Leg workouts - waste of time?

[ApocalypseCow2]

I'm starting to think leg workouts - such as leg extensions, leg curls, and presses - are a waste of time for me.

I'm not trying to become super bulked up. Basically, I want a good upper body, low fat, and high endurance.

For upper body, I do bench presses, push ups, curls, crunches, and some other stuff that I can't remember the name of. For endurance, I run about 3 times a week (4 miles each time).

I feel like that regimen is getting me toward where I want to be. Am I making a mistake in ignoring my legs? Is running enough for my legs?

 

[Fatality]

whatever you say chicken legs

 

[Double]

Originally posted by Fatality
whatever you say chicken legs

 

[mid_au]

if youre adding mass on your upper body without working your legs you will look top heavy.. which looks ridiculous.. try including some leg exercises!

if youre just trying to keep fit/cut and not bulk up some running and higher repetition exercises may be enough for you.

cheers

 

[vanwilder]

working your legs produces more test i beleive i heard, anyways, not a waste of time, yo uwill look unproportioned if you dont, nothing girls hate more. as well it enhances gains you will get on your upper body

 

[AbAbber2k]

Stop being a wuss and SQUAT already. Like everyone else said... if you end up with a huge upper body and skinny lower body you'll look rediculous. And don't forget, many leg exercises work other muscles than just your legs.

 

[coolguy676767]

squats increase testosterone, so it aids to the recoverery of other muscles, and yes you will look unproportioned.

 

[Heizen]

Originally posted by mid_au
if youre adding mass on your upper body without working your legs you will look top heavy.. which looks ridiculous.. try including some leg exercises!

if youre just trying to keep fit/cut and not bulk up some running and higher repetition exercises may be enough for you.

cheers

Not even that. He is only doing push muscles; chest and triceps and of course for the true lifter, curls.

If you are trying to be scrawny cut up kinda look, then don't work the legs. Othewise you will be unbalanced.

Hell, cut the other ****, just do 3-4 sets of squats for your leg day.

 

[harwell]

Yes you should do leg exercises. You are seriously holding yourself back if your not working THE LARGEST MUSCLES IN YOUR BODY!!!

Squats, deadlifts and maybe some calf raises... thats all ya need.

 

[MetalFortress]

SQUAAAAAAAAT

and deadlifts and 2db walking lunges

but mostly SQUAAAAAAAAT

 

[ApocalypseCow2]

OK, I'll look into squats and stick with the leg presses. But I'm going to get rid of the leg curls and leg extensions.

 

[MindOverMatter]

If you don't work out on your legs, you are missing out on something called the indirect effect

Arthur Jones, the father of HIT and the guy who started the Nautilus company, discovered this physical phenomenon in the 1970s.

When a muscle grows in response to an exercise, it will stimulate growth in other muscles. Big muscles will stimulate more growth then smaller ones (hence why squats are so important, as they stimulate a huge muscle group which in turn produces gains in other areas of the body). The more muscles you leave out of your workout routine, the less you will grow. You will notice that people who tend to leave squats out of their workout routines usually never have the upper-body size and girth of a guy that has a complete workout routine. Not just that, but they have chicken legs. and between you and me, sexing a broad while standing up is an amazing way to make her feel dominated during sex, you don't wanna miss out on that cause your legs are popsicle sticks.

If you want a nice looking overall body, you have to do leg exercises, squats in particular. Don't be a pvssy and try to substitute squats with machines.

 

[AbAbber2k]

Originally posted by MindOverMatter
Don't be a pvssy and try to substitute squats with machines.

I learned this early on when I started lifting. I chose to use the leg press machine to work my legs almost exclusively (for presses and calf raises). Eventually I made the switch over to squats, but what was suprising was, even though I was getting to the point of having to do 1-legged presses on the leg machine, my Squat weight SUCKED.

Free weights are ALWAYS better than machines. I even dropped lat pull downs in favor wide grip pull-ups/chin ups (i forget which is supine grip).

 

[Not Quite There]

what about your inner quads or tear drops? whats best for them, i've been reading about them, and it appears your best bet is a leg press machine.

 

[the12thplanet]

what about hack squats? i dont have a workout partner so i have no spotter so its hard to do real squats with a barbell.

 

[xblitz44x]

Just do sets of 8-10 if you don't have a spotter. Then you crank up the weight on the hack squat.

 

[MindOverMatter]

i dont have a workout partner so i have no spotter so its hard to do real squats with a barbell.

don't be a wuss man, lots of people do squats without a partner, you can still train to positive failure, just cant do forced reps. you can't replace squats man.

 

[AbAbber2k]

Originally posted by MindOverMatter
don't be a wuss man, lots of people do squats without a partner, you can still train to positive failure, just cant do forced reps. you can't replace squats man.

This was my excuse for not doing them either... "I have no spotter so I shouldn't." Just do as many reps as you can until you feel you've only got one or two more in you. You may not be "lifting to failure" per say, but it's better than substituting machine leg-presses.

 

[DonRob]

Originally posted by ApocalypseCow2
I'm starting to think leg workouts - such as leg extensions, leg curls, and presses - are a waste of time for me.

I'm not trying to become super bulked up. Basically, I want a good upper body, low fat, and high endurance.

For upper body, I do bench presses, push ups, curls, crunches, and some other stuff that I can't remember the name of. For endurance, I run about 3 times a week (4 miles each time).

I feel like that regimen is getting me toward where I want to be. Am I making a mistake in ignoring my legs? Is running enough for my legs?

If you want to add big mass you HAVE to work out your legs. Every quality body builder I have ever talked to will tell you that you have to hit your legs hard if you want to get big.

Running isnt working your legs. Doing squats, leg presses ect is working your legs.

 

[Francisco d'Anconia]

Re: Re: Leg workouts - waste of time?

Originally posted by DonRob
If you want to add big mass you HAVE to work out your legs. Every quality body builder I have ever talked to will tell you that you have to hit your legs hard if you want to get big.

Running isnt working your legs. Doing squats, leg presses ect is working your legs.

Also your leg muscles are the largest muscles in your body. Having strong leg muscles will aid in the body's ability to burn fat.