Total Leg Balance

[Yohimbe]

What are some of the things you guys do to achieve total leg balance?

My calves are a constant stubborn struggle, but my thighs/glutes are big. However, I'm very quad dominant and need to bring my hamstrings out. With that, I'm lacking on my quad sweep. My upper inner thighs are thick and my teardrop area above the knees is well developed, but my outter quad sweep sucks. I'm wondering if it's something with my stance or feet placement during squats / legs presses etc...

Legs are probably the most lacking body part for a lot of people, so what are some of the things you do for total leg balance?

[guns01]

Re: Total Leg Balance

if something is lacking you should always start off with that area. that and or give it it's own sole training day. for calves haha, you just have to hammer them every day with different rep and set schemes. they are a pain in the ass to grow in those that just dont want to grow.
outer sweep work: abductors with focus on the contraction. that as well as going around slightly wider than shoulder width with toes pointing out like a frog or a duck. that should allow you to feel the outer muscle fire much better

[IRON-GAME]

Re: Total Leg Balance

Great advice Guns

[Yohimbe]

Re: Total Leg Balance

Awesome, thanks brotha. I'm definitely gonna start training my hams first on leg day. I've been playing around with my squat stance, so will go a bit wider with my toes slightly out. I'm a bit bow legged, so that's actually more comfortable for me too.

[Torres]

Re: Total Leg Balance

Just shoot them up with Synthol !!!

[6p6]

Re: Total Leg Balance

Just shoot them up with Synthol !!!

Ha!


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[qhams]

Re: Total Leg Balance

John Meadows recently said in an article that he followed a pro that had great development but this pros workouts did not work for him. He went on to say that he found a guy who struggled with back development but through trials built a great back.This program ended up working for John and he built a hell of back.

Point being is start doing different routines/programs until you find something that works. If you typically train heavy and low reps then switch to higher reps with lighter weight. Try something crazy like German Volume Training or if you typically train high reps then try 5X5 or some type of cluster set training. Try slow negatives or tempo training. Point being is experiment.

As guns said place your weakest area first in your workout, hell place it on the day you have the most energy and feel good. Monday seems to be chest day in most gyms, when by the looks of it it should be leg day. HA! So often we want to place our favorite or strongest muscle group first. Instead we need to reverse that and always place our weakest first....just as Guns said.

Just some things to think about. I will say for good hamstring development you want to do leg curls with an equal amount of hip extension as this also activates the hamstrings. Think Romanian deadlifts, reverse hypers, good morning, etc.

For calves everything I have read some you want to train the gastrocnemius with heavy weight and lower reps 6-12 and the soleus with higher volume and higher reps. Gastrocnemius is best trained in a locked knee position (think 1-leg calf rasies, calf raises on leg press, standing calf raises, etc.) and for the soleus think knees bent like seated calf raises, kneeling calf raises.

Finally work on going through a full range of motion. Get a wicked stretch in the bottom and flex/pause at the top.

Here is a great article in my opinion on calf training:

https://www.t-nation.com/training/best-of-calves

[MOUNTAIN-MAN]

Re: Total Leg Balance

My legs respond to deads heavy hack squats and leg presses

[Yohimbe]

Re: Total Leg Balance

My legs respond to deads heavy hack squats and leg presses

Yes sir, love doing deads and hack squats.

[Yohimbe]

Re: Total Leg Balance

John Meadows recently said in an article that he followed a pro that had great development but this pros workouts did not work for him. He went on to say that he found a guy who struggled with back development but through trials built a great back.This program ended up working for John and he built a hell of back.

Point being is start doing different routines/programs until you find something that works. If you typically train heavy and low reps then switch to higher reps with lighter weight. Try something crazy like German Volume Training or if you typically train high reps then try 5X5 or some type of cluster set training. Try slow negatives or tempo training. Point being is experiment.

As guns said place your weakest area first in your workout, hell place it on the day you have the most energy and feel good. Monday seems to be chest day in most gyms, when by the looks of it it should be leg day. HA! So often we want to place our favorite or strongest muscle group first. Instead we need to reverse that and always place our weakest first....just as Guns said.

Just some things to think about. I will say for good hamstring development you want to do leg curls with an equal amount of hip extension as this also activates the hamstrings. Think Romanian deadlifts, reverse hypers, good morning, etc.

For calves everything I have read some you want to train the gastrocnemius with heavy weight and lower reps 6-12 and the soleus with higher volume and higher reps. Gastrocnemius is best trained in a locked knee position (think 1-leg calf rasies, calf raises on leg press, standing calf raises, etc.) and for the soleus think knees bent like seated calf raises, kneeling calf raises.

Finally work on going through a full range of motion. Get a wicked stretch in the bottom and flex/pause at the top.

Here is a great article in my opinion on calf training:

https://www.t-nation.com/training/best-of-calves

Good stuff brotha. Hamstrings are a very weak point for me, so I've been doing hams first on my leg days and it's made a world of difference. I've also been throwing in abductors as well. I'm gonna keep experimenting with things a bit, but definitely feel like I'm making some good progress over the past few weeks.