Do you ever see those fitness chicks on instagram with the massive legs and glutes? You watch their videos and see them doing “wimpy” workouts of 20 rep squats, 30 rep step ups and so on. They aren’t even going heavy! What gives?!
I will let you in on a little secret, the fitness chicks got it right! Legs need more volume and higher reps. Most people, guys especially, will go too low with reps for leg day. Besides the misconception that they need to, I also think people don’t want to do high rep leg training because it is brutal!
Here is a little test. One day at the gym do a set of 10 reps on leg press to failure. Another day do a set of 50 reps to failure, taking 5 second breaks if needed to get there. Which one was harder? Which one made it hard to walk up the steps? Which one left you sore hours after the workout? I bet it was the 50 rep set.
People don’t even consider a 50 rep set as something to do. But big sets like this can really set you up for some serious gains.
I rarely have my clients go under 10 reps for leg training. Majority is done in the 10-50 range. Different set and rep schemes for different exercises. Sometimes if we are doing trap bar deadlifts or a big movement like that I will throw in some sets at the 5-10 rep range. But majority is done much higher.
I also always recommend people hit legs at least twice a week. Everyone puts so much work into upper body training that their lower body training suffers. Maybe they hit it once a week and barely put effort in.
When training legs, up the intensity too. You should be out of breath and struggling at the end of your workout. The high rep schemes will take care of that for you. Also throw in some slow negative sets. I am a huge fan of 4 seconds down 1 second up. The legs respond very well to it.
Besides your legs responding better, you will get less injuries. Heavy leg training is notorious for causing tons of lower back and knee injuries. Although it might “look” cool to throw 315 on your back.It’s just not worth. Train smarter and train safer.
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