Squat 4 days in a week ...

[daniel_d]

Is it better to build bigger legs by doing squats/leg press 4 times a week ( 3 sets )

or do a full legs workout one day a week !

[rushki]

full leg day, kill your legs

if anything.. work legs twice a week, but seperate quads and hams into their own seperate days. And kill each at full intensity.

[martinelli]

Is it better to build bigger legs by doing squats/leg press 4 times a week ( 3 sets )

or do a full legs workout one day a week !

Let me just say that many powerlifters adopt 3x/week and even 6x/week protocols, and they have no problem getting their legs to grow.

The important factor that will drive growth is consistent loading from week to week. It doesn't necessarily have to be session to session, and in that regard, you're okay to squat, say, 4x a week as long as you adjust load and volume to prevent undue CNS/peripheral fatigue and that there is a progressive component in one of those sessions. That is the key.

The added benefit to squatting more is that it's a good general warm-up that can easily precede the rest of a workout's exercises, it keeps more metabolically active tissue moving and more often throughout the week (think LBM retention during a lean-out phase), hormonal disruption (and improved nutrient partitioning) will occur to a greater degree, and you'll be reinforcing the motor pathway for the squat so that form doesn't fall apart (as it tends to happen on 1x/week routines).

The squats and milk program is a popular one. 20-rep squats and then milk. Mmm..

I don't particularly do squats that often in a week, but I've gone as high as 3x without any issues. I'm just listing the pros of doing it if you decide to go this route.

[Thewhite9t]

Working your biggest muscle groups (legs and posterior chain) is the main thing that is going to exhaust your CNS and have you overtraining.

Once, maybe twice at the most is fine.

Some of the volume that people do is crazy. I do... about 16 sets a week for my legs altogether (quads, hammies, adductors, calves).

Definately don't forget your adductors man. Like everyone forgets their adductors and then they cut down and they're like woah... I have no inner thigh?

[BM44]

Maybe 3 if you keep the volume real low but definitely not 4

[kitarpyar]

Is it better to build bigger legs by doing squats/leg press 4 times a week ( 3 sets )

or do a full legs workout one day a week !

3x a week will work fine over 4-6 weeks. Milk and squats is one program that comes to mind based on that. Beyond that, you can still workout 3x a week; but change up the exercises or the rep-ranges or both.

[JasonDB]

x4 a week is better than doing a single long workout, on your squats. I've never had a problem training a heavy lift x5 a week, as long as my calories were high and my nutrition and sleep good, that I wanted to improve.

I'm fairly convinced overtraining works via placebo effect. I've noticed people who train hard, heavy and frequintly tend to only overtrain if they believe in the concept of overtraining. Do some research on how professional and olympic athletes train compaired to the fluffy wuffy routines touted in magazines and on the softer side of some bodybuilding and fitness forums.

In any event, give it a try, and believe on a deep level that squating x4 a week will not lead to overtraining for a couple of months, and see how it works for you.

[cannibal.horse]

x2-3 times a week for squats is fine, x4 is a little overkill.

Make sure the volume is lower though. If your a noob, you can probably get away with two heavy sets of 3x5 on the monday and friday and 2x5 with 80% of what you use on the monday on the wednesday.

[venfayon]

You can work a bodypart evey day, but for grow all you need is 3 times a week. Don't have more than 3 days off between leg workouts or your muscles will atrophy.

Is it better to build bigger legs by doing squats/leg press 4 times a week ( 3 sets )

or do a full legs workout one day a week !

[JasonDB]

You can work a bodypart evey day, but for grow all you need is 3 times a week. Don't have more than 3 days off between leg workouts or your muscles will atrophy.

The 72 hour detraining rule applies only to naturals. Steroids will increase the time it takes, which is why the once a week per body part was adopted in the bodybuilding world, as most competative bodybuilders, and all pro's, juice. However I absolutely agree, do not go more than 72 hours between training sessions for a given muscle group if one is training 100% natural.

