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The Ideal Way to Massive Legs

guss

guss

MuscleHead
Aug 11, 2010
380
189
Forced Rep, Negatives, Free Weights & Machines - People have called me mad. They say no sane man would inflict my degree of discipline on himself. Perhaps they're right, but I feel that extremism in the quest of your best is no vice.

If I seem to be in be in the iron grip of Spartan self-denial, it's only because I'm convinced that's what it takes for me to compete with the greatest bodybuilders i the world. The monsters out there today strain the very definitions as to what constitutes a human being, so I simply have to lift myself that much further beyond mortal effort just to stay with them, not only in training but in diet and lifestyle. If I can discipline myself more than the next guy, I will someday beat him.

I don't believe the best muscle is built in young, genetically gifted physiques so much as it hammered, chiseled and tempered over the years in stubborn, steel-tough bodies. To me, the uglier the physique, the better the potential for bodybuilding, because you have to work harder to get something out of it. And hard work always shows.

Time is the only ingredient that enables intensity to yield results. I've been bodybuilding for 10 years and, finally, those years are setting me apart as a bodybuilder with a trademark striated mature muscle.

None of this came easily, especially since I'm from Graz, Austria, which is also Arnold Schwarzenegger's hometown. competition in this part of the word is fierce, so I struggled in the beginning, placing second or third, never first, in contest after contest. Fortunately, all that did was make me want to work even harder to beat my peers. Even then, it was a long climb. Each time I increased my intensity and tightened my discipline, I'd find that someone else would be in the winner's spot. I'd still be second, so I'd have to try even harder.

The lesson I learned is that we too easily deceive ourselves into thinking we're exerting enough effort. To take ourselves over the top, enough is never enough. Only more that we ever thought possible is enough.

It wasn't until two years into my bodybuilding career that I realized my legs were a weak point on my physique. There were two reasons for that: First, I have bad genetics. Second, leg training is the hardest of all, and I didn't like it. I had been working legs twice a week with five sets of squats and five sets of leg extensions for my quads, and five sets of lying leg curls for my hamstrings, 8-12 reps each, but this wasn't nearly enough volume nor intensity.

My only saving grace had been the squats. Emphasis on this free-weight exercise right from the start built a solid foundation in my thighs, preparing them for early muscle maturity. Yet I have to qualify that: in retrospect: I lucked out. Were I to do it over again, I'd postpone free-weight movements until I had more experience. Piling on heavy free weights right out of the gate is very dangerous for a beginner. Your muscles are not yet trained in the proper performance of such exercises, so the risk of injury is high. For that reason, I now recommend that all beginners start with machines to educate their muscles to control each movement. Only when they are more skilled should bodybuilders switch to free weights.

Unchanged over the years is my training split. It has been, and still is, six days a week, with chest, shoulders and calves on Mondays and Thursdays; biceps, back and abdominals on Tuesdays and Fridays; and triceps and legs on Wednesday and Saturdays.

Other aspects of my leg training have changed significantly. Much of that has been made possible by my new career as the principal consultant at Albert Busek's Sportcenter gym in Munich, Germany. Since I'm there all the time, I have more time to train, so my workouts expand to fill that time.

I still swear by squats and leg extensions for my quads and lying leg curls for my hamstrings, but I now do 16 sets and four exercises for quads and 12 sets and three exercises for hamstrings, pyramiding everything.

Quads always begin with squats, four sets of 8-12 reps. My objective with these is straightforward: normal stance, tight form, break parallel, a quick warm-up, then take my first set to absolute failure. AT that point, my spotter starts helping me squeeze out three or four more reps.

Failure requires that everything be correct in order to make my quads work: My entire body must be systemically tight; I flex my traps to keep the bar form crushing into my rhomboids and scapulae; I tighten my hips and abs into a solid mass, and I keep my back as upright as possible so the vertical force is directed into my thighs, rather than into my lower back. I want to feel everything in my legs

By my fourth and final set, my max reps are no more than eight, but I still have my partner help me force out those extra three or four.

Next are back squats, again with conventional form and a natural stance: four sets, each to failure, and a rep range of 8-12, plus three or four forced reps. I'm a big believer in peak contraction, so at the top of each repetition, I squeeze my quads as hard as possible in order to involve as many fibers as possible.

