LEG DAY:
Any lifters hate leg day, I don’t
think I’ve ever ran into a person that enjoys leg day. If you are
anything like me, every time leg day pops up on my workout, a million
reasons to skip it pop up in my head too. You know, it’s just your
legs, biceps are better to look at; no one will ever see my legs
anyways. But for every excuse like that, we are reminded of that
person in the gym with the huge upper body, but chicken legs and
non-existent calves. But seriously, every leg day there seems to be a
million better things to do, or how easy it seems to push it back
another day. I use to be this way for YEARS until recently. I’ll
share what made me complete leg day consistently and why leg day is
so darn important!
HOW I STOPPED SKIPPING LEG DAY:
My leg day use to be on Friday, no
matter what type of workout I was doing, always Friday. From the
beginning I was setting myself up for failure. Why put the most
skipped workout day on planet earth on the least desirable body workout of the week!? When I think about it now, it makes no sense,
except that it made it 10x easier to skip it weekly. The most
important thing about leg day (and this can apply to life in general)
is to NOT set yourself up for failure! The way my workouts were
structured I was already setting myself up to fail before I even
entered (or didn’t for this matter) the gym. About two months ago I
switched to a new routine and this one had legs on TUESDAY! Wow, how
revolutionary is that? Seriously, who ever can come up with a good
enough excuse to skip the gym on a Tuesday? You kind of just go and
get it over with on Tuesday's..and that's exactly what I do. Since
starting this routine I haven't skipped a leg day on Tuesday and it
has me doing back on Friday (I love dead lifts) so there's no
skipping of that either! All I needed was a change, if you are having
the same problem I was, try switching leg day to another day in the
week, bet it'll work!
WHY IS LEG DAY SO IMPORTANT?:
Valid
question, no doubt, and one I will attempt to answer. First of all,
no one wants to be this
guy, no matter how much you bench/curl the insults will
NEVER stop! We all should be wanting to look like this
guy instead (Georges St. Pierre has some jacked legs any lifter
should die for!) (P.S. It's not homosexual at all to marvel at
another mans legs, those things are awesome!). Okay, well now we know
our target right. It should be noted that every great physique is
carried by strong legs; just like a building is only as good as its
base.
I don't know about you guys, but
compared to every other day I'm in the gym, I sweat the MOST during
leg day! It's insane how much I can sweat from a few sets of heavy
squats. This is, of course, because of the extreme intensity leg day
usually comes with, which is a good thing. The quadriceps are the
main muscle being worked during leg day, which is actually the
LARGEST muscle group in the body. This is important, because the
larger the muscle, the more calories it burns. See what I'm getting
out here? Leg workouts will burn more calories than any other
workout! The big guns on your body aren't the biceps and triceps, its
your quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes!
Heavy compound lifts done during leg
day (squats & leg presses) actually help release extra hormones
in the body, which can only lead to positive outcomes. Also, during these compound lifts the
core is heavily stabilized and worked, so it's getting stronger every
squat completed. There can be a lot of injuries that can happen
because of a weak core, especially back/spine problems. This makes
squat that much more important, because of the pounding it puts on
the core!Whenever you start moaning about doing squats, just think about the core baby!
WHAT SHOULD LEG DAY CONSIST OF?:
First
and foremost, every leg day should consist of squats! Hitting a bunch
of leg machines doesn't constitute as a complete leg day. My personal
leg day consists of mostly barbell free weight exercises. I'll
usually do Squats, Front Squats, Barbell Lunges, and Leg Presses;
with some leg machines mixed in for the hamstrings. This routine is
so intense, but I LOVE IT! I'm probably the only person I EVER see
doing front squats, but their so beneficial. I recommend doing the
crossed
arm grip compared to the clean
grip. As you can see in the photos, the clean grip puts an
excruciating amount of pressure and pain on the wrists, which will
lead to some problems down the road. I love doing two squat
variations because it works the quads great in different ways and my
core takes a pounding too. Leg days are typically short (45 min-1 hr) for me, so I really like to put a lot of intensity with my leg
lifts. Always make sure you are getting your compounds done, they are essential to building muscle.
IN THE END:
Leg day is a
necessity, regardless of how much you may hate it. Usually in life,
the things you hate the most are the things that you have to get done
to succeed, THIS IS NO DIFFERENT! Get on the squat rack and bend
those knees baby! I just got done my leg day about 20 minutes ago, my
walking might look at little funny and my behind might be sore
tomorrow, BUT I FEEL AWESOME! If you hate something, the best feeling
is when you get done doing what you hate, because its OVER! Always
consider this fact when thinking about skipping leg day, it's not
gonna go anywhere. It will still be there tomorrow if you skip it, so
get in the gym and get it over with people! My golden rule for leg day: If you aren't walking weird when leaving the gym, LEG DAY ISN"T OVER!
Not sure what I'm
doing for Saturday's article, if anyone want's to see anything let me
know! I'm open for anything guys. Appreciate all the love. Have a
wonderful end of the week.
dcorrigan50@gmail.com
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