Legs
Squat
A squat is a compound strength exercise that involves lowering your hips from a standing position and then standing back up. As you descend, your hip and knee joints flex, while your ankle joint dorsiflexes. When standing up, the hip and knee joints extend, and the ankle joint plantarflexes.
Leg Press
When using a leg press machine, it is important to position your body correctly. Sit on the machine, ensuring that your back and head are comfortably resting against the padded support. Place your feet on the footplate, keeping them hip-width apart and ensuring your heels are flat.
Make sure your bottom is flat against the seat, avoiding any lifting. Your legs should form approximately a 90-degree angle at the knees. Pay attention to the placement of your feet on the plate, as positioning them too high can stress your glutes, while placing them too low can put unnecessary pressure on your knees. Keep your knees in line with your feet, avoiding any inward or outward bowing.
Maintain this alignment throughout the exercise. Use the assist handles to provide support and keep your spine and head in the proper position.
Engage your abdominal muscles and initiate the movement by pushing the platform away using your heels and forefoot. Keep your heels flat on the footplate, avoiding excessive reliance on the front of your foot or toes to move the pad forward.
Exhale as you extend your legs, ensuring your head and back remain flat against the seat pad. Focus on a controlled and gradual extension rather than using explosive movements.
At the top of the movement, pause without locking out your knees and ensure they are not bowing inward or outward.
Inhale as you gradually bend your knees, returning the footplate to the starting position. Keep your feet and back flat throughout the movement.
Benefits
The leg press machine provides an opportunity to target and develop the quadriceps, as well as engage the gluteus maximus, hamstrings, and calves.
One advantage of the leg press machine is its versatility in emphasizing different muscles by adjusting your foot positioning. This allows for targeted strength building and can help address muscle imbalances, such as overdeveloped hamstrings relative to the quadriceps.
While the leg press machine simulates the barbell squat, it reduces the demand on your core, resulting in a less comprehensive full-body exercise. This aspect can be advantageous when incorporating the leg press as a supplementary exercise to squats. By doing so, you can continue increasing volume in the quadriceps and other leg muscles without incurring the additional fatigue associated with loading a barbell on the spine.
Enhancing the strength of your quadriceps through the leg press can positively impact your squat performance by fortifying the necessary muscles for progression. If you encounter a strength plateau in your barbell squat, incorporating the leg press may prove beneficial.
In addition, utilizing the leg press machine can contribute to improving balance and stability, particularly for individuals new to lifting heavy weights. Some individuals may not be ready to perform barbell squats until they have developed familiarity with lifting substantial weights using their legs, which promotes core and leg stability in a safe manner—this is where the leg press can be valuable.
Romanian Deadlift (RDLs)
Stand with your feet positioned at hip-width distance, maintaining a slight bend in your knees, and place a barbell in front of you.
Initiate the movement by hinging forward at the hips, ensuring that your spine remains elongated and straight as your torso descends towards the floor. With both hands, grasp the barbell at a shoulder-width grip, retracting your shoulders back and down to stabilize your spine while engaging your core. Direct your gaze downwards and slightly forward to align your neck with the rest of your back and prevent excessive extension.
Activate your glutes, hamstrings, and core muscles, and firmly press your feet into the ground as you ascend into an upright position, lifting the weight until it reaches approximately your upper thighs. At the top of the movement, contract your glutes and fully extend your hips.
Proceed to repeat the exercise by lowering the weight towards a position ranging from your knees to your toes, depending on your level of flexibility. Ensure that your torso remains parallel to the ground, maintaining a flat back, a slight knee bend, and sustained engagement of your core throughout the movement.
Lunges
Begin by bending your knees and descending until the back knee is positioned a few inches above the floor. At the bottom of the movement, ensure that the front thigh is parallel to the ground, the back knee points towards the floor, and your weight is evenly distributed between both legs.
To return to the starting position, exert force through the heel of the front foot while pushing upward.
