Advice For Those Lifters Who Often Skip Leg Day: Don’t!

leg day

For those who skip leg day, you are only hurting yourself.

For many of us lifters, we often dislike, and may even skip, leg day. But the benefits of working our legs and giving ourselves the best chance at seeing that growth is important and by skipping leg day, we don’t allow ourselves to fully take advantage of all the great leg gains we could make to our physique as a whole. And if you are someone who skips leg day, you are ultimately only hurting yourself.

Why leg day isn’t enjoyable for some is an interesting thing to talk about. Is it because we love to work our so-called “vanity muscles”, those ones that everyone sees and can envy? Maybe. Working our biceps and sculpting those horseshoe-shaped triceps are a lot more fun when we see progress as opposed to building our quads which hide under our pants. But what we forget most of the time is just what leg day does for our physique overall.

 

A large upper body means nothing if the lower half can’t keep up. In fact, it looks quite silly, don’t you think? We’ve all seen those guys with those chicken legs, trying their hardest to make their physique work without fully realizing that their lack of emphasis on leg day is stunting their overall growth. At the end of the day, you don’t want to be that guy.

Let’s take a look at why skipping leg day will ultimately hurt your gains. By knowing what steps to take to make leg day more enjoyable and engaging, you will be more inclined to want to do it. And once that physique starts to take shape, you will see just what a good leg day routine can do for you.

leg day

Benefits Of Strong Legs & Leg Day

The benefits of strong legs and what a good leg day routine can do is important to understand so you are more inclined to do it. As bodybuilders, working our legs are obviously important for a well-proportioned and symmetrical physique. But for everyday fitness folks, our legs have the ability to aid in a number of ways that can benefit us beyond belief.

Benefits of strong legs include:

  • Stronger lower half: By lifting weight and building muscle, you put a focus on strength and increased muscle growth, thus allowing you to hit those PRs and desired physical goals in the gym.
  • Well-rounded physique: A large upper half needs to be coupled with a matched lower one and by building your legs, you build a well-rounded physique others will envy.
  • Stronger joints: Our knees and other joints take a beating every day and by working to build larger muscles and those smaller muscles around joints, we work to strengthen our joints and provide for the best in terms of overall support.
  • Better posture: Stronger legs allow us to stay more grounded and can improve posture by giving us a great base to support us.

Related: WATCH: This Is Why You Should NEVER Skip Leg Day

What’s The Harm In Skipping Leg Day?

The harm in skipping leg day is that you don’t get these above benefits. Without working our lower half, we stunt our overall growth and those sport specific and more functional movements tend to lack, thus impeding on training and performance. And those chicken legs don’t look good on anyone, no matter how much you lift and build your upper body muscles.

Ways To Make Leg Day Engaging

In an effort to want to work your legs, there are some great ways to make leg day more engaging so you feel more inclined to want to put an emphasis on it.

 

  • Drop Sets

Drop sets are great for building extra muscle with a particular exercise by continuing reps after you’ve reached failure. This allows you to push past any training plateau and will allow you to push your limit more than you thought possible (1).

  • Supersets

Supersets works to combine multiple exercises that pair two movements, typically working different muscles, that make your workout more efficient and save you time. Plus, you build more muscle by constantly working your body (2).

  • Try Different Variations

Many exercises have different variations that you can focus on to continue to work the same muscle but in a different way. Variations allow you to constantly confuse your muscles so they grow, but also keep your workouts more engaging.

  • Focus On Exercises You Enjoy

By creating a training plan that you enjoy, you can better structure your leg day with exercise you want to perform. With so many great leg day exercises, finding those that you want to do will keep your workouts more fun and engaging.

Best Leg Day Exercises

We wanted to share a couple of great leg day exercises that you can try, or maybe have already tried, because they build muscle but also have many variations to constantly change up your workouts.

Related: The Absolute Best Leg Exercises For Men

Ultimately, Why Leg Day Matters

At the end of the day, leg day matters greatly because this forces you to build your lower half to see the best gains. When you walk around the gym, or just in everyday life, a well-built and properly sculpted lower half will draw as much attention as a solid upper half. Leg day shouldn’t be a burden and by working with these tips and finding exercises you enjoy, you allow yourself the opportunity to grow and develop those muscles for the better.

Wrap Up

Those days of you skipping leg day are over and all it takes is seeing someone with chicken legs to change your mind. All of your workouts should be engaging and you should get something out of each and every one. With the right approach, you will see huge gains and won’t have to worry about a lopsided physique again. Give these tips a try and change that mindset, for leg day is something we all can greatly benefit from.


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*Images courtesy of Envato

References

  1. Schoenfeld, B.; et al. (2018). “Can Drop Set Training Enhance Muscle Growth?”. (source)
  2. Weakley, J.; et al. (2017). “The effects of traditional, superset, and tri-set resistance training structures on perceived intensity and physiological responses”. (source)
Austin Letorney
Austin Letorney is a writer, actor, and fitness enthusiast. As a former rower, he has shifted his focus to sharing his knowledge of the fitness world and strength sports with others.