Lower body excercise?

[Maximilian]

Ive been doing dumbell squats, how are wall sits though? A good compliment do squats? Would it be an idea to do them during the same workout that i also do squats?

 

[Pantlegz]

Squats and deads are the only lower body exercie I do and my legs are massive. I couldn't imagine needing to do anything else... Maybe lunges or pistols(one leg squats)?

 

[ibex333]

What I do is basically try to hold as much weight as possible on my body and do squats. I load my backpack with dumbell plates, books, etc. I hold a broomstick on my shoulders with bags suspended on it containing heavy books, laundry detergent canisters filled with water, etc. Didnt try to weigh it all, but I am pretty sure it's at least 70lbs if not 100. Because all this weight is not very balanced I get the added benefit of having to balance all of it while squatting. After doing 3 sets of 20 squats, my quads are hurting like hell, and if I really need to I can add yet even more weight.

I also do calf raises using this same exact method.

The only muscle I cannot find a way to work out at home are the hamstrings or the biceps femoris, or whatever that one is called. I am thinking of tying some heavy weight to my legs and bending them at the knees while holding on to a pullup bar. That might do it.

 

[douglasb]

What I do is basically try to hold as much weight as possible on my body and do squats. I load my backpack with dumbell plates, books, etc. I hold a broomstick on my shoulders with bags suspended on it containing heavy books, laundry detergent canisters filled with water, etc. Didnt try to weigh it all, but I am pretty sure it's at least 70lbs if not 100. Because all this weight is not very balanced I get the added benefit of having to balance all of it while squatting. After doing 3 sets of 20 squats, my quads are hurting like hell, and if I really need to I can add yet even more weight.

I also do calf raises using this same exact method.

The only muscle I cannot find a way to work out at home are the hamstrings or the biceps femoris, or whatever that one is called. I am thinking of tying some heavy weight to my legs and bending them at the knees while holding on to a pullup bar. That might do it.

This is bad advice IMO. 70-100 lbs. isn't even remotely acceptable for "as much weight as possible" if you're doing squats. My warm-up set twice as much weight as that, and my legs aren't even particularly strong. My work sets are considerably more. 20 reps per set is way too much. If you can do 20 reps, you aren't using nearly enough weight.

Anyways, to asnwer the OP, you can try front squats or overhead squats. I would forget about the wall squats. You will definitely want to add deadlifts. Maybe calf raises as well.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

^That. Relatively speaking I'm a fat weakling, and I still calf raise an extra 120kg in addition to my body weight, and similar in leg presses. Your lower limb muscles are some of the strongest in the body and they should be able to take more than your body weight plus 30kg, especially if you're working out.

The only muscle I cannot find a way to work out at home are the hamstrings or the biceps femoris, or whatever that one is called. I am thinking of tying some heavy weight to my legs and bending them at the knees while holding on to a pullup bar. That might do it.

Hamstrings are biceps femoris, semitendinosus, and semimembranosus from lateral to medial. They help the quadriceps with hip extension, so squats should do those as well.

 

[Maximilian]

Okay so this isnt really good for anything then?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDjKeOCgisw

Ive got powerblock dumbells which i usually squat with, im using 40lbs per dumbbell so 80lbs total to start with.

 

[Soccerman06]

Since Im visiting this end of the forums, Ill tell ya what I did during my high school and college soccer days. Since I already have a large amount of lower body muscle and used it regularly, I more or less maxed out with the equipment the school had. Remember just like every other exercises, the slower and more controlled the better. Excuse my lack of technical terms as its been a few years since Ive done most of them.

Id start with a boring warmup, either soccer practice or just plain old light running and then stretching.
Light warmups with a lot of lunges, the hopping and switching foot kind. I would usually do somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 on each side broken up into sets of 20.
Add 50-100lb and do walking lunge for 100m. 5 sets. Sometimes I would do vertical jumps instead.
Depending on my schedule, I would find one of those weird groin strengthening machines (light day) and do 3x15 sets for inside and outside. Adduction machine?
Next would be the leg press (heavy day) and do 5x20 sets of 400 and then 2x10 at 600 and as many as I could do at 800, usually 10 spread out over 4-5 sets. Never really occurred to me to do 1 foot at a time =/
Id also exercises calf muscles doing leg presses. At full extension I would push off with my calfs. Sometimes Id go to the calf machine (the one where you stand up and push up with your calfs) if it was a busy day.
Leg curls and extensions, 2x20 (light day) at mid weight or 5x20 at high weight (heavy day).
Id finish with that machine where you kick or pull one foot at a time, but Id keep my leg straight and use the lower abdominal muscles mostly. 2x20 at heavy weight, whatever the machine weight is.
Cooldown would be a jogging and stretching.

Of course I wouldnt do any of that if there was 2 a days or a game coming up. Sometimes there would be running exercises which are much harder.

