Leg Press....question.

[Docs]

I just started working out, and I was getting some numbers for what I can push, etc. Anyways, I did leg press and..I'm either superhuman (which is impossible), I'm doing the exercise wrong, or something like that, but I got the thing up to 400lbs, and knowing that the machine only goes to 500lbs....and I'm a very small non-muscular guy...it kind of alarmed me. My legs were shaking, but still fully capable of doing it, and I guess my right knee was feeling a little iffy at that weight.

What could this be...? How can I fix it? I don't want to blow my knee, but I still want to get benefit out of this exercise.

 

[h a r d a s s]

if your quads and ass are sore the next day then you did it right, leg press is a lot easier than squats so if you get to 500lbs. on leg press and still wanna push yourself go to squats, but dont start out with no 500lbs. on that

 

[Kerpal]

It's easy to do a lot of weight on the leg press.

Try squatting

 

[Docs]

So really, once I kind of...surpass 500 on leg press...and get a comparable number off squats...leg press becomes kinda....unnecessary?

 

[DJDamage]

Are you doing the full movement?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePMMPIzxC9c

or half assed?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d3AxvKCH7U

Personally I do it slowly not all the way until my legs bend 90 degrees or a bit lower to feel the pressure on my glutes and when I push back up I don't push all the way to ensure I don't lock my knees so there is constant movement, you get better burn this way and its harder.

 

[Docs]

It's a machine, so I guess that's part of the problem.

And no, it's fully done.

I was on plates, I did 250 comfortably...but I was wondering if having your legs starting so far out....and just that short distance to near locking knees...was right, that's why I went to the machine,.

Duirr..

 

[Skilla_Staz]

if your quads and ass are sore the next day then you did it right, leg press is a lot easier than squats so if you get to 500lbs. on leg press and still wanna push yourself go to squats, but dont start out with no 500lbs. on that

A. Soreness means jack squat. I've had some serious workouts, and not been sore the next day, or ever for that matter, but still had good strength gains into the next week.
B. I personally like doing squats before leg press. LP is inferior to squats.


As for the 500lbs, if your knee felt like it was going to give out, lay off. I weigh 150 and was putting 4 or 5 plates on each side, reppin em out, and didn't really have a problem with it. LP allows you to put on big weight, due to the whole leverage/angle dealio.

 

[spesmilitis]

when I was 120 pounds, I could do 5 plates on each side + a 25 on each side plus the sled weighted 45 lbs. My knees when down a bit lower than 90 degree's and my feet were places as high up as possible on the place to put your feet on. I would turn a lot of heads, the average people would is 3 plates on each side, averge person being 160-180 pounds. I had to work my way up to it though. I started at my weight being 100 pounds, and I could only leg press 2 plates about 10 times. It took my 3 years to get to my 500+ leg press.

Squats on the other hand, my pr is 150 lbs for 7 reps. I just started squats half a year ago though.

 

[Skilla_Staz]

On leg press, my knees come close to my ears...

 

[Skilla_Staz]

Makes perfect sense to me. I also open my workouts with the big guns

Squat, Dead, Bench

 

[D_Master]

Well with the leg press the angle of the sled takes about half the total weight off when compared to regular squats. So if you're leg pressing 500 lbs, thats comparable to squatting 250, which is still pretty good.

 

[Vintovka]

That's what I thought but I ran the kinematics, rather simplified and I know there's more going on here in terms of the physics involved, but I came up with around 70% of the force required to push a given weight straight up is needed to push it up a frictionless 45 degree incline.

for a 100 kg mass to begin moving against the force of gravity, 980 Newtons is needed
(9.8 m/s^2)(100 kg) = 980 N

100 kg along a frictionless 45 degree incline, 693 Newtons
(9.8 m/s^2)(100 kg)(sin(45)) = 693 N

That's if the legpress angle is 45, I don't know for sure

 

[Docs]

Err...it was probably closer to 40 degrees from the ground. I'll have to do squats (that's tomorrow) and I guess we'll have a number