Need to catch up leg gains to arms

[kyraschmidt]

Hi ladies, so I've been training for a few years now. I really struggle with leg/booty gains and gain really quickly in my arms. I don't look terribly asymmetrical yet but I want to catch it before it's really noticeable. I'm thinking for 1-3 months I need to starting training legs for hypertrophy and arms just for strength and endurance. Have any Of you ladies had this happen to you? I've been bulking for the last year and have never needed to train to maintain. Is it even possible to keep the same arm size while I'm bulking for leg gains? I mean I know I cannot control what goes where but will training in a different rep range do the job?

Also, does anyone have any tricks for stubborn legs and glutes?! I've been doing a power/hypertrophy split.. I was trying to gain strength cause my squat weight and DL isn't very impressive. But my main goal is a big curvey booty and thighs!

[Cara0915]

Don't do any direct arm work.
I'd love to see these monstrous arms though

As far as the booty, just keep on keepin on. As long as you're properly engaging your glutes, eating for growth and lifts are going up they'll grow. A big curvy booty may not be in your genetics though, yes you can def improve and grow certain areas but for some having a Kim K or Jen Selter booty is just not possible without surgery.
Hit legs/glutes 2x per week. Hip thrusts, cable kick backs, glute bridges, and Goblwt squats are great iso lifts

[oregonchick76]

1-3 months of training for hypertrophy isn't long enough. If you've been around for awhile, you'll know that women can only gain around 1/2 lb of muscle per month under the very best of conditions - and that means eating in a consistent surplus and lifting a progressive routine geared towards your goals.

Training in the 'strength' rep range will not add the kind of mass and volume that a higher volume routine will, so you can definitely train different parts of the body differently.

What are your current lifts on bench, press, deadlift, squat? Just out of curiosity...

As I've learned, having a really solid DL of squat number doesn't = big muscles. Dropping the weight and doing more sets with more reps is where the hypertrophy comes from. But definitely you have to eat to support that growth.

You could follow a pro routine that is well-regarded on the forum. I don't know them personally but I've heard PHUL, Baby's Got Back, etc. mentioned several times. You could simply tailor the upper body to lower reps per set and higher weight.

[kyraschmidt]

Don't do any direct arm work.
I'd love to see these monstrous arms though

As far as the booty, just keep on keepin on. As long as you're properly engaging your glutes, eating for growth and lifts are going up they'll grow. A big curvy booty may not be in your genetics though, yes you can def improve and grow certain areas but for some having a Kim K or Jen Selter booty is just not possible without surgery.
Hit legs/glutes 2x per week. Hip thrusts, cable kick backs, glute bridges, and Goblwt squats are great iso lifts

No monsorous arms here. I've just had a lot better gains in my upper body and my personal preference look I'm going for is a little curvier in the bottom. But yeah I'm afraid genetics may not be on my side. As usual, thanks for the help. Your posts are always helpful!

[kyraschmidt]

1-3 months of training for hypertrophy isn't long enough. If you've been around for awhile, you'll know that women can only gain around 1/2 lb of muscle per month under the very best of conditions - and that means eating in a consistent surplus and lifting a progressive routine geared towards your goals.

Training in the 'strength' rep range will not add the kind of mass and volume that a higher volume routine will, so you can definitely train different parts of the body differently.

What are your current lifts on bench, press, deadlift, squat? Just out of curiosity...

As I've learned, having a really solid DL of squat number doesn't = big muscles. Dropping the weight and doing more sets with more reps is where the hypertrophy comes from. But definitely you have to eat to support that growth.

You could follow a pro routine that is well-regarded on the forum. I don't know them personally but I've heard PHUL, Baby's Got Back, etc. mentioned several times. You could simply tailor the upper body to lower reps per set and higher weight.

Yea thanks I will look into both of those routines!

Mind if I ask where you might usualy keep your sets/reps for lower body hypertrophy?

I've been bulking for a over year almost continuously so I definitely know how slow us females make gains! I want to keep training my whole body for hypertrophy but I wanted to see some solid gains in my lower body first like I have in my arms. Your right though, I will probably have to train them longer than that.

I haven't been training for strength long but my bench is 95lbs, shoulder press is 60, squat is 150 and DL is 175. I train a lone and am really not concerned with my 1 rep max since I do this as a hobby so those number are for what I'll do for like 4-5 sets of 3-5 reps

[oregonchick76]

Yea thanks I will look into both of those routines!

Mind if I ask where you might usualy keep your sets/reps for lower body hypertrophy?

I've been bulking for a over year almost continuously so I definitely know how slow us females make gains! I want to keep training my whole body for hypertrophy but I wanted to see some solid gains in my lower body first like I have in my arms. Your right though, I will probably have to train them longer than that.

I haven't been training for strength long but my bench is 95lbs, shoulder press is 60, squat is 150 and DL is 175. I train a lone and am really not concerned with my 1 rep max since I do this as a hobby so those number are for what I'll do for like 4-5 sets of 3-5 reps

I'm bulking with hypertrophy the goal this time. I have two leg days per week - one emphasizing glutes/hams and one quads. I generally do a 4-6 exercises, 3-4 sets per exercise, 8-12 reps per set.

