Nobody wants to be known as the guy who skips leg day – and nothing completes a physique like a nice set of wheels! So if you’re looking to pack some size onto those quads of yours, you’ve come to the right place! A good set of arms are a dime a dozen these days, but if you want to separate yourself from the rest, its time to pump some air into those wheels with this leg training workout:
1. Squats, Squats, Squats
The first movement in almost every leg workout when the aim is hypertrophy should be squats. Overall, a back squat yields the most muscle activation in the overall leg compared to any other lift. It is the golden movement for thickness in the overall upper leg. We suggest aiming to stick with free weight squats to start in order to activate the greatest number of motor units. More motor units activated causes greater force production, which means more muscle fibers will be used to complete the movement. By activating a greater number of muscle fibers, there is greater potential for growth. Although back squats do not target only the quadriceps muscles, it is a key movement into building massive legs and does put a large amount of stress on the quadriceps, and also the hamstrings and glutes.
From a form perspective, it’s important that you keep your foot position around shoulder-width apart, keeping your toes pointed forward.
Slap some plates on that bar! Make sure you squat down to 90 degrees and watch those legs grow!
2. Hack Squats and Leg Press, Our Two New Best Friends
Next, we will continue on with two more compound movements on machines. Now that you have activated a large amount of motor units, you need to continue to overload your quadriceps. When doing these two movements, foot position is crucial for maximizing quadriceps recruitment. By placing your feet towards the lower half of the platform, you are increasing the degrees of knee flexion, which will increase quadriceps activation. Another tip when completing these movements is, when aiming to put greater stress on the vastus lateralis (outer sweep of the quadriceps), you should aim to keep the feet closer together. When aiming to target the vastus medialis to a greater extent (the teardrop), you should try to keep your feet wider apart.
3. Time to Squeeze!
Last but not least, we are going to finish off this quadriceps workout with leg extensions. On this movement, it is fairly easy to cheat yourself and simply go through the movement without squeezing the muscle properly. So one important tip we would like you to try is to drop the weight to approximately 85% of your usual load and complete 3-second negatives on each rep. This will help increase the time under tension on the quadriceps muscle. Since you have hit your quads with heavy weight in the three previous movements, this is the time where you really focus on squeezing each rep. Take your time, breathe and stick with those negatives. Delayed onset muscle soreness is almost guaranteed with this little tweak.
Here’s the Workout:
Pre-workout: 2 scoops of VaporX5™ Next Gen! This powerful 5-in-1 pre-workout will take your leg training to a whole new level.
| EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell Back Squats | 5 | 8 to 14 |
| Hack Squats | 4 | 10 to 15 |
| Leg Press | 3 | 10 to 15 |
| Leg Extensions | 4 | 15 to 20 |
Post-workout: 1 scoop of CELL-TECH™ HYPER-BUILD™ (immediately after your last set), 2 scoops of NITRO-TECH® 100% WHEY GOLD (within 45 minutes).
BY BLAKE MURACCO
MUSCLETECH AMBASSADOR
