How to get bigger legs (realistically)
ynsanders
Posts: 12 Member
Just a quick background on my self... I am 194lb male that work legs four to five times a week with three of the days being heavy. My numbers are: 325 front squat/460 back squat breaking the parallel/585 deadlift. I eat around 3500 calories a day, and I work at a stand up desk, my choice. It does not matter what I do my legs does not get bigger but I do see great cuts. Any suggestions other then steroids lol.
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How long have you been at this?0
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I been at this for two years now... The thing is, I just did a Spartan in Wintergreen Virginia and after the race my upper leg did grow .5in in circumference. So I was think should I start doing more stair climbers?0
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Could you write out your workouts so we could see them? My first thought is that 4-5 leg days seems like a lot and could burn through a lot of calories. You may just not be eating enough to grow.0
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you have to take time off to grow, we don't grow in the gym we grow when we rest.. I think you will see better gains in size with a Variable Split Training type of routine..2 leg days a week max, one is heavy and the other is volume.. My legs have grown 2" in the last year with this split.. I used to do legs all the time also. I have a ton of brutal leg workouts I can give if anyone is interested.0
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Legs workouts are my warm up so when I'm not doing legs I would start my workout with a dead lift starting at 225 progressing by 20lbs with 10 sets of 10... I do that for front squats, back squats, hand cleans, and power cleans... I seen that doing that helps with my races and I seen definition throughout my leg with doing that.
Leg day I do 3 sets of 8 back squats progression/4 sets of 8 leg press progression/4 sets of 8 hack squats/4 sets of 8 romain dead lift/smith machine weight standing calf raises 4 sets of 15.
Like I said I seen definition and increased performances from this constant routine but I am not gettiing the size that I want... I would even say that 4 added inches would be perfect.0 -
I been work standing for a year now and I seen insanely fast recovery from this, so that is why I increase the leg workouts per week while my overall max numbers and reps continues to increase.
I was thinking about upping my protein and fat intake because there is no telling how many calories I burn by standing because because I started to see that even with my 3500 cal intake diet I am still loosing weight and not maintaining.0 -
fat increase wont build muscle, carbs with proteins will though.. but if your goal is to be lean and see cuts then try sticking with your same nutrition and try switching your leg training.. for example, do a few weeks of leg press variations instead of squats, that will put ALL the strain on the quads and hams and take the load off of the rest of the body.. example : 10 - 20 - 30 - 40 - 50 reps.. only rest between sets is adding weight.. its a progressive overload workout.. and then do a 10 x 10 with leg curls and leg extensions to finish.. also very little rest between sets.. I finish that with a 10 x 10 of seated and standing calf raises0
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the 10-20-30-40-50 rep scheme will destroy your legs if you use the right weight.. you will have to use a lot of rest pauses to get through the reps.. example : 10 reps with 1 plate on each side, 20 reps with 2 plates immediately after that, 30 reps 3 plates etc etc..... the first time I did this i didnt get over 3 plates per side but I still did the 40 - 50 reps with the 3 plates.. my legs grew very fast with this workout0
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and yes, up your calories.. bring them up until you start gaining weight and monitor the type of gains it is.. if you start to see fat then take it down 100 calories a week.. I am 192lbs and I eat 3500 calories when I'm leaning out.. I eat 4000-4500 to gain0
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20 rep squats done the correct way. Take your 10 rep max and do 20. Take as long as you need to , no time limit, you cannot rack the bar until you get your 20, rest with the bar on your back and take 2-3 deep breaths. You will be doing them with a lot of singles & doubles. Start with what would seem like a light squat weight. do this 2-3 x per week , increasing the weight each time. If you are using the correct weight you should start to doubt your sanity about rep 12- 14. Have fun Google Eric Heiden the speed skater- he did high rep squats and had massive upper legs also Tom Platz0
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Legs workouts are my warm up so when I'm not doing legs I would start my workout with a dead lift starting at 225 progressing by 20lbs with 10 sets of 10... I do that for front squats, back squats, hand cleans, and power cleans... I seen that doing that helps with my races and I seen definition throughout my leg with doing that.
Leg day I do 3 sets of 8 back squats progression/4 sets of 8 leg press progression/4 sets of 8 hack squats/4 sets of 8 romain dead lift/smith machine weight standing calf raises 4 sets of 15.
Like I said I seen definition and increased performances from this constant routine but I am not gettiing the size that I want... I would even say that 4 added inches would be perfect.
How often are you doing this leg work out on a weekly basis (3 as per your first post)? You also mention you race, what kind? Running?
My immediate thought was that it's a lot of work for the legs, and if you are doing that week in and week out there is no recovery time for the legs to grow. I would scale back to a single heavy day per week, with a light day 3 days later or so. Sometimes less is more, took me a long time to get my head around that.
Another 500 cals a day probably wouldn't hurt either.
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Seconding some volume work. I haven't seen the inside of a gym since my freshman year of college and my thighs have bulked out of multiple brands simply from doing road trips by bicycle. It couldn't hurt.0
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Legs workouts are my warm up so when I'm not doing legs I would start my workout with a dead lift starting at 225 progressing by 20lbs with 10 sets of 10... I do that for front squats, back squats, hand cleans, and power cleans... I seen that doing that helps with my races and I seen definition throughout my leg with doing that.
Leg day I do 3 sets of 8 back squats progression/4 sets of 8 leg press progression/4 sets of 8 hack squats/4 sets of 8 romain dead lift/smith machine weight standing calf raises 4 sets of 15.
Like I said I seen definition and increased performances from this constant routine but I am not gettiing the size that I want... I would even say that 4 added inches would be perfect.
How often are you doing this leg work out on a weekly basis (3 as per your first post)? You also mention you race, what kind? Running?
My immediate thought was that it's a lot of work for the legs, and if you are doing that week in and week out there is no recovery time for the legs to grow. I would scale back to a single heavy day per week, with a light day 3 days later or so. Sometimes less is more, took me a long time to get my head around that.
Another 500 cals a day probably wouldn't hurt either.
I do Spartans/Tough Mudders/really any thing with obstacles.0 -
20 rep squats done the correct way. Take your 10 rep max and do 20. Take as long as you need to , no time limit, you cannot rack the bar until you get your 20, rest with the bar on your back and take 2-3 deep breaths. You will be doing them with a lot of singles & doubles. Start with what would seem like a light squat weight. do this 2-3 x per week , increasing the weight each time. If you are using the correct weight you should start to doubt your sanity about rep 12- 14. Have fun Google Eric Heiden the speed skater- he did high rep squats and had massive upper legs also Tom Platz
I read about the 1 set 50 reps, is that the same?0
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