Today we are going to discuss the best way to build muscle mass on those legs which means the squat and the importance of this exercise on building leg muscles. I get asked all the time what the best exercise is to build muscle and it is the squat. The squat works in just under 400 muscle groups, causing one of the biggest hormonal increases possible, and recruits and activates more muscle fibers than any other exercise.
Is the squat sounding sexy yet? Well, let’s make it even sexier. It also burns more calories per rep than any other exercise out there! Yeah… Basically, the squat is that sexy girl you always wanted in high school wearing nothing and waiting for you in the bedroom. Basically, what I’m saying is the squat simply kicks ass.
Now if you are already squatting heavy, hard, and often. You will see a dramatic increase in size and strength on the legs, but through time you’ll need more than just the “squat” to get some assistance, basically you’ll need some assistance exercises to build your legs up even further. Exercises like the “leg raise” or leg curl will not do much for you besides putting unwanted pressure on the knees and further your chances of injury.
Leg press is a great exercise! For example, let’s say you’ve performed 5 sets of 5 on the squat really “Banging out” those reps and trashing those legs. Now that it might be time to add something extra, we could go and perform 4 sets of 15 reps on the leg press to build up the quad muscles a bit more.
Another exercise that too many NEGLECT is the deadlift, the deadlift is a great exercise for building the back everyone knows that but it is one of the best exercises possible for building up the hamstrings, girls and guys go “I want hamstrings like that” you mention the deadlift and they run away in fear it’s silly and stupid.
Deadlifting is a fantastic exercise for building muscle mass and making you strong as hell, it also stops imbalances and prevents injury to a large degree. Basically, if you want big legs, and you want to look great you need to be squatting and deadlifting heavy, not just one or the other.
Now I’m going to give you a little small bonus tip on the best way to build muscle for those legs. Drop sets with squats, use them sparingly they are a killer but will get you going well! Basically, I like to do it when going “Heavy” so I’d do a 3 set of 3 with a 95% maximum on my last set. Instead of 3 reps, I go for as many as possible, I might hit out 5 reps or hell only 3 since I’m so near my max.
Straight after I deload 40lbs off the bar and squat as many reps as I can stopping just before failure, I take another 20lbs off the bar and repeat this, I will do this between 3 to 6 times and really “destroy” my legs. There is no way you can ask me for the best way to build muscle and expect me to not include that in! Your legs, stomach, and back will all get worked!
