Leg Day!!!

What is the one day that everyone tries to avoid during the workout week? The answer is Leg day. I cannot tell you how many times I go to the gym and workout and see these big chested muscly armed guys that have what I like to call “ chicken leg syndrome” where they are all big and buff in the upper body but the legs are skinny and really sad looking. There are too many people that go to the gym and think that it is okay just to work upper body only. No, it is not okay that is the worst way of thinking. Your body needs to have symmetry your legs should be big enough to match with your upper body. This is why leg day is so important. I am going to share a leg day workout that I did this past week that really kicked my backside.

                The first thing I did before starting my leg day workout is to make sure I stretched really well for about five to 10 minutes. After I felt loose and ready to go I jumped on the leg extension machine. I always start with the leg extension machine, I did four sets of 20 repetitions and then I moved on to the leg curl machine. On the leg curl machine I also did four sets of 20 repetitions and made sure that I was able to feel the pump in my legs before I moved on to other workouts. After the leg curls I started in to the squat rack doing front squats. Front squats are similar to normal squats where you squat with the bar on your shoulders but instead of the bar being on your back you have the bar on the front of your shoulders. Doing front squats is a really great way to strengthen your legs as long as you keep your form looking good. In my front squat workout I used light weight and did four sets of 10 repetitions.

                Dead lifts are next in my workout, I did three sets of 15 repetitions. When doing dead lifts you need to make sure your form is correct or else you can hurt your lower back. I would suggest using lower weight till you are able to lift with better form then as you get stronger move up in weight that is how I started. Next in the workout plan is the leg press, I did two sets of 15 repetitions then added more weight and then did two sets of eight repetitions and then I added more weight and did two sets of five repetitions and then lowered the weight and did a drop set.

                The last thing on the workout agenda is Calve raisers. I stayed on the leg press machine to do my calve workout, I did six sets of 15 repetitions. As I did the workout I repositioned my feet in different ways to really exercise the different muscles in my calves. First I pointed my toes parallel like I would when squatting and did two sets like that. Second I pointed my toes inward so they made an upside down V and I did two sets with my feet in that position. In the last position I pointed my feet out making a V shape with them. As I did these different positions I must admit I felt kind of like a ballerina but the effect that it had on my calves was well worth it.

            And that is it for my Leg work out for this week. Thank you for reading, stay tune for next week when I will talk about a shoulder routine that will help you build muscle and tone up your shoulders. Please feel free to comment on my posts, I am more than happy to respond and if you have any ideas or suggestions I am open to hear them. Again thank you for reading and remember to never skip leg day.


Sources:(http://www.mensfitness.com/sites/mensfitness.com/files/styles/photo_gallery_full/public/9-machines-to-avoid-front-squat.jpg?itok=vmthbJJO)(http://workoutlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/watermarked/Leg_press.png)(http://workoutlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/watermarked/Seated_Leg_curl.png)(http://workoutlabs.com/wp-content/uploads/watermarked/Seated_Machine_Leg_Extensions.png)(http://static.wixstatic.com/media/983e66_0b9250802e484f82a0c4abb91d68d757.jpg)(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PLtAYmjLwqQ/hqdefault.jpg)(http://media3.popsugar-assets.com/files/2013/08/02/858/n/1922729/e54a4fd1eb3f3248_internal-rotation/i/Calf-Raises-Internal-Rotation.jpg)(http://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/2013/08/02/858/n/1922729/35c88ec584b712f0_external-rotation.xxxlarge/i/Calf-Raises-External-Rotation.jpg)