How ridiculous would a Cadillac Escalade look if it had 14 ” rims ?
It can be common to see competitors have great biceps , great pecs , great shoulders etc . But do their legs match their upper body ? Or do they look like a monster truck with Volkswagen Beetle wheels ?
Developing a great lower body can be difficult for many individuals . Not only can genetics play a role in how the muscles are shaped , but it can also influence how challenging it can be to do specific movements . Although you cannot control the genetic shape of your muscle or your bone dimensions , you CAN control the factors needed in order to make your legs bigger .
I have had hundreds of people come to me with the goal of developing their physique , and it seems like the ones who struggle to develop building their lower body are the ones that are most frustrated . This article will not outline the “ perfect ” leg building workout , or the number of reps you should do , or the number of sets , or what specific movements to do etc . This article is meant to show you the principles required to develop a great set of legs for you to look your absolute best at the beach or at your next competition .
1 . Focus on Stability- In order to stimulate growth for a muscle , we need to learn how to place tension / resistance on it and contract against this resistance . The more we can stabilize the core , the hips , the feet etc . the more tension we will be able to concentrate this resistance onto muscles like the quadriceps , hamstrings , glutes etc . People love going into the gym , walking from the front door right to the barbell and start cranking out squats without ever worrying about maintenance work . But is this truly the best way to train ? Not only is a proper warm up necessary to fire up the central nervous system and improve this stability , but things like isometrics , single leg work and balancing techniques are crucial in order to develop this stability throughout the body . Yoga is a fantastic way to learn to develop this and to get a great workout in while actively recovering from intense weight training . Remember , if you are not as stable as possible and start loading the body with very heavy weights , you can injure yourself and this will be a major setback to your progress .
2 . Focus on Mobility - Make sure you focus on being mobile enough to have a proper range of motion while loading a muscle . For example , I see people all the time that have such tight hips and hamstrings , that they cannot go down very far on a squat without rounding their lower back . It ’ s true , you do not want to go further than the point where your back starts to round , but you may be missing out on a large chunk of motion and this will be detrimental . If your mobility is so poor that this is happening , you will never be able to target the fibers that would get stimulated when you properly lengthen the quads . This can be said for any muscle really , and this is a huge downfall I see people having . In order to improve your mobility , you will have to find ways to safely load muscles while stretching them through