I`ve had a lot of success bulking over the past eight or so months. Most of the muscle mass that I`ve gained however has been on my upper body rather than on my legs.
I`ve been doing full body routines by Waterbury and Mejia which include a lot of deadlifts, squats, etc, but, for some reason, I am having a lot of trouble gaining any mass on my legs. I`m not quite sure what the problem is - I`m going heavy on the weights, my diet is very good..
Maybe my form is a bit off? Maybe I need to do a leg-specific workout for a month or two?
What do you guys think?
Thanks -
HM
(I`m currently doing Watebury´s high-frequency program...)
My legs have grown and my chest. But my arms are still the same size.
Think it's just genetics? I've tried hitting the arms directly...yada yada...nothing has really worked. They have changed shape...but measure the same in circumference. It's like the muscle I've added is around the ends of my biceps and my arms have gotten denser. I'm not saying my biceps got longer Just that my arms filled out but not really in circumference. There's also the fact that I had fat on my arms but not so much now...I bet your legs have changed eh?
Yes, O twin of mine! And I definitely have the arms problem too ...
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Sorry, HailMary - hijack over. Back to the legs thing ....
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"Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right." - Henry Ford
"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." - Dr. Seuss
"Life is no brief candle to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations." - George Bernard Shaw
I would try a leg-work heavy workout (for a few weeks, maybe one day per week just legs). Just be careful not to overtrain. Also, be sure to consume your carb + protein (4:1) drink just before and during your workout, and then a carb + protein drink after (3:1). Chances are you are fighting genetics, so while you can probably get some size on your lower body, its very possible you are genetically predisposed to gaining mass there more slowly.
It may be due to limb length. I know at only 5'6", I have the stocky build, but my arm length is around 28-29 inches (shoulder to middle finger) and my arms don't develop as fast as my back/chest. I have seen lots of clients with the same concerns as your guys, and it was alwasy due to long muscles (high insertion points). My problem with legs is I have short femur length, but long tibia length.
It may be due to limb length. I know at only 5'6", I have the stocky build, but my arm length is around 28-29 inches and my arms don't develop as fast as my back/chest. I have seen lots of clients with the same concerns as your guys, and it was alwasy due to long muscles (high insertion points). My problem with legs is I have short femur length, but long tibia length.
Yeah...I know it's not possible...but I sware the length of my biceps is different than when I started working out. Arms are fuller..length wise.
AND I'm one of those folks who can bench as much as he can squat. I can throw up 185 for 5 reps on both squat and bench. Long legs too I guess.
Okay I want to get in a few words of advice here..
First, Hailmary, can you tell me what your squat/bench/dead is..
Secondly, Weight/Hieght/BF
Thirdly, Male/Female/Age
What is your caloric intake on an average day?
What is your occupation (As in how much activity during the day excluding training)..
Protien intake? Any supplements?
How long have you been lifting?
Answer these, and I'll give ya a good reason.
Remember, Genetics is crap, you just have to find what works for you. Anyone that blames anything on genetics is just find an excuse for not training hard enough, and not thinking hard enough.. (Cripples not included[Sorry I referred to you as a cripple])
do you "honest to diety of choice" lift with the same intensity on your leg day(s) as you do on your upper body? the reason I ask is because historically I haven't, almost always have had more gas in the tank even if it was a "hard" workout. You wanna do some curls\chins\OH Presses? DIE LIFTS DIE!!! You wanna squat? Better take it easy...don't want to use bad form...no no no...safety first.
Not saying to hurt yourself by lifting crappy, but don't shortchange yourself if intensity IS the problem.
Just be smart about it. As a rule people don't get hurt by lifting. They get hurt by doing something stupid in the middle of lifting.
Take whatever you think you should be doing and add 10lbs...that's just two little plates, but one major mental hurdle.
Lol gobbla, I dunno if I'd recommend 10lbs more then what I think I should be doing.. What if the person is inexperienced and believes he's stronger then he is, then adds 10lbs on top of the weight that he already can't do? That's when lifting pwns you.
genetics could have a smalla mount to do with it. But realistically anyone (male at least) could get 17 inch arms if they trained for it. Higher then that and youll really hit a genetic limit.
