Too much Squatting??

[Iwillbe]

Leg curls and extensions haven't been doing shit for me.

What do you think about squats, front squats, and hack squats for a leg workout? Too much of a similar thing? Or is there enough variation between each version?

 

[Zyglamail]

How bout squats, deads and straight leg deads? Deads may need to be spaced out every other week or so cause they can really wipe your ass out at first. I havent done leg curls or leg extension in years.

 

[Citruscide]

I do some curls every now and then... but stiff deads seem to do everything I need for my hams and glutes...

I do front squats, basically because I can't grip the bar behind my head for regular squats.. and they work pretty damn good...

C-ditty

 

[michaelcoutts]

leg extensions are usless for the quads! STick to squats

 

[needsize]

How bout squats, deads and straight leg deads? Deads may need to be spaced out every other week or so cause they can really wipe your ass out at first. I havent done leg curls or leg extension in years.

I totally agree with the leg extensions thing, right up there with the pec dec in total uselessness. But I kinds disagree about spacing the deads out, I pull very heavy and do it every week (as well as squats), and have never had a problem. I maybe take about 4 weeks a year off from deads. I recover fine and my back is still growing like a weed, but I guess it might be different for some.

 

[Vortexx]

session 1

2 * 5 squat
2 * 10 squat
2 * 15 squat
2 * 20 single leg hack squat
2 * 25 hack squat
2 * 30 single leg leg press
2 * 35 leg press

session 2

2 * 20 heavy "breathing" squats
3 * 10 single leg hack squat
3 * 15 hack squat
3 * 20 single leg leg press
3 * 25 leg press


Repeat

 

[Zyglamail]

I totally agree with the leg extensions thing, right up there with the pec dec in total uselessness. But I kinds disagree about spacing the deads out, I pull very heavy and do it every week (as well as squats), and have never had a problem. I maybe take about 4 weeks a year off from deads. I recover fine and my back is still growing like a weed, but I guess it might be different for some.

Needsize, notice I said they can wipe your ass out at first meaning at first it may be a good idea to space them out when first switching. If he has not been doing any of these exercises and immediatly jumps on all three he could be a hurting unit and it may take some time to build up to weekly use of all three together. By all means if you have the recovery power to do them all every week go for it, but I find most, if hitting them all hard will overtrain if they are not eased into a bit.

 

[Fatty4You]

I totally agree with the leg extensions thing, right up there with the pec dec in total uselessness.

I disagree with this totally. Leg extension and pec deck are both fantastic exercises.

Leg extensions can be great to warm up my knees and quads. They are also good to pre-exhaust before squats. Also, after sqauts, I can use leg extensions to really concentrate to feel fibers that I dont feel during squat. For instance, i feel the lower part of my quads during squats, but i can really feel the upper parts of my quad fire during leg extensions. Plus, i feel that i have some control over what gets emphasized with the way i point my toes. Plus, i can do partial reps at different angles to work any kind of weekness.

And pec deck, i can't imagine not liking it. I get the most tremendous burn from it and my pump is out of this world. Its one of my favorite chest movements. And, my strength in it has gone up very fast!

Maybe i am just a freak or something, but these exercises shoudl not be overlooked.

-Fatty

 

[Zyglamail]

I disagree with this totally. Leg extension and pec deck are both fantastic exercises.

Leg extensions can be great to warm up my knees and quads. They are also good to pre-exhaust before squats. Also, after sqauts, I can use leg extensions to really concentrate to feel fibers that I dont feel during squat. For instance, i feel the lower part of my quads during squats, but i can really feel the upper parts of my quad fire during leg extensions. Plus, i feel that i have some control over what gets emphasized with the way i point my toes. Plus, i can do partial reps at different angles to work any kind of weekness.

And pec deck, i can't imagine not liking it. I get the most tremendous burn from it and my pump is out of this world. Its one of my favorite chest movements. And, my strength in it has gone up very fast!

Maybe i am just a freak or something, but these exercises shoudl not be overlooked.

-Fatty

Show me any powerlifter who relys on leg ext/curl and not the squat or dead for leg strength.....my guess is you wont find one. Im not saying they dont use them but most will often times use them in everyday routines but once the start to prepare for a meet they drop them and concentrate on the big exercises. Now, if the leg extension/pec dec is so great for strength why dont they use them more often than not?

On a side note do not confuse burn/pump with muscle hypertrophy/CNS stimulation.

 

[needsize]

Needsize, notice I said they can wipe your ass out at first meaning at first it may be a good idea to space them out when first switching. If he has not been doing any of these exercises and immediatly jumps on all three he could be a hurting unit and it may take some time to build up to weekly use of all three together. By all means if you have the recovery power to do them all every week go for it, but I find most, if hitting them all hard will overtrain if they are not eased into a bit.

Oh, I guess I didnt read you post well enough, didnt realize you meant when first starting, that makes sense.

Fatty, I've got a couple thoughts on what you said about the pec dec and leg extensions. First, I'm pretty sure that extensions actually put a lot of strain on the knees, so using them to warm up could be asking for injury. But the main thing is that muscle growth is the result of stimulating enough muscle fibres hard enough to force them to grow to adapt, and those exercises are unable to cause that much stress.

Here's the way I look at it,and this approach has helped me go from 140lbs to 230lbs over the years. Your body can only handle a given amount of sets in a workout before you begin to over train. Given that, it makes sense to use only exercises that cause the most amount of stress on the muscle, for those limited amount of sets. Chest for example, I generally stick around 10 sets at most, and use flat bench press, incline dumbell press, and incline flyes. To add pec dec in there, i would have to remove one of those exercises, but those are all heavy compound exercises that no pec dec, or cable flyes can hope to duplicate.

Just my 0.02