When I first started training I really didn't think that I had any chance of developing big legs. My legs were only 19" and by looking at my dad's I really wondered if I had the genetics to develop monster sized quads. I trained them for about a year with virtually no gains at all and that's when the doubts really started coming. I tried every possible exercise for putting on size: leg press, hack squat and smith machine squats. But as you can read I never did just good plain barbell squats at all. I guess the only reason I never did them is because I knew they took so much effort. Well that's when I said to myself "No Pain, No Gain".
So, after determining that I had to do squats to develop any kind of muscle mass on my little bird legs, I started with some very light weight and I mean light. I think I started out doing only 90 pounds, which is about all I could handle just trying to get down the proper form. After doing squats for about 3 or 4 weeks I had the form down and my poundage's started to increase little by little. After my first year of adding squats to my workouts I added 3 ½" to my quads. Even to this day my legs respond so well to squats it's amazing. But there is one little catch to the way I train my legs, I train them 3 weeks on and 1 week off and I just about every 5th week I will change to weight and number of reps that I do. This is a way that I have found, through trial and error, to constantly shock my quads into growing almost weekly. Below is a list of my different leg routines, I highly recommend that you try them; they have given me remarkable gains. Like I said earlier, my quads where 19" when I started and now they are 27 ½" cold and 28" pumped. But I must warn you; my routines are not for the weak hearted. The main thing to remember when training legs is use extreme intensity. Just when you can't do anymore, do one more to grow on.
Leg Workout #1
Week 1 - Leg Extensions, Leg Curls, Squats
Week 2 - Leg Extension, Stiff Legged Dead lifts, Squats
Week 3 - Repeat Week 1
Week 4 - Let my legs rest
Leg Workout #1 - Weight and reps vary. I change up my Weight and Reps every 5th week. For instance: Weeks 1-3 I will do 3 sets of 15 reps for each exercise using light weights, then weeks 5-8 I will do 6 sets of 3-6 reps with heavy weights. This forces you thighs to grow by shocking them. By changing up my routine this often and by resting on the 4th week, my legs never seem to hit a plateau. They are constantly shocked and feel as if it is the first time I have ever worked them.
Now every so often I feel the need to go insane on my legs. I am only able to do this about once or twice every six months or so. This next routine really takes extreme intensity and a garbage can to puke in, thus Leg Workout #2.
Leg Workout #2
I start by warming up my legs, some people like to ride a stationary bike but I prefer to do 15-20 warm-up reps with leg extensions.
Are you ready? Well, you better be for this workout.
I start out with extremely lightweight and I will progress up with heavier weights. But when I mean light I mean really light, like around 100 pounds. Then I pyramid the weight up every set to the 1 rep set the pyramid back down to the 20-rep set.
Here is the routine.
Set 1 - 20 reps
Set 2 - 19 reps
Set 3 - 18 reps
Set 4 - continue pyramiding sets down until I've reached 1 rep.
But just when you think you've finished pyramid back up to 20 reps. Yes that's right, if you want to grow. I know that's 40 sets. Now you know why I only do this 1-2 times every six months.
Leg Workout #3
This routine is fairly simple. I do only squats and I do 10 sets of 10 reps but when doing each rep I do each rep slow and controlled. Each set should take about 1 minute. Man, the next day my legs hurt in places I didn't think they could.
Well, that's pretty much my leg routines. The main thing to remember is to change your routine up about every 4-5 weeks this way your legs do not get used to the same old thing, thus preventing the plateau effect. I experienced tremendous gains with these routines and I believe you will also. My upper thighs were covered in stretch marks because of the rapid growth. If anyone has any questions please fill free to email me at Mblue533@cs.com and I will post your question and answer in my articles.
"Eat Big, Think Big, Lift Big, Get Big"