Benefits
The lunge is an effective compound exercise that targets and strengthens various muscles in the lower body. It primarily engages the quads (front of the thighs), hamstrings (back of the thighs), glutes (buttocks), and calves (back of the lower leg).
Performing lunges helps to stretch the hip flexors, enhancing their flexibility and counteracting the tightness caused by prolonged sitting. Additionally, lunges activate the core muscles, promoting stability, balance, and injury prevention.
Lunges offer functional benefits as they simulate movements commonly encountered in daily activities, such as bending down to pick up objects. By targeting major muscle groups in the lower body, lunges can also contribute to improved metabolism.
Compared to exercises like squats, lunges introduce a split stance that alters the body's loading, allowing for more independent work on each leg. This variation can further enhance the effectiveness of the exercise.
Leg Extension
Adjust the leg extension machine so that the pad is positioned at the top of your lower legs, just above the ankles. Ensure that your knees are at a 90-degree angle. Choose a weight that provides a moderate challenge for completing 10 to 12 repetitions.
Position your hands on the hand bars.
As you exhale, lift the weight, extending your legs until they are nearly straight. Avoid fully locking your knees. Keep your back in contact with the backrest and avoid arching it.
While inhaling, lower the weight back to the starting position.
Benefits
The leg extension exercise primarily targets the quadriceps, the large muscles located at the front of the thigh. Unlike closed chain kinetic exercises like squats, the leg extension is an open chain kinetic exercise.
In open chain exercises, the body part being exercised is not anchored, and in the case of leg extensions, the movement involves lifting the padded bar while the legs are in motion. This distinction sets it apart from closed chain exercises where the feet are in contact with the ground.
If your cardiovascular activities primarily involve running or walking, which primarily work the hamstrings at the back of the thigh, incorporating leg extensions can help bring balance to your leg muscles by developing the quadriceps. Strengthening the quadriceps can also enhance kicking force, making it advantageous for sports like soccer or martial arts.
Leg Curl
Choose your desired weight on the leg curl machine and ensure that the pad is adjusted to a comfortable position just above the back of your heels.
Engage your hamstrings by slightly lifting the weight off the stack, assuming the starting position for the exercise.
Take a deep breath, tighten your hamstrings, and curl the weight upward as far as you can while maintaining a neutral spine.
Gradually lower the weight back to the starting position in a controlled manner.
Repeat the movement for your preferred number of repetitions, maintaining proper form and technique throughout.
Leg Curl Tips
To maintain tension in your hamstrings, avoid fully locking out your knees during the exercise.
Maintain proper form by keeping your hips pressed firmly against the pad and preventing your back from arching.
Ensure that your lower back remains flat against the pad throughout the entire movement.
Avoid excessive forward jutting of the head.
Maintain control over the exercise by avoiding any momentum and controlling the tempo throughout the entire range of motion.
Smith Machine Calf Raises
If your gym lacks a standing calf raise machine, the smith machine can serve as a viable alternative.
Adjust the bar on the smith machine to approximately shoulder height and load it with your desired weight.
Obtain a step, calf block, or weight plate and position it beneath the bar.
Step onto the block, ensuring that the balls of your feet rest securely on the edge.
Grasp the smith bar with a wide grip and position it across the top of your back muscles, avoiding placing it directly on the back of your neck.
Lift the weight off the rack by pushing up and allow your heels to drop down as far as your flexibility allows. This marks the starting position.
Slowly raise your heels as high as possible off the floor, engaging your calf muscles.
Hold the peak contraction briefly, then gradually lower your heels back to the starting position.
Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Tips
Maintain a continuous tension on your calves by ensuring that your heels do not make contact with the floor during the entire set.
Position the balls of your feet right at the edge of the block and avoid allowing them to shift forward, as this would reduce the intensity of the exercise.
Optimize your range of motion by allowing your heels to descend as far as your flexibility allows and then lifting them as high as possible during each repetition.
Pay attention to keeping your knees straight and avoid any bending throughout the movement.