There is nothing odder than seeing a human light bulb.
I am sure you have seen them right, guys built like Brahmin bulls up top with stick figure legs.
What are they thinking? Or even funnier, what about the guys with huge thighs and twiggy's calves? Again, what are they thinking? It just does not look right.
So, what do your legs look like? Great looking legs from hip to ankles matched with a muscular butt are a sight to behold.
Fact of the matter is; I believe a strong pair of legs may be the most important asset you can have (muscle wise) for living and enjoying a healthy, quality of life.
Think about it, we are not orangutans swinging from the trees.
We are fully functional, bipedal creatures.
We get all of our foundational strength from our legs, hips, and gluts.
Develop and strengthen your legs, and the rest will follow.
So do your bench presses and your barbell curls, but think about the last time you walked around with your arms up in biceps pose? We use our legs every waking moment.
It only stands to reason that leg training must be your top priority and the legs are in the very best condition.
I am not a rocket scientist nor do I pretend to be an anatomy savant.
For my purposes, I am going to break up the legs into a few large groups.
Those groups include the quadriceps (front of the thighs), the hamstrings (the back), the calves (as a whole), hips, and gluts.
Yes, I understand that there are the abductors, sartorius and so forth, but not for this discussion.
Legs as a whole are tremendously strong.
There are people who can squat and/or dead lift in the thousands of pounds.
It is nearly unbelievable.
They are like human freight elevators.
Because the muscles are so strong or potentially so strong, these are muscles that demand compound movements.
For the longest time, I have recommended only three exercises for the upper legs: Full squat, lunges, and stiff legged dead lifts.
My recommend is rooted in my belief that the leg must be trained, in a sense, holistically.
More than other body parts, the leg muscles must be in balance.
Not based on anything other than my limited, oh so limited, knowledge; I feel that most injuries to the lower back and legs come from an imbalance in strength and muscle development in the lower body.
Squats hit the whole lower body, while focusing on the mid to upper quads, hips and gluts.
The lunge hits the lower quad on the front leg while stretching the groin muscles and quads on the rear leg.
The lunge hits all the little supporting muscles on the inner thighs.
The dead lift hits everything in unison on the backside from the lower back to the Achilles tendon.
There are no isolation movements here.
It is all compound movements that work the whole muscle group and adjoining muscles in unison.
Frankly, after a brutal 5 sets of squats followed by 3 sets of lunges, all done to maximum effort; your legs should buckle with every step.
And the thought of doing any other leg exercise should make you vomit.
What would the point be in doing leg extensions? Lastly, I was looking at this guy with a muscular body and great pair of legs.
He had no calves.
It just looked odd.
You must work the calves.
The exercise is a basic standing calf raise with slight bend in knees.
Also, a great way to pump your calves is to run in place, up on your toes, for 10 minutes.
Your calves will be swollen.
So, do not be a light bulb.
Work you legs with basic, compound movements and train them holistically.