Even if only a few are really keen to train their legs, most want to have strong legs in return, which in the summer well defined under the short pants herauslugen. We have taken this often unspoken wish as an opportunity to put together 11 tips to help you reach your goal.
Tip 1 - Set clear priorities
A self-evident but all too often neglected aspect is that you need to prioritize leg work if you really want to have more muscular legs. So every time you exercise, you should ask yourself if you really give it all or if you just do some alibi-moderately a few squats with little weight to calm your conscience. If you're caught up with the latter, it's time to change the situation and make a clear plan that focuses on your goal.
Tip 2 - Perfect your squats
Probably the most effective exercise for building solid legs is undoubtedly the squat. Considering that this is actually done by a large part of the recreational athletes, it seems all the more surprising that only very few exercisers have really muscular legs. On the one hand, this is certainly due to the lack of focus on the leg workout, but on the other hand, primarily on the often suboptimal execution of the squat. So to build massive legs using the squat, it is imperative that you first learn the correct technique, because only in this way, the muscles can be optimally loaded and stimulated to growth. For this purpose, you should first practice the movement without a dumbbell before you start to grab a dumbbell on your shoulders. In any case, make sure that you do not hump and make sure that your soles are always completely on the ground.
Tip 3 - Try different types of squats
Once you have built a solid foundation with the help of classic squats, you should take advantage of the variety of different squat variations, as it allows you, for example, to target weak points. So experiment a bit with variants like Front Squats, Bulgarian Split Squats, Pistol Squats or Hack Squats.
Tip 4 - Train your legs more often
Of course, because of its intensity, leg training is one of the less enjoyable workouts, but it should not cause you to train your legs less often than your arms or chest. So if you're interested in gaining muscle on your legs, you should think about increasing your exercise frequency and getting into the squat rack and leg press twice a week instead. By the way, you do not have to worry about overtraining, you do not do that with your arms, which you train much more often than once a week.
Tip 5 - Dare to perform lunges
Years ago, Lunges had been described as a pure exercise for women, which meant that very few men practiced this "embarrassing" exercise in the studio. However, you should deliberately override this prejudice, because lunges are among the best exercises you can do for your legs at all. In order to optimally train all areas of your legs, you should also fall back on several variants.
Tip 6 - Try to do more repetitions
Many recreational athletes assume that it is necessary to train as hard as possible in order to build muscle mass. However, as this approach is by far not the same for all exercisers, you may want to try increasing the number of reps in combination with a moderate workout weight. The cause is, among other things, the muscle fiber composition, which can differ greatly from person to person and is therefore responsible for the fact that the muscles sometimes respond better or less well to different stimuli. If heavy training does not give you the desired results, changing to a 10-20 rep range is worth a try.
Tip 7 - Take advantage of supersets
Another technique that helps you build muscle on your legs is the superset that is used by most recreational athletes only in arm training. In this context, especially the combination of leg extensor and hamstrings, because you can minimize the sentence breaks optimally. The king among the superscript combinations for the legs, however, is a twinset of front squats and Romanian deadlifts.
Tip 8 - Try unilateral training
One of the most underrated training techniques is unilateral training, where each exercise is done separately with only one leg. Due to the fact that the load is no longer distributed to both legs, each leg has to do a lot more for itself, which has an effect on the maximum muscle tension and thus the resulting growth stimulus. In addition, in this context, the lower-lying auxiliary and holding muscles is trained, which also improves your ballance ability.
Tip 9 - Do not forget the calves
Please do not make the grave mistake of not training the calves or just tickling them with a few halfhearted sentences. In many exercising calves represent a significant weakness, which stands out especially in optical terms, as comparatively dry calves do not want to fit well to muscular thighs. For a harmonious overall picture, it is therefore important that you also perform two exercises with three sets each in terms of calf training. However, as the calves are the most enduring muscles in the human body, it may be necessary to train them more than once a week.
Tip 10 - Use your legs
If you want to call your athletic-looking legs your own, you should use them according to their purpose and not just flaunt them on the beach. The easiest way to do this is to incorporate your training into your training schedule with a few plyometric exercises such as box jumps, or occasionally get into cross-country running.
Tip 11 - Motivation is everything
Despite all the well-intentioned tips and techniques, you will never reach your goal unless you are mentally unwilling to torment yourself. So set a goal and follow it until you reach it, whether your muscles are hurting in a sentence or you do not really feel like leg training. You should also leave your ego at the door to the gym and focus on a clean technique. After all, you do not have to impress anyone, because your long-term successes will speak for themselves.
