Leg muscles are the strongest skeletal muscles of the body. Weight training leg splits to gain endurance, mass and strength of the lower body can be approached by thinking of push and pull movements. Push means to move forward along the axis of the sagittal plane of the body. Pull means moving back from the torso along the sagittal plane. With push and pull leg strength workouts it's easy to perform leg workouts two times per week. This allows muscles to recover and reduces the chance of injury while still getting results.
Leg Push Exercises
The classic leg push exercise is the leg press. Variations of this movement include the hack squat. Any exercise using the quadriceps as the primary muscle group is a leg push. Leg extensions are also in the push group. All of these are multi-joint movements involving the hip and knee joints. Single-joint movements such as calf raises and calf extensions using the leg press machine are also exercises.
Leg Pull Exercises
Leg pull exercises are initiated by contracting the hamstrings and gluteal muscles. Hamstring curls and stiff leg dead-lifts both fall into this category. The exercises are well suited to cable/pulley machines, whereby the cable attaches to the ankle and leg movements toward the rear pull the weight stack on the machine. Glute isolation machines and movements such as donkey kicks are leg pull exercises.
Frequency and Duration of Push Sets
Perform the leg push exercises one day per week if focusing on lower body alone. Perform three to four different squat exercises with eight to 10 repetitions. If the leg push exercises are combined with upper-body push exercises as part of a whole-body push strength training workout, then perform one to two different exercises with eight to 10 repetitions per set. A whole-body push workout can be performed up to twice a week.
Frequency and Duration of Pull Sets
As with the push movements, perform leg-pull exercises one day per week if emphasizing lower-body strength and mass gains. This is a common bodybuilding split. If the pull sets are part of a whole-body pull workout where only one to two lower-body pull exercises are performed, twice a week is the recommended frequency. This is more common with general fitness and resistance training enthusiasts who work out with weights four days per week.
Member Comments