BUILD BIG MUSCULAR LEGS

Oh the leg day, the most dreaded day in gym for most people. And the sole reason we now have this chicken leg syndrome among bodybuilders.
 
Some guys just want to have trimmed upper bodies and still be able to fit in their skinny jean, and some guys believe that you shouldn’t train legs if you want to have the ultimate V taper.
 
So what are those guys?
 
Dumb idiots. There’s nothing as stupid as working out but not doing your legs. In fact you should always focus on your legs, they’re the biggest muscles on your body, hence you’ll also get the biggest release in testosterone and growth hormone while doing big leg workouts.
 
So the only people who miss their leg workouts purposely are the new-age nearly gay metrosexual idiots.
 
I guarantee that you don’t want to be in that group of people at all.
 
Then there’s the group of guys who do workout legs, but never seem to get them to grow. There’s bunch of reasons for this occurrence:
 

a) They focus on wrong kinds of exercises (isolation and machines).

b) They focus on high rep training.

c) Their goal after a workout is to “feel the burn”.

d) If they squat they don’t go low or even parallel (these guys usually never squat).

 
I used to belong to that category myself. For years I worked out with high reps in all sorts of machines, I did “feel the burn” and I was sore as hell, but my legs didn’t really grow that much.
 
Only after I stopped doing machines, stopped doing high reps, and stopped seeking for that magical “burn” I was able to make my legs grow significantly.
 
So what’s the “oh so magical” trick to building big wheels?
 

1. Focus on lifting big, stay in the rep ranges between 2-4 or 4-8.

2. Focus on building strength with big multi-joint movements like squats and sumo deadlifts.

3. Add in an exercise for your calves so they won’t lag behind.

4. Progressively add more weight into the bar once you get stronger. As a rule of thumb you should always add up more plates if you can squeeze out more than 8 reps.

5. That’s pretty much it when it comes down to getting stronger and more muscular legs.

 As you can see you don’t need to feel the burn, you don’t need to do do high rep training ever, and you shouldn’t stick with the same weights every week.
 
The only people who can do high rep training and still grow bigger are the fitness models and professional bodybuilders on steroids. That’s right I said it once again. Steroids change everything when it comes down to working out. And that’s the sole reason why you as a natural lifter can’t workout like Ronnie Coleman does…
 
That’s why most people will fail hard when working out. They scan trough a fitness magazine or website. Then they spot some absolutely huge guy with 4% fat and decide that they will do everything like this guy does. Expect that the guy on that magazine is usually on steroids and he can get away with high rep training.
 
After all this isn’t rocket science. All you have to understand is that when you progressively lift more bigger and bigger weights each week, your muscles have no other options than to grow stronger and more bigger. That’s the golden formula of building natural muscle. And it has worked since the 20′s.
 
But we’re not done yet. We haven’t even gone trough the best exercises on building leg muscles!
 

1. SQUAT

Squat is the king of leg movements. There’s no way to go around it.
 
Look around in your gym and see who’s got big legs. Then take a look at what that guy does to have those legs.
 
I can guarantee you that the guy squats a ton of weight.
 
When I started working out I didn’t do squats, I was one of those idiots who did leg curls and everything else but squat.
 
But once I started doing them. Holy fucking shit did my legs grow.
 
The first month that I squatted, I did the good old classic 5×5 program with heavy weights practicing my form. And honestly my legs have never grown as fast as they did back then.
 
So there’s a solid reason why the big guys always preach about squats and deadlifts.
 
NOTE: When doing squats try to go as low as you can without hurting your form. Most guys make the mistake of doing only half squats which leaves less room for muscle activation. So go at least parallel and if you have the flexibility, try ass to grass squats.
 

2. SUMO DEADLIFTS

Most people recognize deadlifts as a back exercise, but in reality it’s a full body movement that activates every single muscle in your body.
 
The biggest stress and muscle activation is located at your legs, ass, and lower back.
 
So to make those deadlifts more of a leg movement, you should do sumo deadlifts (wider stance with legs).
 
Sumo deadlifts won’t only build you a pair of big wheels, as it’s also one of the best movements around to trigger your body to produce more muscle building hormones: testosterone andhuman growth hormone (squats are also great for this).
 
Once you’re done with squats and deadlifts, you don’t need any stupid leg curls or lunges. You simply have worked out all of your major leg muscles.
 

3. CALF RAISES

This is the only isolation exercise I do to my legs. That’s right I squat, I deadlift, and then I do my calfs. That’s all I do to build my legs, and so far it has worked crazily well.
 
The reason why I do calfs as an added bonus on top of squats and deadlifts, is that I when I didn’t do them, I noticed that my calfs lagged behind a bit. So obviously if something like that happens you should work hard on the muscle that lags behind.
 
Hence why I do calf raises. And if you’re building your legs I believe that you should do. Remember that this is the only isolation exercise for legs that I prefer and recommend.
 

CONCLUSION

Building big legs isn’t exactly rocket science. You’ll get great results if you stick to high weights and low reps while always keeping progression in mind.
 
There’s no need to do supersets and hours and hours of high rep exercises to feel the magical burn. Burn means nothing. It’s the muscle that you need to grow stronger and bigger.