How many of you squat? While we’re at it, how many of you train your legs at all? Being still in university I am sometimes forced to witness a lot of ridiculous things in the gym like deadlifting in a smith machine with clips on the ends. If that last sentence didn’t make you go “WHAAAT?!?!” chances are you fall into that category of lost souls. But all hope is not lost, Sean’s here to help set you straight.
In my opinion there are about 3 main reasons why people (mostly guys) don’t train their legs: 1. They’re not your arms or chest 2. A leg pump is much less enjoyable and ego boosting than walking around with inflated arms to impress the ladies 3. Training legs is HARD. So why should we train them?
If getting huge is your goal then piling the weights on your back not only looks badass but the associated hormonal response to heavy axial loading (loading of the center of the body aka the spine) will go a long way to slapping on the pounds. We’re talking up regulation of TESTOSTERONE here and pretty much everyone knows that testosterone = man. MORE TESTOSTERONE = MORE MAN.
Also know that the body as an organism doesn’t want to grow out of proportion. So at a certain point it will become much more difficult to add inches to those arms of yours. But if you add mass to the whole body this will help solve your problems.
What if the goal is fat loss? Movements which involve your legs are great for fat loss because those are the biggest muscles in your body. Bigger muscles contracting means more energy expenditure. Simple.
Finally, if the goal is performance, strong legs are needed in almost every sport. Sure you can have great upper body strength but if you can’t generate a large amount of force with your lower body then you can say goodbye to running fast and jumping high.
So honestly guys, just train your legs, and please do it properly. A healthy diet of squats (TO PROPER DEPTH) and deadlifts (WITH PROPER FORM) once or twice a week should be great.