Many bodybuilders disagree, but I swear by leg extensions and include four sets of them in every leg workout. However, I do them very heavy and with a training partner to help me with three or four negative reps after I reach failure. With each of my own reps, I also use peak contraction. Used in the manner, leg extensions are a great mass builder.

Lunges are my fourth and final quad exercise and while they do not represent a significant mass movement, I feel they are one of the best for striations. Holding the barbell on my back, I lunge forward, getting a good stretch so that my trailing knee almost touches the floor, then explode back to the starting position all in one step. Again, I do four sets of 8-12 reps.

My training partner is indispensable when I get to hamstrings. He helps me with negatives on every set of every exercise; plus, I like to apply peak contraction with every rep. To facilitate these two techniques, I stay with machines for my entire hamstring workout and use three different positions.

My favorite hamstring exercise is lying leg curls for four sets. When I hit failure with my very first set, I have my partner start pulling hard against the pad, forcing me to do three or four negatives.

The same approach is used for seated leg curls and standing one-leg curls, each for four sets of 8-12 reps, plus three or four negatives.

I know there's a controversy regarding machines, and I'm the first to admit that free weights are absolutely necessary for optimum mass, but when machines are incorporated with free weights in the manner, using negatives and peak contractions, the combined yield of size and striations is hard to beat. It's certainly the best routine I've found for myself.

Of course, it goes without saying that a routine is only as good as the person who applies it, so whenever someone asks for my secret to size and striations, I have to answer: discipline in both training and diet.

In training, you must constantly go beyond failure, lift as heavy as you can six says a week, preferably on a double-split routine, and stay with it for years in order to build the muscles from deep inside your body all the way to the surface of your skin.

As for diet, I always eat only the cleanest of food -- rice, potatoes, filleted turkey breasts -- never anything less extreme. Never! And always the hard training all year-round.

Add that all up, and you get cuts,. Stay with it for year upon year and constantly increase your training. and you get muscle maturity.

Andreas Munzer
 
J

J_J

Member
Mar 28, 2012
73
1
That reads like a bunch of junk. Wait, did Andreas Munzer write that? I see that name at the bottom. He did a shitload of drugs and died a while ago in his younger 30s, right? Yeah, great guy to take advice from lol


Here is the one best way to get bigger, more powerful legs.

Light easy warm up with a heavy compound exercise like the leg press. Then do one all out set doing as many reps as you can in one minute. A week later try to get more reps in that one minute with the same weight. The next week up the weight. Keep upping the weight and trying to get the same number of reps in that 1 minute timed set. Add one more set at the very end with a heavier weight and try to squeeze out 10 good reps. That's it.

Lifting lighter weights and generating much less power doing other lightweight exercises doesn't add to your legs mass or power or strength. Leg extensions won't help any. There is no use in going beyond one all out heavier set to failure + one quick heavier set. Two sets is all anyone needs + the light warm-up. Everything done after that is a waste of time and energy and won't help at all when it comes to getting bigger and more powerful legs.
 
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PillarofBalance

PillarofBalance

Strength Pimp
Feb 27, 2011
17,066
4,640
Why are you talking like there is only one way? Your post reads like you are speaking gospel. "The one best way." That's unsettling. There are no absolutes.

My leg training consists of squats and deads. Very heavy in the 1 to 5 rep range. Never more than 5. That worked great for me.
 
Hero Swole

Hero Swole

Senior Member
Apr 18, 2013
194
28
Why are you talking like there is only one way? Your post reads like you are speaking gospel. "The one best way." That's unsettling. There are no absolutes.

My leg training consists of squats and deads. Very heavy in the 1 to 5 rep range. Never more than 5. That worked great for me.

x2 that high rep crap on squats never did shit to my legs.
 
J

J_J

Member
Mar 28, 2012
73
1
Why are you talking like there is only one way? Your post reads like you are speaking gospel. "The one best way." That's unsettling. There are no absolutes.

Well, if you are training with your heaviest weights than your first all out set is the best you are going to do. There is no getting around that. Anything you do after that one all out set to failure is going to generate a fraction of what your first set to failure did. That's just how muscles and recovery work.