I do agree there is most likely no benefit to hypertrophy from training a muscle group more than x3 a week. However strength gains have definatley been documented by exceeding this, and by increasing strength one can set up potential for future hypertrophy. It depends upon what phase of one's training they are in.

[tonni]

Working your biggest muscle groups (legs and posterior chain) is the main thing that is going to exhaust your CNS and have you overtraining.

Once, maybe twice at the most is fine.

Some of the volume that people do is crazy. I do... about 16 sets a week for my legs altogether (quads, hammies, adductors, calves).

Definately don't forget your adductors man. Like everyone forgets their adductors and then they cut down and they're like woah... I have no inner thigh?

this ^^^^

[Halfnelson]

full leg day, kill your legs

if anything.. work legs twice a week, but seperate quads and hams into their own seperate days. And kill each at full intensity.

How would you separate the quad and hamstring workout?

Leg presses for quads and leg curls for hamstrings?

If I was to do this on consecutive days (e.g. leg press on Monday and leg curls on Tuesday), would this overtrain the legs? I think the leg press involves some effort from the hamstrings as well.

[zephed56]

Fer****ssake don't separate quads and hams. How the **** can you squat (or deadlift) without both? You can't. A program without either of those two is lolbad.

Squatting 3x a week is very effective. Starting Strength/madcows/bill starr routines had you squatting heavy and often. There is no doubt it works very well, and undoubtedly better than squatting once a week. Read up on the dual factor theory to see why 3x a week is much much better than 1x a week.

I don't think it's possible to have 4 heavy squat sessions a week but you could always vary the intensity and volume on each of the 4 days so you could pull it off. But then is it really worth it or are you just doing it to see if it's possible? It's probably not more effective than 3x.

[zephed56]

Competitors often split their leg workouts into quads one day and hams another.

They r dump.

[startinout12]

You can work a bodypart evey day, but for grow all you need is 3 times a week. Don't have more than 3 days off between leg workouts or your muscles will atrophy.

Agreed with this and JasonDb about training more often instead of a once a week kill fest

[JasonDB]

Agreed with this and JasonDb about training more often instead of a once a week kill fest

Right too many people adopt the methods of professional bodybuilders, without taking any time to consider WHY so many of them do high volume once a week sessions for a muscle group (or a 5 day split with one day of rest on the 6th etc), and realize this has to do with the high doses and wide variety of drugs they use. I'm not saying this is ignorant for THEM, because many of them clearly know how to optimize on the benefits of the drugs they use when selecting a training routine. The mistake is in assuming this type of method is optimal for someone who is forced to produce these same hormones naturally, and who has much lower levels of them. Training naturally, you will not make the same progress on these same methods because 1) your production of anabolic hormones will not be spiked and maintained as often and 2) you do not have high enough levels of anabolic hormones in your system to prevent the detraining (and strength loss) that usually begins 72 hours after training a muscle group, and 3) you may not have the training stamina (from lack of years of experience or assistance from the drugs) to sustain your workload (work done per minute) through a long killfest workout for one or two body parts that will actually allow one to gain any anabolic benefit from the higher volume.

[vgalvan18]

I have no problem squatting 3X/ week. As Layne Norton said, ppl are too worried about overtraining. He squatted like 4X a week for a while and added 50lb to his squat! Squat away.

[Grizadams07]

3x a week will work fine over 4-6 weeks. Milk and squats is one program that comes to mind based on that. Beyond that, you can still workout 3x a week; but change up the exercises or the rep-ranges or both.

This is good advice^ I would do 3x a week and that would be a good way to get GH pumping which will build your legs and up your overall strength.. 2x a week is normal.. for the person who said 4x a week is a no-no.. maybe? But alot of powerlifters do 4-5 even 6x a week and they are immensely strong.. If you know what your doing then you can do it. Just hit your legs and you will be fine, they recover faster than most other muscle groups anyways.