Legs twice a week?

**Carnitas** · June 24th, 2008, 07:24 PM

I've been reading on here lately about working out legs more than once a week. Someone made a good point saying you workout your upper body at least 3 days a week, but your lower body only 1. What do you guys think? If I'm doing a 4 day split right now, should I up it to 5? How many sets should each leg workout be? Should I focus on the quads on one workout and the hamstrings on another?

DEALER · June 24th, 2008, 07:48 PM

I'm not in a position to give anyone advice, I can only describe what works for me.

I also use a four day split. I work legs by themselves on one of those days. I find if I work my legs as hard as I think they should be, I feel great the next day, get really sore on the second day. The following few days I am recovering.

Also, I perform deadlifts on back day, which I find gives the legs a great boost.

I suppose if someone is taking performance enhancing drugs, or is a much more experienced and conditioned individual than I (not saying much), then by all means hit 'em hard twice a week.

This has been working for me, as my legs get stronger and stronger. I am most pleased with the progress I have made as of late in this area.

Again, this is only my humble opinion. No expert.

**TommuGuns** · June 24th, 2008, 07:55 PM

well i personally train every muscle twice a week, each day i train legs i do 25 sets on quads, 20 on hammy's and 15 on calves. So its a big workout on my legs.

**tooncesthecat** · June 24th, 2008, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TommuGuns

well i personally train every muscle twice a week, each day i train legs i do 25 sets on quads, 20 on hammy's and 15 on calves. So its a big workout on my legs.

Probably would be overtraining for those not on AS.

**TommuGuns** · June 24th, 2008, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tooncesthecat

Probably would be overtraining for those not on AS.

Not on AS at moment, on HGH... LOL

**orientalkid** · June 24th, 2008, 10:32 PM

why not, hamstring and calves on day and quads on another.

For me, i usually do deadlift (both rack lift and the traditional one) on back day, and squats on led day

**pliny_2001** · June 25th, 2008, 09:39 AM

It depends on any number of factors -- when you consider that actual growth is done when you're resting, then having six lifting day a week starts to seem pretty counter-intuitive after a bit. When I'm trying to put on (overalll) size, I know that lifting 3 days a week is best. If I want to lift legs as much as possible, I won't go more than every 4 days -- if I'm recovered in 3, then I wasn't training with enough intensity.

It all varies, though. You can train calves a lot more frequently - I've periodically done those 3-4 times a week with no bad effects. Glutes, hams, and calves, though, takes a lot more out of you.

I don't like separate quad/ham workouts, though part of that may be due to time constraints -- mostly, though, it's b/c exercises like squats or deads use quads, hams, and glutes. Sets vary depending on goals and how recovered I feel.

**Carnitas** · June 27th, 2008, 02:31 PM

Well usually my leg workout will consist of squats, deadlifts, leg press, hack squat, leg extension, leg curl, and sumo squat. Calves I usually get them in on my leg days, but could afford to do them again. The exercises I just listed I will choose any variation of them, maybe choose 4 of those and stick to that for a couple weeks then mix it up again. I've seen not too bad results from 1 day a week, but maybe I'll try two days a week and see where that leads me. Thanks for your responses so far guys.

**painless2** · June 27th, 2008, 06:11 PM

I believe in training legs NO times per week, but then again, I am in a wheelchair! lol

EFBadger · July 2nd, 2008, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carnitas

Well usually my leg workout will consist of squats, deadlifts, leg press, hack squat, leg extension, leg curl, and sumo squat. Calves I usually get them in on my leg days, but could afford to do them again. The exercises I just listed I will choose any variation of them, maybe choose 4 of those and stick to that for a couple weeks then mix it up again. I've seen not too bad results from 1 day a week, but maybe I'll try two days a week and see where that leads me. Thanks for your responses so far guys.

Do you do squats, leg press, hack squat, and sumo squat in one workout??? I usually just pick one of those to go heavy then finish up with two or three sets of light leg presses or squats. Add a few sets for calves and hammies and move on. My current split gets me 1-1/2 leg workouts a week. And I gave up leg extensions - hurt my knees and I didn't think I was getting anything for my efforts.

**Carnitas** · July 2nd, 2008, 03:19 PM

It depends on my workout. I usually do squats and leg press in the same workout, and then work on hamstrings and put in some calves workouts. Then the next leg workout I do hack squat and sumo squat. I'm changing up my workouts now so I'm going 6 times a week training each body part twice, we'll see how that goes.

**orientalkid** · July 3rd, 2008, 07:52 AM

I only do squats (pyramid sets) and lunges, along with 2 sets of leg extension for the pump.

Since deadlifts always mess up my back days, I tend to do SLDL and the conventional deadlifts on back day. The SLDL will hit both my hams and back this way

EFBadger · July 3rd, 2008, 12:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orientalkid

I only do squats (pyramid sets) and lunges, along with 2 sets of leg extension for the pump.

Since deadlifts always mess up my back days, I tend to do SLDL and the conventional deadlifts on back day. The SLDL will hit both my hams and back this way

Make sure not to over work your hams with a hard workout on back day, because the squats and lunges work 'em too. Do to a wonder of leverage called Lombard's paradox, the hamstrings extend the hip while the quads extend the knee, so both front and back work together in these excercises. Squats are still king.