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Cornholio said:
Corn....the hacks will not help her and they are over kill IMHO although I agree they are not totally an isolation movement.
We have to remember that most people cannot do much volume, unless on gear, as they have a very limited recovery potential.
Three heavy work sets of squats is more than enough for quads if done correctly and with enough intensity. I am telling you that very few people want to do legs with me because after 3 sets of all out squats they can barely walk let alone think about doing more quad work.
Some people can grow well on a moderate to high volume while natural but these poeple are few and far between indeed.
SO>>>> most people always need to keep things very basic focusing ALL their efforts into the BIG movements. They also need to do low to lowish volume and have plenty of days off weight training each week. They need to train very hard but in cycles. The focus MUST be on the big basic compound movements either solely or almost so with a primary goal to increase weights used in strict form in small and then tiny increments on a weekly or biweekly basis. When even tiny weight progression becomes impossible, inspite of lowering the reps a little and perhaps dropping a work set, they need to take 10 days off and then come back and start another cycle with about 90% of their previous bests for reps and then slowly work up to and past their previous best.
When she can deep squat 200 lbs 10 times then she can start to think about adding hacks( but not when squatting very hard) for more leg sweep etc. Up until that time she needs to focus every bit of her efforts into squats alone and THEN good gains in size shape and strength will have to come.
As a side....I attended a Tom Platz seminar years ago and he said that he could count how many times on one hand he did anything besides deep squats for his Quads, until he was squatting over 400 pounds for sets of 15-20 reps. He also said that nothing he ever did added much mass to his quads besides squats and leg presses and that he ONLY did leg extensions and hacks "to help bring out that last 5% of detail and sweep to the thigh beofre a show. In the off season Tom ONLY SQUATED for his quads right up to the time he retired, in an effort to increase his leg and overall body size and strength.
For those that don't know about Tom Platz let me tell you that he had FREAKY thighs and could deep high bar squat over 600 pounds 20 times!!!! One of his favorite sayings was "half squats, half legs"
Problem is almost everyone reads and almost copies routines they see in the glossy magazines not fully understanding how important good genetics and steroid use is to the success of these routines.
The BS glossy Mags have damaged bodybuilding and NOT helped it at all....so people turn to steroid because they cannot make good progress with volume workouts done 5 and 6 days per week.
I would say that most people need to leave the leg extensions and hacks to contest prep so as to help bring out a little more detail or improve on the lateral sweep of the quad etc
Corn, you already have good legs and the addition of hacks probably help you a bit with leg sweep etc but I bet you built the vast majority of your mass and shape with heavy squats and leg presses.
Points to consider........
#1. You probably have better genetics than most allowing you to get away with higher volume than the typical trainee(90% of trainees)
#2. You probably reduce volume when really working squats hard.
#3. You probably reduce volume while training without gear
#4. You most likely built the majority of your quad mass, strength and shape with squats and leg presses.
#5. FEW people can gain progressively, for any length of time, doing more than a few very hard sets per body part, and especially for quad work and in various deadlifts, unless they are on steroids.
#6. FEW people can train more frequently than three days per week on a three way split and make good gains in strength and mass unless on steroids.
#7. The glossy magazines of today, for the most part, offer okay advice to steroid users and or those that are genetically NOT typical (perhaps 5% of the general public) They offer AMLOST ZERO good advice for the genetically typical natural trainee( probably at least 90% of the general public)
Corn I know you are fully aware of the above....I say it for those that are reading and do not have a good grasp on proper natural training.
Ladies always remember that Lenda Murray, J. Bermann and the like are not only genetically blessed but they also take A LOT of steroid and growth hormone so they can train any way they like and make good gains.
RG
RG
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