By Stephen Smith
It is not uncommon to see guys with ‘top-heavy’ physiques in the gym. It always results from a lack of leg training and a disproportionate amount of time spent training their upper body muscles.
Let’s face it, if you ask any guy about what body part they would like to develop the most almost 100% of the responses would be chest or arms!
However, it is imperative that you don’t neglect training your legs if you’re serious about developing an impressive physique.
In this article we will cover 5 reasons why leg training is so important.
Balanced Physique
Having a balanced physique means that all of the muscles are in proportion. Having the muscles in proportion is one of the 4 major characteristics that bodybuilding judges look for when assessing physiques in competition. The other 3 characteristics are: muscle size, leanness, and body symmetry.
Therefore, in order to have an impressive physique you must have your legs in proportion to your upper body. This means leg training is essential!
Increased hormone production
Since the hips and thighs are the largest muscles of the body they have the greatest impact on stimulating anabolic hormone production in the body. This means that testosterone and growth hormone (GH) will increase significantly when leg training is performed, particularly when heavy compound movements are done. Squats and legs presses are good examples.
Maximises the growth of all muscles
If leg training isn’t performed it is virtually impossible to reach close to your genetic potential of muscle size in the other muscles of your body. This is simply because the body doesn’t like being extremely disproportionate.
Whilst there may be some exceptions to this rule most people find that if they don’t train their legs their upper body will only grow to a certain size. Thereafter they appear to reach a plateau with their upper body training that they can’t seem to break through.
‘Indirect Effect’ benefits
Research has shown the existence of an ‘indirect effect’. This means that when certain muscles are trained the growth stimulus that occurs in the targeted muscles also occurs in other muscles throughout the body.
The degree of ‘indirect effect’ that occurs is said to be in proportion to the size of the muscles being trained and the proximity of those muscles to other muscles, i.e. the closer muscles get the most benefit.
Since the hips and thighs are the largest muscle groups they will have the greatest indirect effect in the body.
‘Carry-over’ benefits
Since many of the leg exercises are ‘functional movements’ they offer ‘carry-over’ benefits as well. This means they can improve your sports performance, make every-day tasks easier, and may improve the quality of life in elderly people.
Some good examples of functional leg exercises include squats and lunges.