If you train hard but don’t see the muscle growth you want or hope to see, then it might be time to trade some of your cardio for a total strengthening session. This five-move lower body workout uses different types of weights to stimulate muscle growth and increase leg definition.
While it’s true that you can build serious muscle at home with a set of best adjustable dumbbells By hand, this lower-body workout requires a bit of extra equipment. All you’ll need, aside from some dumbbells, is access to leg press and leg extension machines, which are staple equipment in most gyms.
Once you’ve found the right gear, you can borrow this five-move session from krissy cella (opens in a new tab), personal trainer and co-founder of the training app EvolveYou. The routine relies on isolation exercises like the leg press to target specific muscles like the quads, and compound exercises to work several muscles at the same time.
It is an intense routine and will test your legs, but you can choose what load you work with per exercise. So it’s okay to lower the weight or reduce the number of reps as you go through the routine.
Just be sure to perform each exercise with proper form and use Cela’s demos as a reference point. Good form is better for stimulating muscle growth and will help prevent injury.
Watch Krissy Cela’s Five-Move Leg Building Workout
Anyone new to weight resistance training might find it useful to spend some time reading up on these Strength training tips for beginners. to help you select the proper load for this leg session. You can learn the ideal number of reps and sets required to work on your hypertrophy there. Hypertrophy is when you increase your lean muscle mass through exercise, and lifting weights is the most popular way to do it.
Alternatively, Cela recommends in her workout how many reps and sets to do of each exercise, so you may want to follow the lower-body session exactly as it is. He will find a full rundown of his routine below:
- Romanian deadlift: 10-12 reps, 4 sets
- Hip thrusts: 8-10 reps, 5 sets
- Split squats: 12 reps, 4 sets on each leg
- Leg Press: 10-12 reps, 4 sets
- Leg extensions: 12 reps, 3 sets
You’re not alone if you have some wobbles during this bodybuilding session, Cela said: “That first session after two weeks of inconsistent training is INTENSE.” However, if you include this in your regular training regimen, you can increase your muscle growth by using heavier weights as you go. Is named progressive overloadwhere you increase the load to continue your muscle gains and help you reach your strength goals.
Strength sessions can take a long time, and the rest periods between sets and reps can get boring for some people who enjoy circuit training. If this is you, you can still build muscle and strength by doing a little of both. It’s a good idea to create a training split in your training and don’t forget training styles like high intensity resistance training combine strength and cardiovascular exercise in one.