Main Mistakes and Best Tips on Leg Training

Want to develop your legs to the next level but you’re not managing? I’m going to try to give you some help with your next leg workout. I will list some of the main mistakes you might be making in your leg training and some tips on how to improve it.

In fact, both mistakes can be common to other muscle groups and the tips can be carried over to training other muscles as well.

Main Mistakes

• Not following a personalised plan

Did you know that you may even already be making mistakes before your leg training even starts? Yes, it’s true. If you arrive at the gym and you still don’t know what you’re going to do during your workout, then I’m warning you, that’s your first BIG mistake. After all, if you constantly change exercises how will you evaluate your training tonnage session after session (overload principle)?

• Not warming up

Arriving at the gym and starting training right away is not a very good idea. Firstly because you can injure yourself and compromise the following workouts as well as your performance during training.

• Little emphasis on compound exercises

You want to isolate a certain part of the leg as much as possible. You’re always doing that exercise that you’ve seen somewhere and you feel yourself burning. Well, you can and should do isolated exercises but always and only that?

• Low Intensity / Countless Reps

You train with very low loads. You do 10 reps with a load that you used to do 20.

You train with +20 reps, lots of supersets, dropsets to feel the muscle burning… (but don’t these techniques increase intensity? No. These techniques increase density) 

You can use but not abuse these methods. Feeling the leg burning is not a sign that the training will work.

• Doing too many exercises in the same workout (excessive training volume)

Remember that sometimes more doesn’t mean better. Quantity does not mean quality. If you really want your legs to grow, it doesn’t mean that you have to do 1001 exercises to make them grow.

• Not recording your training

Not keeping a training diary is a shot in the foot of your results. When you get to the next workout you don’t know with 100% certainty the load and reps you did? What will happen if you do less load and fewer reps compared to the last workout? There is no evolution!

THE ERROR

• Low amplitude in the exercises

Yeah… I would venture to say that this is the big and main mistake that MANY people make. Training with little amplitude. Half squats, half press reps, etc… You can benefit a lot more if you perform complete movements. 

What makes this mistake even worse is when the poor range of motion is caused by overloading.

Tips

So what can you do to improve my leg training? I’ll leave you with a few tips here.

• Plan your training

Your leg training should be planned for you according to your goal and your available time to train. It should fit into your routine to get the most out of your training.

• Warm up Properly

You already know what you’re going to do in training now is to prepare for what you’re going to do. A good warm up can take your training to another level. Cardio is not enough. It is necessary to do some work on the joints and perform 1 or 2 sets of the exercise with a lower load than the load you are going to use.

• Register your Training

Speaking of loads used, you should always record your training (loads and reps). For progression to occur the stimulus (training) must be repeated to try to increase the total tonnage of the previous training (only then will the overload principle occur). If you don’t write down the loads how will you know if there is progression?

• Prioritise Compound Exercises

Compound exercises such as Squats, Presses, Lunges as well as their variations should be in your leg training. They are very important in developing strength. This is not to say that you cannot isolate some leg muscles (in fact, if that is your goal, you should isolate them) but don’t overlook the power of compound exercises.

• Train with Intensity

Training with intensity is training with a load adjusted to you. If you have 10 reps planned, you should do them with weight so that you are close to failure at the end of the series. If you reach the 10th repetition and the contraction speed is the same as the first rep, the heart rate has barely accelerated, then sorry, but you are not training with intensity.

• Good Amplitude

Perform the exercises with the maximum amplitude available. Never forgetting the technique of the exercise. Training with full amplitude allows you to reach all the angles of the muscle and improves flexibility just as well as stretching training.

• Increase Weekly frequency 

If your goal is to have a well-developed leg, the vast majority of people will benefit from increasing the weekly frequency of leg training. Instead of training once a week, you can increase this to two or three times a week. But be careful not to do 10000 exercises in each training session. Stipulate the number of sets you want to do each week and distribute them over the 2 or 3 sessions you plan to do.

I hope you can now implement these tips and correct some mistakes you may be making in your leg training. To finish, I want to tell you that you don’t need to limp out of your leg training to have a good leg.

Happy leg training, everyone!