Leg training

Sup gents,

So my main goal for this year is to add some considerable size to my legs. I am very happy with the transformation of my body over the past few years however legs have somewhat lagged. I have a few questions and concerns that I'd like some help and guidance with.

Currently I do a Legs / Push / Pull routine (3 days on, 1 day off. 2 off if I feel it's needed).

Legs would be something like:

Warmup with superset leg extensions and hamstring curls. Like 4 sets.

5 x 10 squats.
5 x 10 leg press.
5 x 10 hamstring curls.

By now I am usually fucked but this can be followed by 3 or so sets of lunges and / or hacksquats.

Now I've been in the game quite a long time. I realize that adding size to a specific muscle means adding size overall. My legs are gigantic compared to what they used to be, but just not there. I have very (and I mean very) stiff hamstrings overall.Their stiffness spreads from my toes to my lower back. I have been suffering some knee pain and I'm starting to think that it has to do with stiff hammies, calves and muscles in the balls of my feet. When I do (eg) squats the tense and stiff muscles pull me out of tthe ideal range of motion. I am going to invest in some flat sole shoes. Was thinking Reebok or Nike but fuck it, Converse All Stars should suffice? (first question). Secondly, stretches for hamstrings to really get them loose? The standard statac stretching doesn't really seem to work.

My hip flexors are also stiff as fuck. What can I do to stretch them out and open them up? When I train legs I can sometimes feel my flexors taking over the load. Especially when squatting, I have to intensely focus on keeping the weight off my hips.

I honestly feel that RDLs don't target my hamstrings. I cannot find that mind muscle connection. When I do hamstring curls, I can feel my hammies working but either my hips, calves or hip flexors eventually take over the load. The main thing that's helped in this regard is really tensing and squeezing my glutes while working hamstrings. Am I on the right track here? How important is squeezing glutes during hamstring specific exercises?

What other alternative exercises are there that I can do to target hamstrings? My gym is limited in the sense that we have standing and lying hamstring curls machines and then I can do RDLs.

Has anyone experienced this pervasive stiffness that stretches from your toes to your lower back? I've wanted to see a specialist for the right type of inners for my shoes for a while now but probably won't get to that anytime soon. I don't want to further fuck my posture and muscle balance whilst training legs.

Last question, in my case, would it be necessary or beneficial to split quads and hamstring onto two different days? I need to gain size overall, but my hammies are nonexistent and it's annoying AF. I've always thought that having one day for legs, spreading quads and hams equally, would be enough.

Sorry for the long post, hopefully it's coherent. Looking forward to the replies!(I'm eating enough calories btw.)

Slin just below page no. 3. If you want simlar i can share my routine? Remember a lot of that is genetic...

Please post your routine Fillet. I would appreciate it!

Ok just answered my own question somewhat. Doing some unweighted hip thrusts at the moment and wow. Can’t believe The burn in glutes and hammies.

You can try Bulgarian Split Squats also. Good for sorting out imbalances and to strengthen knees and work each leg on its own.

I would suggest starting unweighted until you are confident with the technique and form.

I've switched up my routine and changed it to focus on hamstrings and glutes until they balance my quads.

Yesterday I did:

5 x 15, 12, 10, 10, 10, 7 Squats.

4 x 12 Hip Thrusts. Man oh man, what a burn! Can definitely feel this eating into my hamstrings and glutes. I managed about 12 reps on the smith machine and then pushed out 4-5 forced / pulse reps.

4 x Stiff Legged Deadlifts. Using straps made this efficient. I'm not gonna drop this one just yet. I need to fix my form and focus on the mind muscle connection. I can feel the stretch on my hammies as I lower, on the way up it's all glute.

3 x 10 Lying Hamstring Curls superset with weighted Lunges (emphasis on glutes).

4 x 12-15 Hip Abductions (or "bad girls", as you open your legs) on the machine. I lean forward, placing the emphasis on my glutes. This is a nice finisher.

My hamstrings are burning today and quite sore. Enjoy running the 3 flights of stairs at my work, consistently. Will run my legs day like this for a few weeks and see what happens.

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Edit**

As for the stiffness I spoke about, I consulted my man Jeff Cavalier on Athlean X (Youtube). My stiff hammies are possibly the result of my stiff hip flexors and slight anterior pelvic tilt. I'm using some of his methods to try and see if it will help. I'm not stretching my hamstrings directly at the moment.

Witwolf back in 2013 on varsity I worked with a coach from the U.S.
Back then I wanted to compete because I was a student and had a good amount of money so I basically lived in the gym.

I had a program that I did legs 4 times a week
Monday in the A.M and P.M
Thursday in the A.M and P.M

In the mornings I would go in and do a heavy session and then night time I would go again and do high volume.
My quads was okay but my hammies and calves sucked.

This program made my legs develop extremely fast but it's a different kind of commitment to follow a program like that. And if you don't use AAS or Gh and don't sleep well and follow a meal plan you will burn out.

Will see if I can get hold of the exact program on my old email and post it. This guy also trains alot of Ifbb pro's in the U.S . When it comes to training they take a completely different approach than the coaches in S.A. A guy with a normal mindset can't stick and it became to hectic for me aswell.

Legs would sometimes take 2 to 3 hours to finish and I would complain but they just tell you to get some carbs or sleep some more haha it only took me 4 months to double my leg size.

Good old days , now I have work and other commitments and can't train more than 5 times a week or twice a day.

But will post it and you can give it a shot.

Xtreme wrote: Witwolf back in 2013 on varsity I worked with a coach from the U.S.
Back then I wanted to compete because I was a student and had a good amount of money so I basically lived in the gym.

I had a program that I did legs 4 times a week
Monday in the A.M and P.M
Thursday in the A.M and P.M

In the mornings I would go in and do a heavy session and then night time I would go again and do high volume.
My quads was okay but my hammies and calves sucked.

This program made my legs develop extremely fast but it's a different kind of commitment to follow a program like that. And if you don't use AAS or Gh and don't sleep well and follow a meal plan you will burn out.

Will see if I can get hold of the exact program on my old email and post it. This guy also trains alot of Ifbb pro's in the U.S . When it comes to training they take a completely different approach than the coaches in S.A. A guy with a normal mindset can't stick and it became to hectic for me aswell.

Legs would sometimes take 2 to 3 hours to finish and I would complain but they just tell you to get some carbs or sleep some more haha it only took me 4 months to double my leg size.

Good old days , now I have work and other commitments and can't train more than 5 times a week or twice a day.

But will post it and you can give it a shot.

I would be interested to see the routine. I am always keen to try new things and am an ardent believer of switching things up 180*, in order to see new results. Can't keep approaching life's challenges with the same attitude and expect different results.

I am, however, not on a cycle at the moment. Only running some LGD4033 which I'll cease end of May.

Ben Pakulski Intermediate program MI40

Oupa wrote: Ben Pakulski Intermediate program MI40

Interesting idea. I've done his beginner routine, Intermediate was too much volume off cycle (to me at least). Will look into it but adapt it to my Push/Pull/Legs routine. I've kind of made 4 second negatives part of my routine after doing the beginner program.

Ben het nog elke keer my gat geskop

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EDIT**

Wag fok! Goeie idee. Ek gaan net weer op die beginner program klim! Tyd om te kak!! Yippeee. But I might swap out a few exercises here and there for my aesthetic purposes.

I think the best way to train legs is yo hammer them with alot of volume because its a stubborn muscle i deff gor the short straw when it comes to legs / calves and forearms and shoulders