How to build legs with NO HEAVY SQUATS

Now today I'm going to walk you guys through my typical hybrid training when it comes to training legs. So we're going to be doing machines, weights, and calisthenics body weight exercises all focused around the legs. So I'll take you through my leg workout typically once a week. Before I even start my warm-up will usually be stair master for about five minutes. So jump on on the stair master get the legs warmed up get the blood flowing and then we get into some heavy lifts stair master I like to do every step for about half of that five minutes so it'll be the short little steps then I'll do every other step so I'll make it a higher reach a higher step for that just to get more quad engagement this is a great way to warm up my quads before I start with the first major exercise that I do on leg day. Now the first exercise that I get into right after the warm-up is going to be leg extensions so unfortunately due to a hamstring injury that I've had as you can see right there I've got a partially torn hamstring it's blown out been blown out for like 10 years. I don't train hamstrings too heavily because of that. Now on my leg extensions I will typically do three to four working sets three of those will be pretty heavy extremely heavy to where I'm pushing my limits on eight to ten reps on the last one I go lighter and I really slow it down and get that really slow concentric and eccentric part of the motion so the raise and the lowering of the weight very slowly and just to really hone in on the muscle contraction and just increase time under tension on that last one. Now once I'm finished with the leg extensions we are going to go hit the calves for a few sets and then we're going to go back to quads on the leg press. Now my calf workout it's pretty simple. I do weighted so these are two 70 pound dumbbells which I'll be holding in my hands when I do my calf raises and then I follow that up with body weight calf raises. So it'll be low rep heavy weight and then high rep body weight immediately after to burn them out. Just push the muscles to close to failure while finishing that set. So I'll show you guys how that looks. By the end of that set, really feel it in the calves. That's why you got to take around two minutes before going into the next one. Let your muscles fully recover before you start the next round. Otherwise, you're going to be holding yourself back from going to that failure. You got to give yourself ample rest time between sets. That is one thing most people screw up in their workouts. I've learned that skipping leg day is definitely not viable. You don't want to be that person who has a strong upper body and weak legs. I've been really putting in work on my legs, trying to, I don't care too much about the aesthetics and the size of my legs, although they are growing in size, but I want to have strong legs because one, the type of work I do requires a lot of times where you have to run all of a sudden, be able to sprint quickly, move quickly, jump, climb. So having powerful legs with legs that are durable is more important for me personally. Leg day is definitely important. How you go about it, how you train, there's literally hundreds of different approaches you can take to training legs. I like using the weights because it really overloads my muscles and then mixing in the body weight stuff so I still have strength and I'm comfortable moving around my own body weight. One secret to working calves is actually use a platform. so instead of just going from flat up you're going to go down and then go up or even down to flat typically i would go into a heavy leg press set next however the leg press machine is being used looks like it's going to be there you know someone's going to be there for a while and that is a problem you run into when you're training in a small gym where you don't have multiple machines so you have to adapt right you're not just going to sit for 20 minutes and wait for somebody to finish to do your set you can always switch the order of your exercises it's not going going to make a difference. So next up, what I'm going to do is plyometric explosive squats. It's going to be low reps, so like three to five rep count on each set, but very explosive, full energy, full power, maximum height on the squat jumps. And then I'll take about two minute rest, one to two minute rest in between each of these, just so I let my muscles fully recover before I really push it on those next jump squats. This next exercise, not a lot of people do, but it has been gaining a of popularity um it is the sissy squat and as awkward as it looks as awkward as it sounds very very effective leg exercise but leg press is freed up so we're gonna do the leg press next and light set so we got four plates on there already that's plenty probably five plates six plates and i'll do two to three heavy working sets on the leg press i see people doing leg press all the time and it's always the lightweight guys if you're gonna use leg press this is your excuse to get heavy, push your limits because you have all these safeties. A light leg press, kind of pointless in my opinion. You want to push those heavier weights, push that failure set, you know, eight to ten rep range. And I always finish off the leg press set with one set of sissy squats to failure. And that is pretty much my leg day guys. It's very simple. I'll finish off with one more set for calisthenics exercise. We're going to work on our single leg squat. Just Just get that unilateral calisthenics leg workout in to finish off my leg day. Find yourself a platform, one that's not going to tip over if you're standing on the edge. And we're going to do some calisthenics leg work from the top of this thing. That bottom leg, you're going to step into it and come up, come down. Your legs with just your body weight, because one leg pushing all your weight, a lot more difficult. And you're getting that deep stretch, that deep rep, and come up. And that's a wrap. That is the full leg workout. I sometimes finish it off with a run. sometimes i start it with the run about mile and a half but that's purely optional i like to keep that pace high so it's more focused on you know just intensity rather than like a slow paced jog but that's it guys it's really that simple that's how i train legs so i can have the explosive legs that i want to have you know legs that are durable legs that can work for a while before gassing out i could care less about being able to move crazy weight to me that is not important if you guys enjoyed the video if you want to see more of my personal workouts smash that like smash that subscribe sign up for my exclusive newsletter i send out emails almost every day with just free nuggets of fitness knowledge nutrition knowledge i have something coming out soon on there that's going to help you guys with your nutrition and how to fine-tune your diets without losing your minds without sacrificing some of the stuff that you may enjoy eating check this out look this is my hamstrings. Look at that. Tell me that that looks normal right there.