, stiff leg dead lifts one day, squats another day, and ride a real bicycle hard a few days a week.

    It will be a good blend of cardio and compound exercise

    That has worked well for me.

  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    Giolis wrote: »
    _benjammin wrote: »
    jakehope87 wrote: »
    I disagree with working a big compound every work out, you give time for adequate growth, definitely hit squats, presses and lunges in one workout, hitting legs like that on three big movements is more than enough to shock.

    Also try pre exhausting your quads or hams prior to a big lifting exercise like squats bro.

    I.e. A lightish/comfortable weight at 4-5 sets of 12-15 reps on curls or extensions before hitting the rack! You'll definitely know about in the following days!!!
    ^All broscience

    Agree!
    jakehope87 wrote: »
    I disagree with working a big compound every work out, you give time for adequate growth, definitely hit squats, presses and lunges in one workout, hitting legs like that on three big movements is more than enough to shock.

    Also try pre exhausting your quads or hams prior to a big lifting exercise like squats bro.

    I.e. A lightish/comfortable weight at 4-5 sets of 12-15 reps on curls or extensions before hitting the rack! You'll definitely know about in the following days!!!

    Bad idea. This is a good way to break form and hurt yourself. Gains come from progressive overload. Isolation exercises are for tweaking muscles that are already there. Main growth is from compound exercises.

    worked fine for me. just sayin
  • Ironmaiden4life
    Ironmaiden4life Posts: 422 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    If they aren't growing, then normally it's due to lack of intensity and/or exercises for them.

    ^^^ This

    More info on your work out OP would be helpful..... training split, frequency, volume, exercise selection, training variables
  • ovidnine
    ovidnine Posts: 314 Member
    Add front squats and/or dumb bell split squats for quad growth. Do 3-4 sets of 10-12.
    Add good mornings and/or romanian deadlifts to build hamstrings. Again 3-4 sets 10-12.

    Start LIGHT with these. Add them on your leg days (1 of each).

    After 3 weeks, add weights or add sets.

    Your legs will hate you, you will build muscle.

    And in time, you will increase size.

    Oh, and yeah, do NOT pre-exhaust anything before doing your big lifts. As others have said, that's an excellent way for your form to go and injury to happen.
  • Ironmaiden4life
    Ironmaiden4life Posts: 422 Member
    ovidnine wrote: »
    Add front squats and/or dumb bell split squats for quad growth. Do 3-4 sets of 10-12.
    Add good mornings and/or romanian deadlifts to build hamstrings. Again 3-4 sets 10-12.

    Start LIGHT with these. Add them on your leg days (1 of each).

    After 3 weeks, add weights or add sets.

    Your legs will hate you, you will build muscle.

    And in time, you will increase size.

    Oh, and yeah, do NOT pre-exhaust anything before doing your big lifts. As others have said, that's an excellent way for your form to go and injury to happen.

    Pre-exhaustion training is an excellent training variable when applied properly. I do not recommend it for beginners but for intermediate and advanced lifters it can be great training tool to include in your program. Unfortunately I can't say the same for your cookie cutter approach to leg days.

  • ovidnine
    ovidnine Posts: 314 Member
    ovidnine wrote: »
    Add front squats and/or dumb bell split squats for quad growth. Do 3-4 sets of 10-12.
    Add good mornings and/or romanian deadlifts to build hamstrings. Again 3-4 sets 10-12.

    Start LIGHT with these. Add them on your leg days (1 of each).

    After 3 weeks, add weights or add sets.

    Your legs will hate you, you will build muscle.

    And in time, you will increase size.

    Oh, and yeah, do NOT pre-exhaust anything before doing your big lifts. As others have said, that's an excellent way for your form to go and injury to happen.

    Pre-exhaustion training is an excellent training variable when applied properly. I do not recommend it for beginners but for intermediate and advanced lifters it can be great training tool to include in your program. Unfortunately I can't say the same for your cookie cutter approach to leg days.

    I am curious as to how a proven method for growing muscle size, hypertrophy, is considered "cookie cutter?" Because its proven to work?

    If you want to grow quads, do lifts that grow your quads. And hypertrophy workouts tend to grow muscles bigger.

    And if you're growing your quads, you want to work your hamstrings too or you're really going to hate yourself down the line.

    Is my suggestion the only way? Not hardly, but its a simple and effective way.

    The OP did not give us much info, and above, you did as for more info, but my post, echoing others, is working off the assumption the OP is at best an intermediate lifter, but sounds closer to beginner just due to "fast growth" of arms/biceps that often occurs during the beginner stage of lifting.

    I didn't intend to sound like the final authority on this, because I'm not. At all.
  • XavierNusum
    XavierNusum Posts: 720 Member
    I split between strength (high intensity/weight low volume) days and hypertrophy (low intensity /weight high volume) days. So I hit upper body, legs/quads and back/hams twice a week!
  • stephxo1
    stephxo1 Posts: 191 Member
    Hit them twice a week and be patient. I found when I started training legs properly early in the year they actually got smaller with the fat loss before starting to grow some muscle so bear with it. I followed PMB from Jan-July and just started PHUL recently. Both programs hit legs twice a week. Oh and I threw in a 20rep squat program at the end of PMB which helps massively with leg gains as it increased legs to 3 times per week. Good luck!
  • V_Keto_V
    V_Keto_V Posts: 342 Member
    edited August 2015
    Twice weekly works well for many
    Don't be afraid to try less popular movements like lungs, barbell hack squats, front squats, 1 and 1/2 back squats (glute killer), or relatively light weight ATG squats (full range of motion as physically possible)
  • Ironmaiden4life
    Ironmaiden4life Posts: 422 Member

    V_Keto_V wrote: »
    Twice weekly works well for many
    Don't be afraid to try less popular movements like lungs, barbell hack squats, front squats, 1 and 1/2 back squats (glute killer), or relatively light weight ATG squats (full range of motion as physically possible)

    1.5 squats..... my coaches ears were burning when he put those in my program and not with all the nice things I normally say about him lol