The 10 ultimate principles for building quads and hams

The 10 ultimate principles for building quads and hams

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Nasser's Leg World
The Human nature is your worst enemy. It seduces you into thinking you're doing yourself a favor whenever you devise an easier way to do something, but it disguises the price you'll pay for that convenience. Regardless of whether you're a Mr. Olympia-caliber bodybuilder or one who dreams of someday being one, that price has a tragic cost: all of your hard-fought gains in muscle mass and the axe-deep cuts that go with them.
Fortunately, I've kept my momentum forging ahead throughout my career, but only because I've adhered to the following principles and workouts. Keep in mind that although this article is a short course in how I train today, I expect you to use it as a distant goal for yourself.

Start with the workouts in the "Foundation Leg Training", but continually try to progress to those in "Nasser's Leg Training." I can't offer you much hope in ever getting there, because to do that you also need "Nasser's Strength and Work Ethic," but those are two qualities many observers tell me are out of the reach of most individuals. Perhaps you'll prove that thesis wrong.

HATE AND PAIN
You probably know where this is leading: my "hate and pain" philosophy, which states that the more difficult the challenge you lay on yourself, the harder you have to fight and the more you will improve. Conversely, the easier your goal, the less you need to exert yourself and the less you will improve.

Nowhere is this more evident than in a bodybuilder's concept of seasons. I don't know who came up with the idea that there should be separate offseason and precontest training periods, but that distinction has done more to retard physiques than all the headphones in history.

There is a misconception that if you continue to train heavy during precontest, you'll fall into a catabolic state and lose muscularity. Thus, many bodybuilders ease up on their weights and rely on a depletion diet during the precontest period to put them in contest shape.

Unfortunately, success in bodybuilding entails biting the bullet. Never, ever, make things easier for yourself. If, during the offseason, you set personal records in poundage and reps, it's your obligation as a bodybuilder to take them even further during precontest. A new darkness of pain will await you, but there's greater glory beyond it.

Look closely at my legs in these photos. Notice their mass and the depth of their cuts. Then count the plates I'm using for squats. Now consider that these shots were taken only two weeks out from the 2001 Mr. Olympia, after I had been in contest training for nearly three months. However, my legs have as much mass, with even deeper separations and more individual muscle definition, as they did during the offseason. The reason? Principles guide my training philosophy. Workout routines are subordinate to them.

Before I leave for the gym on legs day, I put myself in the mood and start generating training intensity by sitting down and concentrating on those principles. Then, by the time I pick up that first weight, I'm already so involved with my first repetition that I can almost feel my muscles grow by thinking about them.

Leg Principle #1
PAIN
Year-round, I try to push every set of every successive workout so far beyond my previous level of weight and reps that the pain becomes unbearable. That's the intensity one must generate to improve continuously from one workout to the next. See to it that you do this in the offseason and precontest.
Leg Principle #2
NO SUCH WORD AS CONSECUTIVE
Nothing is done two workouts in a row. Not only do I change the order of exercises in consecutive workouts; I also change the order of bodyparts. If I start with squats one workout, I will start with leg extensions the next time. Likewise, if the bodypart sequence for one workout is quads-hamstrings, the next leg workout will be hamstrings-quads.

Leg Principle #3
PRIORITY TRAINING
Before each workout, I analyze anew my physique and my legs to determine what needs the most work. I train that area first. Not only does my entire physique fall under such scrutiny, but also each bodypart, such as biceps versus triceps, upper lats versus lower lats and quads versus hamstrings. If, for example, my quads are getting ahead of my hamstrings in development, I may begin with hamstrings. The order of exercises in successive hamstring workouts, however, will still change, as it normally does.

Leg Principle #4
PYRAMID TRAINING
Because I train so heavy, every exercise, regardless of whether it's a power movement, such as heavy squats, or an isolation movement, such as single-leg curls, is pyramided in weight. This allows me to adapt my coordination and incrementally allocate my strength for the next heavier set. It also enables me to "get a run" for a heavier final set.

Leg Principle #5
WIDE REP RANGE
Every muscle group is made up of various types of fibers. Some need isolated high-rep burn sets to fully fatigue them, and others need extremely heavy compound movements, which means low reps. For that reason, I often do four, sometimes five, sets per exercise, in a range of six to 15 reps for compound movements and six to 20 reps for more restrictive isolation movements. (Don't attempt this many sets, however, until you are near my level.)

