Because upper leg training is so strenuous
and demanding, a lot of bodybuilders find their leg development lagging
behind simply because they don't put an all-out effort into it. They
look in the mirror and are disappointed in how their legs look, but they
don't realize the kind of total concentration of effort it takes to make
those huge muscles like legs muscles to respond.
Leg workouts simply have to be brutal to
be effective. This involves a mental effort almost as much as a physical
one. Normal workouts are hard enough, but if thighs happen to be a weak
point in your physique, you have to be prepared to push yourself even
more. That means forcing yourself to break down any inhibition or
barrier, blasting your thighs to create total development.
Many bodybuilders have trouble going to
total failure in leg training. After all, going to exhaustion with 400
pounds across the back of your neck can be scary. This is why having a
training partner to spot you is especially important for leg training.
When you have forced out all the reps you can for you squats, stand
there, hold the weight for a moment, then try for one more rep. Push you
body to its limit. But make sure somebody is standing by to spot you
when you do this. Also, when doing leg presses try to push yourself to
this same degree, forcing the legs to exhaustion just the way you would
do with any other body part.
If you want to build gigantic thighs
and shapely glutes, you must always ask yourself this question: Is it
true that I really cannot do another rep? In our experience, whenever we
challenged anyone this way, he usually could force out one more.
However, as important as hard and heavy
training is for thigh and glute development, don't make the mistake of
confusing sheer effort with effective effort. As in any bodybuilding
training, you have to use the correct technique if you want the maximum
results. Besides going for maximum intensity in all of your thigh
exercises, pay close attention to how the movement is supposed to be
executed and try to master the technique involved. That way, your
efforts will not be wasted and your leg muscles development will never
lag behind.
For sure, your own physical proportions
may dictate variations in your training. Certain bodybuilders with short
legs, find squats easy and rewarding. Their physical proportions give a
mechanical and leverage advantage that makes it easier to execute squats
properly using very heavy weight. A taller bodybuilder usually finds
that the lower back becomes much more involved in this exercise than
would be true for a shorter man. In fact, squats were our best lower
back exercise. Doing front squats - a movement in which you must keep
your back straight - in addition to regular squats, is the best way of
getting the most out of your leg workouts.
We found that we were able to stay in a
much better groove doing squats by putting a low block under our heels.
You can try this yourself to see if this improves your balance and the
feel of the exercise. Just be careful not to use too high a block, which
throws you too far onto your toes and tends to make you fall forward.
Another variation that can prove useful is doing squats on a smith
machines, where the bar slides along a fixed track and you don't have to
worry about the weight sliding off your shoulders.
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