For me, close grip chins, close grip bench, and overloaded cheat curls got my arms bigger.
Before I started lifting weights I was a pretty thin guy....skinny legs and a non-existent butt. I am still not as big as I would like but patience paid off and after 2 years I got a decent set of legs and an pretty nice butt (according to some lol) and since then I have managed to keep it that way. As most, if not all, of us here know there is no magic bullet so all you can do is work hard and in time you'll get there. Squat like hell and you'll see something. I may owe some credit to walking uphill every day.
I`ve had a lot of success bulking over the past eight or so months. Most of the muscle mass that I`ve gained however has been on my upper body rather than on my legs.
I`ve been doing full body routines by Waterbury and Mejia which include a lot of deadlifts, squats, etc, but, for some reason, I am having a lot of trouble gaining any mass on my legs. I`m not quite sure what the problem is - I`m going heavy on the weights, my diet is very good..
Maybe my form is a bit off? Maybe I need to do a leg-specific workout for a month or two?
What do you guys think?
Thanks -
HM
(I`m currently doing Watebury´s high-frequency program...)
Id agree throw some specific workouts in there a change in style and approach can often be the plateau buster you need.
Altho having said that no matter what I have tried my chest never grows in proportion to my lats so it always looks smaller (even tho it is actualy bigger and more defined)
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BFG
"The time for talking has passed, actions are speaking louder than words."
First off, check what gobbla said, make sure you're lifting legs with the same intensity as upper body. I also like Zach's idea, I always gained the most size on my legs with one massive, heavy volume workout a week and a bulking diet. May not be the best for strength, conditioning, flexibility, or if you're a runner (cause you WILL be sore), and while I'm an advocate of higher frequency (each muscle group 2-3 times per week), a shock like that can cause some good growth with a proper diet. I'm not an advocate of bodypart splits at all, but I did use them for a while like most people early in my training, and I will say you can pack on some meat with one high volume day a week. I go back to that when I feel like I need some size on my legs. I lower my upper body volume a little and keep frequency high (like 2-3 very low volume, high intensity upper body days a week) and 1 very high volume 'leg' day a week. You could set it up like this:
Monday - High Volume Leg day
Wednesday - Vertical Push and Pull, Core
Friday - Horizontal Push and Pull, Core
Or something like that. You just have to realize that if you want to prioritize a particular weak area, all other areas must be 'de-prioritized.' Lets say you only have an arbitrary 100 'points' for recovery each week, and you leg work takes up 40 of those points each week, and 60 goes to everything else (upper body, core, conditioning work, etc.). Well if you want to do more for your legs to prioritize them, they are going to need more 'points,' so other areas must sacrifice, so now if you use 70 for legs, you have to cut your work for everything else down so it only uses 30 points. See where I'm coming from? The key is to do more for your legs, but back off on everything else so your body can recover.
And all that is assuming that 'more' is what you need, which very well may not be the case. It could just be what you doing now sucks and you need to change it, and you don't need to prioritize at all. But since you're following routines from Waterbury and Mejia, I'll assume you're doing a proper protocol, so more volume may be the answer.
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I do not eat. I FEED.
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Remember, Genetics is crap, you just have to find what works for you. Anyone that blames anything on genetics is just find an excuse for not training hard enough, and not thinking hard enough.. (Cripples not included[Sorry I referred to you as a cripple])
That's just not true. Genetics is a significant factor. Do you honestly believe that all male human beings have the ability to achieve a body of similar proportions to a professional bodybuilder (natural or otherwise)? Clearly this is an extreme example, but genetics plays a major role. Could you support your argument with some research? Because, I've never heard that before.
the biggest my legs have gotten is from this routine:
Mon ME Bench
Tues Squat
Thurs rep bench
Fri Deadlift
I deadlift every other week so to keep from overreaching. I feel with the amount of work, i get too run down if i do it every week. I also deload every 4th week. I always warm up with banded leg curls, or banded gms. The entire exercise selection for my lower body has been:
squats (boxed and free)
deadlifts from floor (sometimes banded, or reverse band)
rack pulls
GHR
GMs
these are what work for me, and give me the best strength gains, as well as hypertrophy. On the deload weeks, i'll usually just do lots of GHRs and core work on the leg days, or sometimes i'll do pulls if i feel good.