Leg Principle #6
CONTROL AND EXPLODE
To activate every fiber in every muscle, every repetition should be performed with a slow controlled descent and an explosive extension. As I become more fatigued with each set, however, the reps become more explosive.

Leg Principle #7
HEAVY SQUATS, ALWAYS
Plain free-weight barbell squats work better for me than anything. They are the only leg exercise that exhausts my legs totally and works my quads, hamstrings, hips, glutes and all of their ancillary muscles in a manifold manner, which is the only means for achieving maximum all-around leg growth. I always do them. If I don't, my legs will shrink. Since I go heavy, I take five sets to get to the maximum weight, starting with two plates on each side for 15 reps, adding a plate to each side per set and finishing with six plates on each side for a set of six to eight reps.

Leg Principle #8
HACK SQUATS, LATER BUT ALWAYS
Hack squats primarily isolate the vastus medialis, but they're essential for maximizing symmetrical size in the lower quadriceps. I sometimes alternate my position, facing away from the hack machine one workout to work the upper medialis, then facing the machine the next time to work the lower medialis. My stance is always normal. I do four sets, with reps of 20, 15, 10, then six to eight. Each rep is below parallel, and I get a peak contraction at the top. Hacks can also be effectively superset with squats and leg extensions. However you employ them, keep in mind that they're known as "knee killers" and should be used later in your leg workout, after your quads have been pre-exhausted to the point where you can't use enough weight to damage your knees.

Leg Principle #9
SUPERSETS
Supersets are one of the best growth-shock techniques ever devised. I use them often; however, in my version, I combine two different exercises for the same bodypart. This simultaneously fatigues two different types of fibers in the same bodypart, compounding the efficiency of the movement.

Leg Principle #10
MULTIPURPOSE EXTENSIONS
Big guys with small brains scoff at leg extensions, claiming this exercise is for sissies, but leg extensions serve several purposes: a warm-up for the knees, an isolation movement for definition and a mass builder for the lower quads.For workouts in which I hit quads before hamstrings, I start with leg extensions for 20 reps to warm up my knees prior to my heavy squats. I use them also as a mass builder, pyramiding through three more sets. On my fourth and last set, I'm struggling to get six reps. At that point, my reps are explosive, but I'm still able to get peak contractions at the top. The burn by then is horrible, but my knees are warm, my quads are safely pre-exhausted, and I've had a good mass-building workout.After squats, leg presses and hack squats, I return for a final exercise of single-leg extensions. By biasing my body to one side or the other, I can isolate the stress in either my vastus medialis or vastus lateralis. Again, I use a wide range of peak-contraction reps, through sets of 20, 15, 10, and a fourth set of six to eight reps. After this, I can't move my legs, so I force myself to roll off the machine, lie on the floor and massage some life back into those nerves. If I remain sitting on the machine, the pain is unbearable. Either way, I just want to die.


Foundation Leg Training
EXERCISE SETS REPS

WORKOUT 1
Quads
Leg extensions 3 20-6
Squats 4 15-6
Leg presses 4 20-6
Hack squats 3 20-6
Hamstrings
Lying leg curls 4 20-6
Standing single-leg curls 4 20-6

WORKOUT 2
Hamstrings
Standing single-leg curls 4 20-6
Lying leg curls 4 20-6
Quads
Squats 4 15-6
Leg presses 4 20-6
Hack squats 3 20-6
Single-leg extensions 3 20-6

Nasser's Leg Training
EXERCISE SETS REPS

WORKOUT 1
Quads
Leg extensions 4 20-6
Squats 5 15-6
Leg presses 4 20-6
Hack squats 4 20-6
Single-leg extensions 4 20-6
Hamstrings
Lying leg curls 5 20-6
Standing single-leg curls 4 20-6

WORKOUT 2
Hamstrings
Standing single-leg curls 4 20-6
Lying leg curls 5 20-6
Quads
Squats 5 15-6
Leg presses 4 20-6
Hack squats 4 20-6
Single-leg extensions 4 20-6