Back in the day, I fell into the trap of hitting up the local gym with my bros and working the hell out of my "mirror muscles". You know those muscles: chest, biceps, and abs. We hit it hard because that's what you saw in Hollywood and of course all the ladies loved those attributes on a man....That's what we thought anyway. We'd hit the gym, workout, talk in-between sets, stay there for 30 minutes, leave and decide where we were gonna meet up later to drink beer and put the results of our "hard work" on display. Outside of running, I totally neglected my legs. Maybe you had a routine like this in your past too..?
Have you ever heard you have to work out your legs to get big arms? Sounds weird I know, but there is a point to this saying. For all of those individuals out there skipping lower body exercises in their workouts, you are doing your fitness a huge disservice. Think about it, our lower body is made up of HUGE muscle groups. These muscle groups are begging to join the party in the gym. Why would we neglect working these muscles? Answer: Most leg exercises are hard as hell! We shy away from things we perceive as "hard". That stops now in the gym, ladies and gents.
Two "classic" family favorites for instance: Squat and Deadlift work massive muscle groups across multiple joints in large ranges of motion. These are functional movements - meaning they translate over to the real world very well. We squat and deadlift in our daily lives all the time: picking things up, sitting on the toilet, in a chair, getting up off the couch, etc....Why wouldn't you want to keep these muscles strong and performing at an optimal level? Sane person's answer = Of course I wanna keep these muscles strong. So, you need to be squatting and deadlifting.......young, old, man, woman; it does not matter.
You're asking, "Keith, how the heck can leg exercises make my arms massive and strong"?
A little science here, stay awake.
This metabolic stress produces muscle fatigue and an important little compound known as Lactate, which improves metabolic efficiency and has potential to act like a hormone. Lactate is important because it is a chief promoter of 2 powerful and well known muscle building and fat burning hormones: Growth Hormone (GH) and Testosterone. Muscle building and fat burning is a recipe for getting shredded.
Growth Hormone (GH) is an anabolic (building up) agent increasing muscle mass and strengthening the mineralization of bone tissue. GH loves to burn fat as its preferred fuel source.
Testosterone is a steroid hormone that is also an anabolic agent that increases muscle mass and strength, as well as, increases bone mass and bone strength. It is produced by both men and women but to a far greater degree in men. This hormone is a necessity for optimal health in both men and women. You produce it by lifting heavy things. We MUST lift heavy things!
Another important lesser talked about hormone is Insulin-like Growth factor-1 (IGF-1). GH stimulates the liver to produce IGF-1, which has growth promoting effects on almost every single cell in the body. It causes skeletal muscle hypertrophy (increase in size) by inducing protein synthesis and blocking muscle atrophy (wasting away).
The release of these hormones is the body's neuroendocrine response to the physical stress of exercise. These hormones make the body stronger, rev up body metabolism making it a more efficient energy burner protecting hard-earned lean muscle tissue and burning unwanted body fat.
But you won't get these results standing around between sets talking and watching t.v. You have to be moving an intense load (for your unique body) at a good rate. We want to keep lactate levels in the blood so that we have large amounts of GH on board. Training this way, exhausting the aerobic system and stressing your anaerobic pathway by lifting heavy things multiple times with minimal rest periods for a specified time gains you benefits that cardio training alone just cannot give you. You want lean muscle, strength gains, strong bones, a fast metabolism, and a more efficient body that you can move, then you have to include leg exercises in your routine. This will allow you to train your whole body. Most leg exercises have you challenging your grip to support weight, engaging your core to protect your spine, and calling upon many of the synergistic/helper muscle throughout the whole body to help you move the load in a controlled motion through the desired range of motion.
My training has reached a point now that if I'm pressed for time in a workout, I make the limited things I do that day in the gym leg-centered exercises. That's the kind of respect we need to have for these strength-generating exercises.
I'm talking about things like:
Squat Variations: Back Squat, Front Squat, Overhead Squat, Goblet Squats, Bulgarian Split-Squats,
Jump Squats
Lunges: Front, Reverse, Lateral Lunges
Deadlift Variations: Standard DL, Romanian Deadlift (or Stiff-Legged DL), Sandbag Deadlift,
Suitcase Deadlifts
(This is of course not every leg exercise out there, but a good start for rookies)
Guaranteed, any given workout I do will involve at least two of the above exercises.
We cannot ignore awesome multi-joint compound movements such as: snatches, clean and jerks, and thrusters. These definitely have a place in my personal training and can be highly technical. They all use great amounts of leg strength and I encourage everyone to properly learn how to do them correctly and adopt them into their own training.
Working out your lower extremities is very important and offers benefits to the rest of your body. The hormones released alone all promote benefits we want well into old age. It will make you stronger not just in the lower half, but your core will get stronger, your grip will improve, you'll burn more calories having to use more muscle to keep the whole body stable, and you'll burn unwanted fat while developing lean muscle tissue getting your body shredded. I know from personal experience that these things are true. I am stronger now from regular lower body training and my running has improved over the years from my new found leg strength. Working out your legs will get you where you want to be with your fitness faster and may be the secret to gaining HUGE strength gains.
For God sakes you don't wanna have Chicken Legs Syndrome like this guy. It looks ridiculous.
Have Fun Lifting!
KM