After warmup: Rotate 100m and 200m sprints, do 10 sets of each (or do as much as you can do in 20 min)
Go play run up and down the stairs in the stadium. You could do a stair machine.
Suicide runs on the football lines, 2x.
Rest 10 min.
Run 5x200m with parachutes.
Play with the stairs some more.
1 mile under 5:30
cooldown

Hopefully this helps.

As a comment for wall presses, those are a pain in the ass and should mainly be used for toning, not bulking up. Its like doing those mid pushup holds with arms against your body, they kill and dont really build muscle like a good full press does.

 

[elitejp]

If you can do 20 reps, you aren't using nearly enough weight.

Not if your doing it the dc way...but thats only one set of 20. But I know what your saying.
edit: actually if your doing it the dc way and you actually do get to number 20 then you shouldve added more weight haha

For legs the only real exercise is barbell squats. In my opinion you would be better off doing a few sets of squats than an entire workout of other things for your legs.

I do like to mix it around though so sometimes I will do barbell lunges. I think the most i ever did was 225x20 alternating legs.

 

[elitejp]

This is bad advice IMO. 70-100 lbs. isn't even remotely acceptable for "as much weight as possible" if you're doing squats.

Even though I agree with your point you need to take in consideration that ibex probably doesnt have an olympic gym at his/her house. So for working out at home and me not knowing if this person is male or female or their bodytype I would have to say that what ibex is doing is better than nothing.

 

[ibex333]

This is bad advice IMO. 70-100 lbs. isn't even remotely acceptable for "as much weight as possible" if you're doing squats. My warm-up set twice as much weight as that, and my legs aren't even particularly strong. My work sets are considerably more. 20 reps per set is way too much. If you can do 20 reps, you aren't using nearly enough weight.

Anyways, to asnwer the OP, you can try front squats or overhead squats. I would forget about the wall squats. You will definitely want to add deadlifts. Maybe calf raises as well.

I didn't say I am trying to lift as much as possible. I said I am lifting as much as possible. See the difference between "goal" and "fact"? I don't go to gyms, so this is as much weight as I can find around the house atm without looking harder, or needing to for that matter.

OP asked about leg exercises, so I gave a couple of ideas here. We weren't talking about lifting for size or endurance so as I understand anything goes. In my case I am lifting for ENDURANCE because I need this to be able to ride my bike for longer periods of time without getting tired. Also, I read how doing squats even without any weight is still very beneficial to anyone's health... and what about Pistol squats? Those are great. I am trying to work my way up to those. Currently I can do only 2, but I'm getting there. There are people on You-Tube that only do pistol squats and their legs look great.

When I was at the gym, I was lifting 250 lbs on that machine where your back is on the floor and your legs are lifting the weight above you. For calf raises I was doing the whole stack. However, I really hated those particular machines because I was constantly afraid of all that weight coming down and crushing me if I forget to engage the locks on the sides or if I was to suddenly feel dizzy. Maybe it's the fact that I don't lift even one quarter that weight for any other part of my body, except for maybe the chest.

I am a male, 29. I was never lifting seriously or for a long time before, and my health was generally quite poor, pretty much up until now, so it is possible that I am indeed weaker than your average joe.

 

[douglasb]

^ Just giving my opinion that I don't think what you're doing is effective. I don't think that doing squats is going to build much endurance, even if you are doing sets of 20. Running or some other form of cardio would be much more effective for building endurance.

As far as the OP's question about wall squats, leave them out of your routine. Wall squats are basically for those people who are unable to do regular squats yet. Adding an easier variation of the same exercise is not going to be much of an improvement at all. The pistol squats suggested are an interesting idea if you don't have access to a gym or more weight. Otherwise, keep doing back squats and adding more weight, or switch to front squats or overhead squats if the back squats are too easy.

 

[ibex333]

^ Just giving my opinion that I don't think what you're doing is effective. I don't think that doing squats is going to build much endurance, even if you are doing sets of 20. Running or some other form of cardio would be much more effective for building endurance.

As far as the OP's question about wall squats, leave them out of your routine. Wall squats are basically for those people who are unable to do regular squats yet. Adding an easier variation of the same exercise is not going to be much of an improvement at all. The pistol squats suggested are an interesting idea if you don't have access to a gym or more weight. Otherwise, keep doing back squats and adding more weight, or switch to front squats or overhead squats if the back squats are too easy.

Understood, but again, you're misinterpreting. When I talk about endurance, I am talking about endurance for that particular set of muscles. I can personally back up my claims by saying that I noticed a big increase in my biking performance just from doing squats the way I do them. In fact hopefully I can stick with exercising for several months and then I can come back here and back up my claims with pictures too. ; )

 

[douglasb]

Understood, but again, you're misinterpreting. When I talk about endurance, I am talking about endurance for that particular set of muscles. I can personally back up my claims by saying that I noticed a big increase in my biking performance just from doing squats the way I do them. In fact hopefully I can stick with exercising for several months and then I can come back here and back up my claims with pictures too. ; )

Do not want. You said you were male. lol

 

[ibex333]

Fair enough. I didn't think about it like that. ; )

We have too much homophobia in our society.