My leg training consists of squats and deads. Very heavy in the 1 to 5 rep range. Never more than 5. That worked great for me.

And what if you could have done 7 reps on your one set, but you decided to stop at 5 reps because you have a super subjective limitation where you never do more than 5 reps? That is the major fallacy of believing in a magic rep range (1-5, 6-8, 10-12, 15-20, 21s, etc.).
 
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J

J_J

Member
Mar 28, 2012
73
1
x2 that high rep crap on squats never did shit to my legs.

LOL you have "swole" in your name. That is hilarious.

I've never used it for squats. Squats are an exercise that severely limits the amount of power you can generate because the weight has to go through your spine and shoulders. On the leg press for my final set I am doing my last set with just over 2,200 pounds and rising in this specific workout every 1-2 weeks.
 
F

Fury

MuscleHead
Jun 6, 2012
1,666
130
First there is no written rule with anything when it comes training your own body.who says you have to squat to get big legs.your body comes down firstly to genetics.my good friend had 30 inch thighs on a 5 foot 8 body.he did legs two to three times a month.his response to gear and training was insane.All I'm saying what might work for you may not work for me.
 
J

J_J

Member
Mar 28, 2012
73
1
All I'm saying what might work for you may not work for me.

No.

If you move HEAVIER WEIGHTS and take enough time off out of the gym so you can recover and grow larger from your work (4 days? a week? 10 days?) then your legs will get bigger. If you go from leg pressing 2,000 pounds to only pressing 1,000 pounds even if you press it 1,000 times in one workout your legs will get smaller because legs that only press 1,000 pounds will always be smaller than legs that press 2,000 pounds. The only complication is your figuring out how much time you need to take off between trips to the gym so you can recover and use extra calories you are eating to grow larger.
 
F

Fury

MuscleHead
Jun 6, 2012
1,666
130
Jj I break it down for you.when I was training hard back in the 90s I was fortunate enough to have two top pros.one got second to lee Haney at the night of champion I think the call it the New York pro and got eighth in the mr o.the second guy was a mr universe and mr world champ.both trained completely different one trained super heavy as he was naturally super strong the other moderate weights not heavy thats the guy who competed in the mr o.when they both hit leg shots no comparison.what you got to understand bb is about genetic and drugs simple then the training along with food.how did Ronnie Colman go from a average bb who was placing poorly in shows and then boom what the fu$k happened.he always trained hard and heavy as he also had a power lifting back round.the difference he got with the program he upped and upped his dosage to what we saw as probably the greatest bb of all time.there are so many guys I saw train top pros like Paul dillet who didn't even squat flex wheeler Aaron baker who trained with moderate weights.this was my observations.like I said every body's body is different and some people are just not built to lift heavy.if I want to get big again jj trust me my training with heavy weight will have little to do with it.it will be grams and grams of gear lol
 
sootywooty

sootywooty

MuscleHead
Sep 12, 2013
386
48
First there is no written rule with anything when it comes training your own body.who says you have to squat to get big legs.your body comes down firstly to genetics.my good friend had 30 inch thighs on a 5 foot 8 body.he did legs two to three times a month.his response to gear and training was insane.All I'm saying what might work for you may not work for me.

I agree with this some parts grow easy for some whatever they do, i watched some do really heavy squats and their legs seemed to stay the same size, some just did a few leg curls and things and their legs grow like mad.

Its like with Bigun he says he hardly trains arms and they still grow, theirs me i have tried the lot nearly and they still wont shift that much.
 
chestrockwell420

chestrockwell420

MuscleHead
Oct 9, 2012
768
71
well i can def say i need to do something diff with my wheels. i def need ot lower my reps and go balls out fo the reps that i do. i have stubborn legs but i know there is a way for me to make them huge...def gonna bump them up to training twice a week as i recover fast and believe i can handle the frequency...
 
F

Fury

MuscleHead
Jun 6, 2012
1,666
130
Like I said in my above post I saw first hand two pros for two years 5 days a week train completely different to accomplish there goals.no written rule that even applies to gear usage.
 
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