If, like me, you train at a normal gym like FitnessFirst, and not one of those special bodybuilding gyms, then you must of noticed by now that a lot of the idiots there don’t train their legs, and just work on their upper-body. I mean, sure you see people on the treadmills, but when do you see people do squats? You just don’t. I often see guys with huge upper torsos, and then weed-like legs.
So many excuses have been created for this, including:
-’My legs are fine.’
-’I run on the treadmill to train my legs’
-’Squats hurt my knees!’
No. Just no. There is no excuse for not training your legs. Legs are so key, and it is such a bad mistake to make. Here’s 6 reasons why you SHOULD train your legs.
1. More Muscle
More muscle anywhere is always good. Not only are squats proven to release the most testosterone compared to all the other exercises, more muscle always equates to a faster metabolism. A faster metabolism means that you can consume more protein without having to worry about the fat and the rest of it as much.
2. Upper Body Gets Worked Too
The majority of effective leg exercises also train the upper body in one way or another. Here’s a few examples of how, just off the top of my head.
– When lifting heavy deadlifts (which you should be doing), your chest muscles also get worked very hard.
– During squats, you have to squeeze your abs hard enough to stablise yourself.
– You arms get worked by doing squats, which are probably the most effective leg exercise.
3. More Strength = Success
More strength is always handy. By having stronger legs, and stronger core muscles, this creates a faster growth on your upper body. For example,
-Legs are key to doing squats
-Bench pressing is helped a lot by having strong legs to stablize yourself with.
4. Symettry
Okay, so now I’m talking about those matchstick leg guys in the gyms. Let’s be honest here, as ‘individual’ as I do think you should all be, having puny legs and a ripped torso is just plain ridiculous. however, symettry is not.
5. Mentality
Training your legs is mentally hard, and very time-consuming. If I were to be honest, I’d say training legs is one of the harder places to train. It shows great mentality, and will boost your self-esteem if you manage this task.
6. Respect
No athlete will ever respect a man who only works on his ‘visual muscles’ (e.g abs, pecs). Be a real man and do it all.
