How to get big and strong legs without barbell squats

Although squats are undoubtedly the best exercise for the legs, you can still build powerful muscles with other lower body exercises, examples of workouts are attached.

The squat is the king of all bodybuilding exercises. It develops overall strength and is suitable for training, whatever your level or goal. When it's Men's Leg Day, it goes without saying that you'll start with a good dose of squat sets. But is it possible to achieve the same results for the lower body without squats?

The answer is yes, and here you will learn how to pump up your legs in the gym and increase their muscle mass without squats with a barbell using other effective exercises.

First of all, it is impossible to deny that squatting is the best way we develop a strong and resilient pair of legs. It would be wrong and dishonest to deny this. But there are a number of situations where even a correctly performed squat can cause harm, and in such a way that you will end up missing valuable time in the gym due to injury or pain.

During a squat, the entire body is tense, and most of this stress is placed on the knees and lower back. Wristbands and a belt can help, but they cannot completely prevent injury. And it’s not even that there’s something wrong with your technology; You can injure your knee by performing a completely correct squat. On the other hand, incorrect technique usually serves as a catalyst for nagging lower back pain.

In this topic we will look at:

Each of the exercises can pump up a specific muscle group, or all muscle groups in general. Personally, I stick to a couple of exercises that maintain the overall shape of my leg muscles, and some of them can even add mass.

To enhance the effect, you can add additional weight to your workout.

Adviсe

If you have diseases or injuries of the spine, consultation with a doctor is required. If necessary, exercises with pressure on the spine should be partially or completely eliminated for up to 6 months. If the injury is minor and not excessively painful, then only exercises that create the strongest axial load on the spine (barbell squats, military press, deadlift, deadlift) are excluded.

If there is no spinal column injury and there are no contraindications in this regard, do not be afraid of exercises with axial load. These are important exercises for both increasing strength and increasing muscle size.

Important! The injury is not caused by heavy weight, but by incorrect technique and weakly warmed muscles!

We are talking about large scales, but not critical. The maximum working weight involves using a minimum of 4-5 repetitions, this is enough to develop strength indicators.

Train correctly and remember, health is always more important than strength and muscle size, so study the movement technique and do everything correctly from the very beginning!

1Farmer's walk

Mega cool exercise for developing muscles of absolutely the whole body. Mainly absolutely all leg muscles are involved, since they bear the entire body weight + additional weight that you can carry.

You can also, instead of carrying extra weight in your hands, put it in a backpack (as tourists carry). This way you will free up your hands, but will increase the load on your upper back and shoulders. More weight and go?

According to one version, the “farmer's walk” was invented in Ancient Greece, when young athletes lifted a steer and walked. So, over time, the bull grew, and the strength indicators of the athletes grew along with it.

Christian Thibaudeau

Strength Coach and Performance Expert
If you want to improve the shape of your glutes, learn to incorporate them into compound, compound exercises—particularly squats, which can be very effective when done correctly.

The problem is that most people use their front thighs more than their glutes when squats. Try turning your hips and knees outward without lifting your feet off the floor. Imagine trying to screw your legs into the floor—the right one clockwise, the left one counterclockwise. This will help activate your glutes better and improve tension in them.

Throughout the entire movement - both when we lower and when we rise - we need to maintain this “spiral” tension. If you lose it, the body will revert to its normal way of lifting weights and shift the load to the quadriceps.

In the beginning, this may require you to lighten your weights and slow down your tempo to learn how to maintain tension. Once this becomes automatic, squats become more effective because you are now using two large muscles equally instead of just one.

To really focus on your glutes, use suspended squats: pausing for 2-3 seconds at the bottom of each rep. The key is not the pause itself, but what you do during it:

1. Pause a few inches before you reach your bottom position in the squat.
2. During the pause, maintain spiral tension.
3. Stand up straight from the suspended position. Don't go down and bounce up by inertia.

This is my favorite technique for maximizing glute engagement in squats. Of course, it can only be used after you have learned how to properly create spiral tension.

6 "Bridge" lying down

Do you remember the bridge exercise from school? In case you forgot, this is when you lie on your back and then lift yourself up onto your arms and legs. And are you standing?

A lying bridge is when you lift your body only with your legs, using exclusively the gluteal, thigh and calf muscles. To enhance the effect, you can do the exercises not on the floor, but with your feet on a small platform.

Leg muscle training program

17Cycling

Most people underestimate the bicycle, but have you ever seen a cyclist with undeveloped legs??? In addition to this, the endurance of absolutely all muscles of the body and the overall endurance of the body improves. Don't believe me? Set yourself the task of driving at least 25 km, and you will notice how within a couple of hours your body will get tired, and after a couple of days you will feel soreness in your entire body.

