Skip ‘leg day’? Hell, no! Training legs (i.e., squats and deadlifts) is hard, but it pays off more in the long-run than bench and curls. Sure, you have to train upper body, but, let’s face it, it is really overrated. (I can’t help but think that male physique competitors wear board shorts to hide their lack of focus on legs—it’s all about abs, pecs, and delts.) There are benefits to prioritizing the big lifts for legs—even for us aging, non-physique-athlete nonathletes. There are especially benefits for young athletes.
First, if you want to improve your body composition, adding mass to the legs is the best place to start. More muscle with no change in fat weight means lower body composition! Training more muscle mass expends more calories. More calories expended (assuming no corresponding increase in food intake) means fat loss. Sure the scale might go up, but weight is just a number. Strong, thick legs might mean a slightly higher body mass index (BMI), but so what? It is healthier.
Second, training legs stimulates whole-body growth. Not only do the big lifts for legs use upper body muscles, they trigger hormonal and cellular responses that trigger whole-body muscle hypertrophy.
Third, you don’t look like you skip ‘leg day’, because you don’t. Even someone like myself with genetic “chicken legs” and add mass to their legs. It provides for a more aesthetic balance—perhaps even making the waist appear smaller.
Most importantly, growing the leg muscles also provides for functional strength that will allow for greater overall physical activity (both exercise and non-exercise activity) to promote energy expenditure and activities of daily living. Training legs can literally add years to your life.
Healthy, successful aging necessitates ‘leg day’. Train the legs hard and frequent. Do squats and deadlift and their variations for the purpose for gaining strength and muscle hypertrophy.
If a developing young athlete, recognize from where your real strength comes (i.e., the legs) and master the big lifts. Leave the curls and the pec flyes for the ones who are self-absorbed. Build your legs and the rest will follow.
Be your best today; be better tomorrow.
Carpe momento!