Lol gobbla, I dunno if I'd recommend 10lbs more then what I think I should be doing.. What if the person is inexperienced and believes he's stronger then he is, then adds 10lbs on top of the weight that he already can't do? That's when lifting pwns you.
the lifting the 10 more lbs was directed at a poster who admitted to not pushing themselves as far on the intensity wagon as they should.
I can't really add much that hasn't already been said. I will say that I always thought that I could never get decent sized wheels because of my height (6-1) and I just hunkerd down and decided not to accept that shitty excuse. I managed to get some respective legs at one point.... Some key things I can offer:
1. Squat deep. Going parallel or using a powelifting style won't cut it.
2. Train with some intensity. Most just "workout" on leg days and then "train" on upper body days.
3. As well, don't be the guy that does leg extensions, and leg presses. You HAVE to squat (and squat deep....refer to #1).
4. Balance your training. You DO have hamstrings you know....(wink).
5. I'd divide your days into hip dominant and quad dominant
6. Have your largest caloric days be on leg days.
Squat and pull a lot. Your upperbody will follow with almost minimal amounts of training. Thats what I have found. But it does not work the other way around.
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"...this is the way it goes, sometimes you're flush, and sometimes you're bust... and when your up its never as good as it seems... and when your down you never think you can be up again, but life goes on, remember that..."
Squat and pull a lot. Your upperbody will follow with almost minimal amounts of training. Thats what I have found. But it does not work the other way around.
First, thanks guys for all your excellent and thoughtful comments.
I will try to answer some of the questions/thoughts posed on this thread.
First off, part of the problem could be that my numbers for max squat and max deadlift are pretty bad. (Don't ask.) I've got some solid upper body strength but very limited lower body strength. Clearly this is part of the problem. As I increase the weight on my squats and deads, I will likely see increases in the size of my legs. How, however, do I go about increasing the strength of my legs?
As mentioned above, I've been doing waterbury and mejia's stuff with very slow progress on leg strength. While my upper body has gotten stronger and bigger, my lower body has lagged behind.
Maybe, as some suggested, I should go in for a leg-dominant workout, as Tony and many of you have suggested. Or just switch my workouts around to always have the squats/deads at the beginning of each session. I should also probably get a good trainer to advise me on form.
These are all good ideas and I will change my workout around accordingly.
Tony I checked out your article. But I Glute Ham Raise are quad dominant? Your first hip dominant day only one the excercises is hip dominant.
__________________
"...this is the way it goes, sometimes you're flush, and sometimes you're bust... and when your up its never as good as it seems... and when your down you never think you can be up again, but life goes on, remember that..."
Tony I checked out your article. But I Glute Ham Raise are quad dominant? Your first hip dominant day only one the excercises is hip dominant.
Just because I label a day as "quad dominant" doesn't mean EVERYTHING is actually a quad based movement. In all actuality, it's virtually impossible to make any movements "quad dominant" or "hip dominant." That being said, on day #1, back squats and walking lunges tend to be more quad dominant (meaning the quads do most of the work) and glute ham raises are for posterior chain work (again, I still think it's important to get some quad AND hip work with every training session).
Really? Reverse lunges aren't hip dominant? News to me. These should be nothing but hammies and glutes. Sure, you will get some quad involvement, but I know when I do them and when my clients do them, they REALLY feel it in their ass the next day.
Skinny Legs
Just that my arms filled out but not really in circumference. There's also the fact that I had fat on my arms but not so much now...I bet your legs have changed eh?
And I definitely have the arms problem too ...
Some key things I can offer:
:p
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