Leg Press Question...

[WilldBill88]

Hey guys, I been doing Leg Presses for assistant work after my squat because, Jim Wendler says its good for conventional deadlifters and raw squatters.

I was wondering if this has truth or just a theory from Wendler? I guess the reason why I was curious is because I saw a video on youtube with Mark Bell answering a question about leg presses. I was hoping he would mention something along the lines about leg presses being good for raw squatters and conventional deadlifters but, he just said its a personal preference and mentioned some powerlifters and bodybuilders who use the exercises to help build their legs... So I wanted to know what the MAB Community thinks.

Thoughts?

[Fazc]

Good leg assistance in my opinion.

[1morerep]

Everybody is diffrent. I do goodmornings, lunges, romanians and that works fine for me Not too much in the leg press but only you can determine if they work or not.

[Soldier]

I love higher rep leg presses as a finisher/quad size builder, but nothing under 10-12 reps.

[jdmalm123]

Should be fine as assistance work....

I don't have access to a leg press so my next choice would be.... trap bar dead lifts?

[Davis]

I think I got a little help from it when I did use it, but I stopped using it because every time I used it, it felt like my skin was going to rip off(It was a very strong, burning sensation) of the same place on my left thigh. That, and I have temporarily hurt my back using the leg press a couple of times.

That said, it did help a little. I don't know what happened with me.

[Paradox]

The quads are very, very involved in raw squatting and deadlifting (especially squatting). There's this notion lately that the only thing involved in a squat is your posterior chain. While everyone does tend to neglect their posterior chain (until they learn better), over training it and ignoring your quads is a poor decision for raw lifting. If you want to train your quads with leg press, and they respond well in terms of hypertrophy and strength, then all the power to you.

I prefer to have my squat accessory be squats and front squats lol.

[Fazc]

Originally Posted by Paradox

The quads are very, very involved in raw squatting and deadlifting (especially squatting). There's this notion lately that the only thing involved in a squat is your posterior chain.

Indeed.

And again this is a relatively new concept, you're looking at the last 10-15 years, prior to that a lot of the big guys would do Leg Presses quite regularly. If you look at old Deepsquatter articles you'll see a lot of references to them.

They're also very handy for doing uni-lateral work, takes the balance aspect out of the equation. Uni-lateral work in itself is quite useful.

[Soldier]

Another reason they are good for assistance is that after a good, heavy squat session you may have stability issues that keep you from getting much from more squats. Leg presses are still a far more natural movement than leg extensions and other leg assistance options, and if you like doing burn out sets, like I do, you can take yourself right to the limit because of the inherent stability of the leg press. It doesn't get better than a few sets of 30-50 reps to finish off a leg/squat session.

[Paradox]

Originally Posted by Fazc

Indeed.

And again this is a relatively new concept, you're looking at the last 10-15 years, prior to that a lot of the big guys would do Leg Presses quite regularly. If you look at old Deepsquatter articles you'll see a lot of references to them.

They're also very handy for doing uni-lateral work, takes the balance aspect out of the equation. Uni-lateral work in itself is quite useful.

I'm a huge fan of block periodization, and I'll definitely be applying some more unilateral work next time I'm in an accumulation block. Coupled with the fact that I want to add some more "body building" work into my next acc. block, I think leg presses will do just great. Thanks for the thought.