Increasing the volume of the legs should be one of the first goals when starting the gym. Forgetting leg day is one of the most common mistakes made by beginners—the result: a disproportionate body.
A routine to increase the volume of the legs should include exercises to work both the back and the front. The best way to increase your size is to alternate between hypertrophy days and days of maximum strength.
This article describes the best exercises to increase the volume of the legs with a typical example.
Legs with volume – How to do?
Increasing the volume of the legs can be challenging to start with. The legs are a large muscle group, and hypertrophy requires much energy.
The good news is that it is possible with barbell and dumbbell machine exercises. Supplementing practices for volume buttocks, sports, or cardio is the best way to achieve firm, solid, and volume legs.
The leg muscles are divided into dozens of muscle groups. The legs are the most complex and interconnected muscular system in the body; they are large, medium, and small muscles.
To increase the volume of the legs, it is necessary to work for the different muscle groups alternately. In addition, if you want to increase its size, the ideal is to combine days of maximum strength with days of hypertrophy.
// Recommended: Hypertrophy Hybrid Strength Training – What is it?
Leg Exercises – Top 5 for Bulking
The best leg exercises for volume are the classic barbell squats, deadlifts, and lunges or lunges. These exercises ensure the complete work of this muscle group and are excellent for increasing its size.
In addition, extensions, curls, and other machine exercises allow you to increase volume with less risk of injury, making them ideal for beginners. The best volume exercises for legs and an example routine are described below:
- Barbell squats
Barbell squats are an essential exercise to increase the volume of the leg muscles. Quadriceps, glutes, and calves are worked. A beginner should be prudent not to shift the weight to the knees.
- Leg press
The leg press is great for beginners. They allow increasing the volume with little risk of errors in the technique. The key to improving the book is to fix the body to the seat and tighten the abdominals when raising the movement.
- Lunges
Lunges or lunges are an essential exercise to work the legs. You can use a pair of dumbbells to the sides to increase the volume. As you go down, be sure to tighten your abs, so you don’t shift your weight to the sides.
- Leg press
The press is an exercise for the legs that allows the work of the different areas of this muscle group. According to the position, the muscle is working according to the part of the feet on the platform. It allows increasing both the volume of the glutes and the quadriceps.
- Machine leg opening
This is an isolation exercise to work the outside of your leg muscles. In addition, it serves to increase the volume of the lateral area of the buttocks.
- Femoral curl in the simulator
Forgetting to increase the volume of the back of the legs is a common mistake in beginners—the result: disproportionate legs. When doing curls, you work on the importance of the hamstrings and hamstrings.
- Simulator for abductors
In this leg exercise, the abductor’s muscles are worked. Increasing the volume of this muscle group is one of the most difficult challenges in the gym. The ideal when doing this exercise is to start with low loads and gradually increase the weight.
How many sets, how many repetitions?
Ideally, to increase the volume of the legs is to limit the number of exercises to no more than 7.
The ideal number of series and repetitions to increase the volume per exercise is 4-5 series with 10-12 repetitions each. However, if you do this for an extended period, you will stagnate.
Therefore, you should start working at your maximum strength when you reach your limit. This reduces the number of repetitions to no more than six and increases the weight.
Alternating between these two methods is the best strategy for increasing leg volume.
// Recommended: Exercises to strengthen the legs
Basic multi-joint exercises to increase the volume of the legs
The barbell deadlift, barbell squats, and machine openings are basic exercises for increasing leg volume.
These exercises fall into basic multi-joint activities for the lower body.
To increase the volume of the legs, these exercises are ideal and must be worked with considerable weight. The best strategy to increase volume is to combine loads.
This is working a week with high weight and a maximum of 8 repetitions and the next trying to achieve 15 repetitions with 70% of the previous weight.
How to increase the volume of the leg muscles? –Recovery and feeding
It is important to note that the leg muscles require at least 72 hours to recover fully.
In other words, to increase the volume of the legs, you should not train more than once every three days. The body needs this minimum time for successful muscle recovery.
In addition, complementing the training with a volume diet is essential to increase its size. The key to eating to increase the volume of the legs are:
As for sports supplements, the ones that have the best results in increasing volume are creatine monohydrates and gainers.
Example of routine to mark the legs
The best exercises for building leg muscle volume are barbell squats and isolation exercises. However, if you want to mark them, you must combine them with burpees, functional and static activities. This is ideal for improving the work of the red muscle fibers. An example of a routine to mark the legs would be:
- Warm-up: abdominal planks 3-4 sets of 1 minute
- Leg Press: 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
- Barbell squats: 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps
- Machine extensions: 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
- Femoral curl: 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
- Leg spread in the simulator: 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
- Functional exercises: Burpee, squats without weight – Maximum repetitions.
