The leg day is sometimes the hardest training day of the week. Anyone who, after a hard workout, once limped back to the basement garage of the gym after having felt countless steps, will be able to confirm this. If you've never had that feeling before, you should take the following tips to heart, as this is the only way you can develop massive thighs that make many a pumper feel envious. In this article, we'll introduce you to eight strategies that will help you easily advance the development of your thigh muscles without the hassle of extra effort. Consequently, you will experience simple variations of classical exercises, as well as some intensity techniques that can positively affect your thigh development.
1. Start with squats
Not for nothing most leg workouts start with squats, because classic squats are the foundation for strong thighs and a strong butt, not least because of the integration of the entire body in the movement casserole. However, if you want to focus on the quadriceps as part of your workout, you should pay attention. In order to achieve the best possible development of the anterior thigh muscles, it is not always desirable to position the heels on weight plates or a heel board, as your body stability in the course of performance suffers in particular from the displacement of the body's center of gravity. It is better if you choose a shoulder-width stand and your toes rotate slightly outwards. In this position you will be able to optimize the power transmission and benefit from a stable state. In this context, you can also train for the pyramid system, so that higher weights can be chosen. However, it is important that you always do the squats at the beginning of your leg workout, so you can concentrate on a completely clean execution.
2. Use the possibilities offered by the Hackenschmidtmaschine you
Some exercises are better than others. In the context of leg training, this applies in any case to the Hackenschmidtmaschine, since it allows you by simply changing the foot position, the optimization of muscle fiber recruitment. In particular, putting your feet low will result in a significantly higher tension in the quadriceps so that it will be addressed more intensely. As part of the execution, you should continue to ensure that your hoes rest stably on the platform throughout the movement. However, if you suffer from knee problems, it is not advisable to perform the exercise as described, as the load on your knee will increase significantly.
3. Maximum increases with half repetitions
You've probably already seen a power cube in the studio, which performs with a seemingly too high weight only a friendly Hofknicks instead of a squat. But instead of laughing behind closed doors, you should be aware that it is the execution of partial repeats that can positively influence the development of your thigh muscles, since the load in the course of their implementation, especially on the quadriceps. In addition, it is important that you adjust your workout weight accordingly, so that the muscular load on your quads is at an appropriate level, which promotes their development. But in this context, both the butt and the thigh back are neglected, you should use partial repeats only partially to supplement your leg training.
4. Learn to love the leg press
The emphasis on the quadriceps is not only possible by means of squats, but can also be achieved by using the leg press. To accentuate the anterior thigh musculature, as in the Hackenschmidt machine context, it is important to place the feet relatively low down on the sled so that most of the work is done through the quadriceps. In addition, you can position your feet slightly closer to each other, placing the tension on the outer part of your thigh muscles. Conversely, this means that a broad foot position mainly recruits the muscle fibers of the inner quadriceps head.
5. Use isolation exercises to do the rest for your quads
Although you should never use isolation exercises with the goal of building massively, they are a valuable building block of training because they can help you get the most out of your muscles, and thus gain the most mass. After pushing your quadriceps to the brim of squat with squats, front squats, and various leg press variants, it's a good idea to complete a few sets on the leg extensor to fully exploit the potential of your muscles. In this context, you should use a slightly higher repetition rate in the range of 10-12 compared to the basic exercises.
6. Use the principle of pre-fatigue
Often, leg training begins with a few warm-up sets on the leg extensor, which are usually not performed until muscle failure. But, what if you're already using heavy weights in these sentences and throwing everything you've got into the balance? This principle of pre-fatigue allows you to increase the load on your quadriceps as part of squats, as it is already tired, whereas both the thigh back and gluteus are still fresh and yet able to develop their full strength, thus ensuring In any case, your front thigh muscles will be pushed to their limits when performing squat or leg press exercises. The principle continues to be useful if you suffer from back and knee problems as it allows you to pre-fatigue all the muscle groups involved, so you do not have to use extremely heavy weights on squats, for example.
7. Train your legs right after a rest day
This is a general strategy that can be applied to any part of the body that lags behind the rest in terms of development. The idea is that your glycogen stores are usually bulging after a rest day and you have more energy in training, which is particularly important in the context of energy-intensive leg training for performance.
8. Go beyond muscle failure
In particular, on leg day, it is not always easy to go to absolute muscle failure, because especially composite exercises such as squats linearly to the decreasing strength level, a greatly increased risk of injury in itself, which should be received in any case. However, to be able to cross the point of muscle failure, some precautions are necessary. For example, during the last two or three sets of workouts, a workout partner can help you tip the way out of your already burning thighs by helping you during the positive partial movement and providing you with confidence. But even if you train alone, you do not have to forego the benefits of absolute muscle failure, because intensity techniques such as drop sets and supersets can also be performed comfortably on your own. This is especially true for isolation exercises such as the leg extensor, which can be combined, for example, together with the leg press to a superset.
