Squats as my only upper leg exercise?

[HairyScandinavian]

Can I get away with doing 8-10 sets of squats or am I cheating myself not doing the accessory exercises? I like squats, but don't care much for anything else though I'd probably do power cleans and calf raises at least.

[DJAuto]

Can I get away with doing 8-10 sets of squats or am I cheating myself not doing the accessory exercises? I like squats, but don't care much for anything else though I'd probably do power cleans and calf raises at least.

This depends primarily upon your goal. For bodybuilding, you will want additional volume from a diversified exercise selection.

[baseley]

Can I get away with doing 8-10 sets of squats or am I cheating myself not doing the accessory exercises? I like squats, but don't care much for anything else though I'd probably do power cleans and calf raises at least.

CHEATING YOURSELF! Squat are great and definitly the core exercise for legs but there is so much more! Try doing 4 sets of squats and then 4 sets of front squats, front squats are great and totally different. Leg extentions and curls are great after all the squats and leg press if you do it. Dumbbell lunges are another favorite of mine that really work the adductor streangth. Calfs you should so a full 10 -16 sets of again. Donkey calve raises,standing calve raises, and calve raises on the leg sled are good. Doing them with your toe out works the inner calf, toe in works the outer and straight ahead works it all around, sort of like incline,decline and flat bench. If you want to mix in a exercies like cleans for legs just work in deadlifts, regular and sumo work great and are good to do once a month to mix it up. Straight leg deadlifts are great for the hamstrings as well. Hope this helps some, happy leg training and definitly don't only do squats, but make sure to include them!

[HairyScandinavian]

Rats that's not what I was wanting to hear. I won't ever compete, but I surely don't want to end up with chicken leg syndrome down the road.
baseley, I love deads and do them every back day so it's interested what you say about the sumos, I could definitely add in some sumos somewhere. I guess I'd better look into adding some things. Thx. EDIT: repped you both

[baseley]

Rats that's not what I was wanting to hear. I won't ever compete, but I surely don't want to end up with chicken leg syndrome down the road.
baseley, I love deads and do them every back day so it's interested what you say about the sumos, I could definitely add in some sumos somewhere. I guess I'd better look into adding some things. Thx. EDIT: repped you both

NP Good luck, if you are not looking for competing type cuts then you could definitly get buy with squats, front squats, leg press and sumo deads. All great mass builders and fun! They prevent chicken legs! Happy lifting.

[Bobooshka]

Can I get away with doing 8-10 sets of squats or am I cheating myself not doing the accessory exercises? I like squats, but don't care much for anything else though I'd probably do power cleans and calf raises at least.

What about leg press? Leg extensions?

[HairyScandinavian]

NP Good luck, if you are not looking for competing type cuts then you could definitly get buy with squats, front squats, leg press and sumo deads. All great mass builders and fun! They prevent chicken legs! Happy lifting.

How about squats, front squats, deads, sumo deads, power cleans, and a ton of different calf raises? Or do you think the leg press is that important?

What about leg press? Leg extensions?

Never really liked either of them, not sure why but they just seem so nonfunctional or something.

[baseley]

How about squats, front squats, deads, sumo deads, power cleans, and a ton of different calf raises? Or do you think the leg press is that important?



Never really liked either of them, not sure why but they just seem so nonfunctional or something.

I like doing really heavy leg press 3rd in my routine after deep squats and front squats. It is really good for adding size from just shear weight and focuses the push on the top range of motion that you get from squats. I think they help you go heavier on squats and I like it becouse you can get alot more weight pushed with out relaying on the rest of your frame to support the weight also (squats) and since you are only as strong as the weakest link to get a full leg workout I think the leg press does really help. If you really don't like them the sumo deads will work it pretty good. I think you would be good with that routine but if you put leg press in there ever other week or so I think you will like the results. Straight leg deads on a raised platform are great for hamstrings too, adding those works great but you can do those on back days since they work lower back too.(thats what i do)

[grumble1]

You could do squats and DLs and your thighs and glutes would grow very well.



This guy pretty much just does squats, front squats, OL and DL variants.

You don't need to do a bunch of different exercises to get strong legs. Just pick a couple and progressively overload them until you're lifting heavy weight.

[dont_hate]

there are a lot of variations of squats you can do.

[CottonC]

quad size
mine grew like crazy and i didn't get much strength on my squat, this leads me to believe that squats are more butt and hamstring than quads. (in comparison to leg extensions)
If you think that leg extensions are useless I think you have not done a real leg extension workout.
I was squatting 495x4 a few months ago, and realized that I needed to train quads more when I was playing football because of changing directions so fast. I started doing some leg extensions, ladder sets and just regular sets of 10. My quads look and feel foreign to me now. My squat is up to 495x10 now I would have gained about the same amount without leg extensions, but the difference visually is there.
For more of a direct comparison I just thought of.
A good friend of mine squats sub 315, and his legs look huge. he has mainly done leg extensions because where he works out has no squat rack. For looks and sports leg extensions are very important in my opinion. I'm sure not everyone feels the same way. but, i'll never neglect them again.

[mitten]

whats your goal?

if you only want to do squats, try smolov, i think thats only squats. muahahahaha