These Are The Best Leg Workouts For Mass. Efficient Exercises And Great Results. What More Could You Want?
It’s not the easiest thing in the world to find the perfect point between undertraining the legs and overdoing leg training. Interestingly, the majority of gym goers fall into one category or the other.
One the one hand you’ll come across the person that hogs the squat rack for a solid 45 minutes before continuing with the rest of his gruelling2-hour leg session.
Conversely, there’s the other type of gym goer that insists on only using machines for his entire leg routine and not a drop of sweat is to be found on his body.
The reality for most people is that leg day training should be more in the middle. Don’t be the wannabe bodybuilder every week who ends up crippling them self but also don’t be the rookie that feels a combination of leg curls and leg extensions three times a week is the definition of leg day.
Just go for the middle route where you’re training your lower body twice a week with a fair amount of intensity.
Compound Exercises Are Essential
There really isn’t anything wrong with doing leg curls and leg extensions but the foundation of any leg training routine has to make use of compound moves such as squats, deadlifts or lunges.
These power moves hit all the right muscles including the hamstrings, quadriceps and glutes. Most guys aren’t interested in training the buttocks unless they’re trying to impress someone they’re into.
But think about this. Not training your glutes is an unfortunate situation since it’s such a large muscle and training it can speed up your metabolism. Another benefit is the fact that every women’s magazine has made a good butt the goal of life itself so this means most women will be checking out your posterior way before they even notice your biceps or abs.
Angles Are Where It’s At
Every body part should ultimately be trained in a way that hits all the muscle fibres because the human body is pretty complex and your muscles aren’t that binary.
To create a complete set of tree trunk legs you’re going to have to target all areas of your quads, hamstrings and glutes. This is achieved by changing your stance, doing different variations of the same exercise and changing your leg movements.
Don’t just do the same thing every workout and expect your muscles to respond optimally to repetitive types of stimulation.
Activate The Core
This particular leg workouts for mass make use of regular squat movements but each one has a unique twist added so that you get a lot of ab work included.
This might not sound fun but the reality is that a large number of guys are weak in the ab game and you’re certainly not going to be lifting maximal loads with a weak core.
You have to work on your weaknesses to enhance the results of training your stronger areas no matter what muscle group you’re training.
The Best Leg Workouts For Mass
Leg Routine 1
Dumbbell Overhead Bulgarian Split Squat
Perform 4-5 sets of 8-12 repetitions per side
How To Begin: Take one light dumbbell in your hand and while standing upright, put the toes of the same hand that’s holding the dumbbell on a bench behind you while keeping the knee of that leg bent. Push the dumbbell straight up so that it’s above your shoulder.
The Move: Keep your arm straight overhead the whole time and while you do, bend at the knee of the opposite leg (the one not on the bench) until your knee forms a 90 degree angle. Step back up to the starting position and repeat until you reach your target reps the change sides.
Tip: This movement might make you unconsciously lean forward as you descend on each rep but maintain a straight upper body at all times.
Kettlebell Swing With Flip To Squat
Perform 2-4 sets of 8-15 repetitions
How To Begin: Pick up a kettlebell with two hands, maintain a straight upper body with arms hanging down. Keep the feet spaced a little wider than hip width apart.
The Move: Bend at the knees and lower yourself while the kettlebell dips between your legs. While your arms are hanging, powerfully swing the weight up by thrusting your hips forward and raising the arms. Once the kettlebell reaches shoulder height, drop underneath it by bending the knees and elbows quickly and let the weight flip over in front of your hands. Catch the weight in front of yourself in a full squat stance. Now stand up as you press the weight overhead and then drop back to the starting position.
Tip: Pay close attention to every movement in this exercise. The explosive pushing up, the catching, dropping and flipping of the weight. No time to play on your phone with this high level move.
Single Leg Extension With Angled Crunch
Perform 4-5 sets of 10-20 repetitions
How To Begin: Get to a leg extension machine and adjust the pad so it sits over the front of the ankles.
The Move: Do a regular leg extension with just your right leg and as you do it, do a crunch so that your left pectoral moves over the right knee. Reverse this movement and repeat for the other leg so that you’re doing an extension with the left leg this time and the right pec moves across the left knee. This counts as one rep. Once you’ve done all the necessary repetitions for the set, finish up with regular, double leg extensions until muscular failure.
Tip: Don’t bounce the weight up and down. You’ve got to protect your knees. Focus on making your leg really long and pointing your toe out as far as possible.
Leg Routine 2
Smith Machine Front Squat To Back Squat
Perform 4-5 sets of 8-12 repetitions (8-12 repetitions each for the front squats and 8-12 repetitions for the back squats).
How To Begin: Get to a Smith machine and stand up straight with your feet spaced shoulder width apart. Keep the bar across the front shoulders as you hold the bar with your hands and maintain an upright head.
The Move: Drop into a normal squat position as you keep the chest out and the back nice and flat. Create a 90 degree angle with your thighs and then push back up. Repeat for the target number of reps, place the bar back in the safety, get under it and do regular back squats for the target number of reps.
Tip: Think of pushing your body up with your heels instead of your toes when you do the back squats as this will activate more of your hamstrings and glutes.
Lying Leg Curl To Hyperextension
Perform 4-5 sets of 8-15 repetitions
How To Begin: If possible, select one of those leg curls machines that have an angled bench instead of the flat one. If you aren’t so fortunate just use the flat bench version. Lie down flat on your stomach and keep the pads against the back of your ankles and keep the knees off the bench.
The Move: Bend the knees and contract the hamstrings as you bring your heels towards your butt. When you’re at the top of the movement, squeeze your lower back to perform a hyperextension. It will be a tiny version of a regular hyperextension. Lower your body back to the bench and go back to the starting position.
Tip: Because this particular hyperextension is such a small movement, you really want to get quality reps out. In order to do this, slowly lift your body and really feel the contraction. Don’t simply crank out reps.
This concludes the leg workouts for mass routines that you can implement today to increase the your lower body muscle mass and get legs that look like tree trunks with a little bit of consistency.