It will be interesting: how to get rid of muscle soreness.

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Workout and diet

Let the main products of fractional nutrition be porridge, lean meat, cottage cheese, eggs, vegetables and fruits. The ideal calculation of proteins should be 1.5 - 2 grams per kg of weight, carbohydrates no more than 2 grams per kg. Guys, unlike girls who always want to lose weight, can eat sweets and starchy foods, but only in limited quantities and in the first half of the day. After all, the main goal is to gain muscle mass, not a layer of fat.

It is important not to forget that just as you cannot lose weight in one part of the body, you cannot gain weight. By pumping your legs, your upper body will also become stronger.

The legs are a large muscle and the more you load it, the more testosterone will be produced, which provokes muscle growth. Performing each exercise 15 - 20 times, 3 - 4 times 3 times a week, in a short time you will see excellent results, which will encourage you to continue training. After all, the main motivator is the interested glances of girls and the envious gazes of guys.

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Lunge with bad knees

I would, of course, like to say that my program is impeccable and suitable for anyone, but to build healthy legs you need healthy knee joints. If you have problems with them (due to injury or age), then you are unlikely to master walking lunges.

In this case, do the opposite option (with a step back): in it, the working leg remains in place, and its knee is not subjected to painful overload.

Many knee problems, as I said, are caused by muscle imbalances, for example, tight hip flexors or adductors and weak glutes that prevent you from lowering into a full squat. What’s good about unilateral exercises is that they perfectly identify movement disorders/restrictions and help you get rid of them.

Spend a few preparatory weeks doing reverse lunges, performing 5 sets of 10 reps and monitoring your knees. If the situation improves, then over time try switching to lunges with a step forward - they will give the maximum weight to your legs without iron.

Basic mistakes when doing squats

The correct exercise technique helps to maximally work out the muscles that work when squatting and minimizes the risk of injury due to the increased load on the back and knee joints. To make the exercise as safe as possible, familiarize yourself with the main mistakes when performing it and try not to make them.

• Knees extending beyond the toes. A fairly popular mistake among beginners. The danger is that the joints are over-stressed, increasing the risk of sprains and injury. Let your knees be in line with your toes.
• Excessive relaxation of the shoulders and back. If your back automatically rounds when squatting, you need to work on it. If it is level, the spine is in a neutral position, making the exercise safe and effective. To do squats, you already know which muscles work, and work your core, you can lower your shoulder blades down a little.
• Insufficient squat depth. Many beginners are deeply afraid of squatting, because they believe that this increases the risk of knee injury. In fact, if you do everything correctly, there is no danger in this, but the effectiveness is very good. Watch how low your hips go: they should go below knee level. Then squats, which muscles are involved you know, will be as effective as possible.
• Insufficient regularity of squats. It is recommended to include squats in every workout, performing them at least 2-3 times a week. To work different muscle groups when doing squats, combine different types of them.

Let's look at how to properly perform a classic squat using your own weight. This technique involves the following nuances:

• Stand straight with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Shift your weight into your heels and arches.
• Your knees should be over your ankles and your hips over your knees.
• As you move, keep your spine in a neutral position. He shouldn't overexert himself.
• You need to extend your arms in front of you and place them in a position parallel to the floor. Palms should be facing down.
• Inhale and begin to slowly move your hips back, bending your legs.
• Look forward at one point, keep your back straight, do not round it or lower your shoulders.
• As the squat deepens, focus on keeping your feet and knees in line.
• Try to go as low as you can. You can lower your hips to knee level or lower.
• Returning to the starting position, push off with your heels. This will help to engage the core muscles in the exercise. published econet.ru.

How to build muscles without dumbbells, exercise machines, iron, gym, barbells and weights

Working out at home is a budget alternative to working out at the gym.
Advantages of training at home: » Accessibility » Ability to choose a convenient time » Saving travel time » Lack of critical views » Psychological comfort

However, to pump up without a barbell at home, you need self-discipline and knowledge of at least the basics of sports physiology. Not having a coach who can point out mistakes increases the risk of injury. A beautiful body is a combination of physical activity, proper nutrition and rest.

Basic Lunge

For the next 8 weeks, your base for your legs will be walking with lunges. This is one of the most underrated and at the same time most effective exercises for the main muscle groups of the lower body: quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. It is also extremely beneficial for hip, knee and ankle mobility. It is even used in testing to identify muscle imbalances and movement limitations.

Since we have temporarily abandoned iron, we will increase the number of repetitions in each workout in order to comply with the principle of overload. By the way, the proposed volume may even be too high for some; if you can’t cope, then divide the workout into 2 parts, doing exercises for the quadriceps (A, B, C) on one day and working the hamstrings and glutes (A, D, D) on the other.