Shredded Legs, with Muscle Seperation

[AFGymRat]

I just finished up a BB competition this weekend and was provided feedback from the head judge. He told me that I needed more muscle seperation in my legs. One of the judges suggested Giant Sets. Does anyone know of any good exercises or tips, other than the normal squats, front squats, hack squats, leg presses, etc.?

[W8isGR8]

Originally Posted by AFGymRat

I just finished up a BB competition this weekend and was provided feedback from the head judge. He told me that I needed more muscle seperation in my legs. One of the judges suggested Giant Sets. Does anyone know of any good exercises or tips, other than the normal squats, front squats, hack squats, leg presses, etc.?

I personally get great results from drop set leg extensions.

[hokiebird]

Originally Posted by AFGymRat

I just finished up a BB competition this weekend and was provided feedback from the head judge. He told me that I needed more muscle seperation in my legs. One of the judges suggested Giant Sets. Does anyone know of any good exercises or tips, other than the normal squats, front squats, hack squats, leg presses, etc.?

Maybe some tri-sets.. no rest example
3 sets with 1 minute rest
Leg extensions- 20 reps
Squats- 15 reps
Dumbbell lunges- across the gym

Next 2
Leg Press superset with straightlegged deadlifts

[Memoryflaw85]

I supersetted hack squats and squats today... felt great... except for that nauseous feeling.

[Pssst]

Originally Posted by Memoryflaw85

I supersetted hack squats and squats today... felt great... except for that nauseous feeling.

That could've been from your diet though.

[imasavage]

If your diet is already in check, stripsets on leg extensions and some deep stretching after your leg workout. That's what I do.

[dirty_south]

change your squatting stance, ie sumo squats, feet positioning etc

[AFGymRat]

Originally Posted by dirty_south

change your squatting stance, ie sumo squats, feet positioning etc

I do...He specifically said that I had huge Quads but I needed more seperation between my Quads and my Hamstrings.

[becky21]

I always giant set front squats with either regular squats or leg presses, works great for me and definately helps bring out each individual quad head.

[AFGymRat]

Originally Posted by becky21

I always giant set front squats with either regular squats or leg presses, works great for me and definately helps bring out each individual quad head.

Can you give me a breakdown of your Giant set workout?

[becky21]

Originally Posted by AFGymRat

Can you give me a breakdown of your Giant set workout?

I usually start to do this more when I notice my squat poundage start to plateau, it seems to be a good way of kicking up your squat weight and quad size.

Basically, it looks like:

5 sets of Front Squats (12, 10, 8, 4, 6 reps) followed immediately by regular squat with the same weight to failure

Weight is also pyramided up except for the last set.

[AFGymRat]

Originally Posted by becky21

I usually start to do this more when I notice my squat poundage start to plateau, it seems to be a good way of kicking up your squat weight and quad size.

Basically, it looks like:

5 sets of Front Squats (12, 10, 8, 4, 6 reps) followed immediately by regular squat with the same weight to failure

Weight is also pyramided up except for the last set.

Thanks! Anyone else?

[J.L.C.]

Meltdown and GBC (lactic acid/GH) training to get lean enough.

Shredded legs come from ultra low BF (glutes!!)

[devo09]

diet longer, and more aggressive

[J.L.C.]

Originally Posted by devo09

diet longer, and more aggressive

X99

It's a function of BF%

[Emmortal]

If you're quads are already a good size then giant sets will help bring out some definition, but detail is really going to be brought out by doing two things: a spot on diet and getting down to 3-4% body fat and posing. Posing is a huge thing for competing and it helps tremendously in deepening the cuts. You should be practicing posting several times a week creating a deep mind muscle connection to each of the muscles in your quads to really bring them out.

[AFGymRat]

Originally Posted by devo09

diet longer, and more aggressive

I do diet pretty hard for my competitions its just that last weekends competition I wanted to come in bigger. It seems as if when I diet really hard I lose too much muscle size along with lowering my bodyfat.

Here is what tonights leg workout looked like:

Barbell Squats~135 X 15, 225 X 15, 315 X 12, 225 X 15, 135 X 25
Superset Hack Squats with Leg Presses~3 sets each with 20 reps
Superset Leg extensions with Leg curls~3 sets each and on the third set of leg extensions I did a burn out set lowering the weight going to failure each time
Seated Calves~3 sets of 25 reps

[ironwill2008]

Other than the suggestions on diet, you might try barbell lunges. Try them in-place, as opposed to walking lunges; the push back to upright should help cut-up your quads. Good luck.

[imasavage]

Aren't giant sets more than 3 exercises together? Not 2, that's a superset.

Try this. Do some sort of squating movement, then follow immediately by lunges to leg extensions. I usually leave some DBs by the squatting rack. After my squats I grab the db then lunge to the extension machine. I swear by leg extensions. When I was little, all I had was this really poor leg extension machine that used an outdated large rubber band.

Constant tension + leg extensions = great quads at least for me. Plus I didn't know anything about bodybuilding at my young age so I would do dozens of sets on end, and holds that would last minutes.

[J.L.C.]

You're not going to spot reduce leg fat.

Leg mass is leg mass, if you've got it - you need to diet down to show the cuts.

Interestingly, the guys with the magic exercise/routine advice......don't have leg pics

[hosler83]

one thing that help me get seperation is deep fascia stretching after my quad workouts and ham workouts

[Jneves]

Originally Posted by AFGymRat

I do...He specifically said that I had huge Quads but I needed more seperation between my Quads and my Hamstrings.

Sounds like you just need to work on bringing your hamstring size up to match your quads.

I agree with the guys who have said its not a matter of exercise selection and techniques but about muscle size and body fat percentage. I'm not saying special exercises arent necassary for body building, just that there function is to increase size of specific muscles. This is where the aid in definition.

for what its worth the few natural bodybuilders I know with legs that really stand out have backgrounds in olympic or power lifting.