Building impressive legs requires a lot of time and dedication on your part. While some have the dedication part taken care of, the majority have trouble finding the time. Life often gets in the way of training in the form of busy work days, taking care of your children, relationship needs and wants etc. If you are truly dedicated to building massive legs then you know that you must find the time to have intense and heavy leg workouts if you want to have a symmetrical lower body to your upper body and optimize your bodybuilding development.
That’s why we’re here to help you. Getting your legs maximally stimulated in a short time interval is something that is possible and which you can do, provided you are ready to train with real intensity.
First, we need to look into the comprising parts of your lower body which you’ll be training. The quadriceps muscle located in your front thighs will be the primary muscle group you’ll be training. The secondary muscle group you’ll be training are the hamstrings located in the back of your thighs. The third muscle group you’ll be training will be the calves, which are the muscles that connect your ankle to your knee. The last muscle group we’ll focus on are the glutes or the muscles in your b**t, that, when developed will give you power and explosive strength, in addition to making you thick and massive.
You might ask why training the legs is so important. Well for starters there is nothing worse to look at than an asymmetrical and unbalanced physique, otherwise known as having the syndrome of “chicken legs”. It’s simply a funny and an embarrassing image seeing a huge upper body being carried by a pair of skinny legs. This look is frowned upon and mocked universally. And even if we put the aesthetic aspect aside, someone having this physical imbalance will be exposed to a far greater risk of a serious injury. The back muscles need a strong core foundation if they are going to remain healthy and uninjured, which in turn extends into being supported by the glutes and hamstrings.
There’s another fact that the majority of lifters are unaware of, which is that training your legs increases growth hormone production which in turn stimulated the growth of muscles all over your body. That’s why there’s a saying,“if you want to grow bigger arms, you need to build bigger legs!” If you keep your daily consumption of calories high, if you are getting quality sleep and you are going heavy on leg workout days, then you will increase your muscle gains all over your upper body as well, including shoulders, chest, arms and back. The body is a collection of various systems which work together when it comes to muscle development.
This sample leg workout that lasts 20 minutes is going to be fast-paced, intense and overall brutal. It’s a training session designed to give you massive hamstrings, quads, glutes and calves. You will rest one minute in between each set.
- 8 repetitions of heavy squats
- 10 repetitions of leg press
- 8 repetitions of barbell lunges
- 15 repetitions of lying leg curls with very heavy weight (heavy being relative to each individual. Choose what’s heavy for you)
- 25 repetitions of Smith machine calf raises with heavy weight
When you complete all of these exercises you will have finished one cycle. Rest for one minute, then begin another cycle. You’ll be able to have an intense leg workout in under 20 minutes while doing 10 brutal but effective sets which will have a major impact on every big muscle group in your lower body. Only after completing this workout do we give you the permission to collapse on the floor from exhaustion, get back up again and continue with your life.
There are some important things you need to keep into consideration when training your legs in this kind of manner. You will perhaps need to decrease the weight that you’ll use during the second cycle of these exercises, due to fatigue accumulation. Take notice of any unexpected movement or small discomfort you may experience because they may lead to injury. Before you start the workout, warm up with a brief 5-10 minute walk and 2-3 sets of squats. You can walk from your car to the gym if you really couldn’t find time.
You will certainly experience periods where you’ll want to decrease the training intensity and train using a more traditional leg workout program, consisting of slowly executed movements, longer rest intervals, heavier load and being in the gym for more than an hour. If your goal is to build mass and strength gradually, that is most certainly the path you’ll want to take and you won’t go wrong. This 20-minute leg workout is a great option if you want to switch things up a bit or when time is short but still have the urge to go to the gym and smash some weights.
how many cycles do I have to complete?