[rdferguson]

One big thing to consider in training for hypertrophy is the balance between volume, intensity and frequency. As a general rule, more isn't always better, but it usually is. For primarily hypertrophic gains, I generally recommend training in the 60-80% 1RM range. It allows enough intensity to hone in on the Type II muscle fibres, while also being a low enough intensity to allow a boatload of volume. You'll occasionally go higher or lower intensity than this, but this is where most of your work will be. Notably, for RM's that's about an 8-20RM range, so this is in direct opposition to the general internetty idea that if you train for max strength you'll get muscle just as easily (or even more easily) than you would doing a standard hypertrophy program. It's also in direct opposition to the idea that high reps aren't valuable -- remember, I'm endorsing up to a 20RM as a primary training zone, and occasional lighter loads (thus even higher reps at times).

Once in this intensity, you want to be working the muscles as much as possible. This could mean adjusting your technique in some ways. It might mean changing your ROM, it might mean changing your tempo, it might mean changing the cues you focus on while lifting.

You will also want to be discerning about which exercises you actually train. Deadlifts, for example, are a great general strength and hypertrophy exercise, but since you want to build your lower body more than your upper body at this point in time, they might not be ideal due to the large emphasis they place on your lats, traps and forearms. Perhaps goodmornings would be more suitable since they take a lot of the upper body out of the equation (although the upper body's never fully removed). Note, this isn't a prescription here, just me offering up some general insight.

I'd also be considering overload techniques for your lower body, such as drop sets and pre/post-fatigue supersets.

On drop sets, you might do 3x10 squats at 75%1RM, then as soon as you finish that last set, strip 10% off the bar and keep going until you struggle to get the weight back up, then strip another 10% off the bar and do the same. This could add another 10 or so total working reps into your volume, while prolonging work in a fatigued state. At the very least, this is increasing work:time efficiency and adding some variety and interest to the workout, however it does seem to me that the more work your do that's near the point of failure, the better. These can be quite draining, though, especially on compound exercises, so it's something you might do 1 week on, 1 week off. Or you might cycle through which exercise you use them for each week.

On post-fatigue supersets, an example would be finishing your set of squats and then going straight into a set of glute bridges. This is something you might do to keep building your legs and to add a special focus on your glutes. Alternatively, if you wanted to maintain your legs and keep building your glutes, you might do the pre-fatigue superset, ie pound out a work set of glute bridges, then go straight into squats. This would allow you to still go through the motion of the squat and keep activating your quads and hammies, but your glutes would ultimately be the point of failure, and so they'd be the muscles getting the most out of the exercise.

[stephanielynn76]

I reached a point where I had to bring up my leg gains in proportion to my upper body as well. I spent well over 18 months doing legs 2x's/wk to accomplish this. It worked particularly well for my quads. My hamstrings, however, have been slower to respond… I have been told it's because my hams are "long" due to how they insert??? … and therefore it's going to take a lot of growth back there for balance. I am now remedying this issue by doing a more ham-focused leg day (lots of good mornings) and sumo deadlifts later in the week to target them again. I am seeing progress. Increasing the frequency of training has been my solution to bringing up lagging muscle groups… but it has never happened in 3 months. It has taken YEARS.

… as for my glutes… they have always responded well to whatever training I do and are therefore, huge. However, if you want to make sure your glutes are firing properly I'd recommend glute-specific exercises. Check out Bret Contreras's site… he's the "glute guy." He has a workout plan called "Strong Curves." I don't know much about it but it I know it's geared toward women and building the lower half.

[kyraschmidt]

I am actually starting to think I have a bigger ratio of fat in my booty than I do muscle what would you ladies do in this situation? Keep consistently training and eating for muscle?

[calfmuscle555]

I am actually starting to think I have a bigger ratio of fat in my booty than I do muscle what would you ladies do in this situation? Keep consistently training and eating for muscle?

keep eating! do lots of heavy squats, lunges, kick backs, jump rope, stair master. its ok to add fat when your building muscle for 6-9 months, then lean out for 3-4 months to see what progress you made. then go back to a bulking phase and work on the week body parts.

[cdhussey]

This is a question I've been curious about as well. I've been an aerialist for four years but only lifting for one, with the focus being on my lower body since my upper body gets plenty of work. I feel like I've made good progress on my lower body but know I need to start something different. I generally do low reps. So I really appreciate the information! Especially since I'll be starting a bulk over the winter!

[lotusdeva]

Great question, I have been struggling with the same! I am on bulk #3 now to specifically build up lower body. I might just keep on bulking until I get it I agree with everyone above. I started my lifting journey in 2011 and you can see in my profile, I struggle with the same thing - upper body gets big and muscular on a bulk, then leans out and looks (well, to me muscular and where I want it to be, but not the legs. My legs get fat during bulk and then get skinny fat during a cut. Butt gets its own zip code on a bulk and then turns into pancake during cut So, I have been doing lots of research and following varies trainers on instagram and such to see how they got their legs and butt. Well, it takes YEARS. Heavy squats and heavy deads at low volume won't get you there. Anyway, this bulk I am doing things differently. I fluctuate between full body 3 times a week (with emphasis on lower body) and this leg routine (you basically do legs 3 times a week and then do 1 upper body maint once a week: http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_...to_bigger_legs. I do pullups during every workout and include single leg work like SDLs, kickbacks, donkeys, etc. Check this lady out on instagram - she posts her butt/leg workouts and I really like her body http://instagram.com/wwwlindadurbessoncom Look at her exercises - lower weight smith machine is involved And of course, nothing is going to grow without caloric surplus. Good luck, you are not alone!

[SMB2003]

Good question. I have the same problem. I have been doing a lot more lower body focused weight training and including sprints, more plyo work, and bleacher running. Like most women I carry more fat in my lower half so I will be interested to see if I make any progress when I switch to a cut. I would have expected the larger muscles in the lower half to grow easily but I guess not. :-/