Alternative to Leg Press

[DelawareEd]

I work out at home and do not have a leg press.

Any suggestions for a good substitute?

I have 2 leg routines I alternate between

Routine A

Squat
Leg Ext
Hack
Leg Curl
Stiff Leg
Calf Raise

Routine B

Leg Press
Front Squat
Lunge
Stiff Leg
Leg Curl
Calf Raise

[MiloMan]

If you can squat, then the leg press is redundant (and inferior). Just don't worry about it.

[Thanos]

A good substitute for leg press at home would be the High Step-Up.
The Bulgarian weight lifting team used them several years ago.

One thing coaches in the Soviet Union and Bulgaria noticed was that those athletes, both lifters and those in other sports, who dropped the squat and used the high step-up developed more complete muscularity than those who simply squatted. Many of the coaches say that the legs of those who work hard on the high step-up look more like those of someone who did sprinting and jumping as well as squatting. Apparently, the balance required in the high step-up calls more muscles into play, producing fuller, shapelier development.

link about it. BULGARIAN LEG TRAINING SECRETS

[Most Muscular]

"The Bulgarian team does virtually this same workout five or six days a week, along with quite a lot of other leg work..."

Can you spell OVERTRAINING?

While the principle sounds interesting I don't see how it can be that effective if you have the ability to train legs 5-6 days per week. You're either not overloading the muscle or if you are, not giving it any time to rest and rebuild.

nuff said...

[Thanos]

Originally posted by Most Muscular
"The Bulgarian team does virtually this same workout five or six days a week, along with quite a lot of other leg work..."

Can you spell OVERTRAINING?

While the principle sounds interesting I don't see how it can be that effective if you have the ability to train legs 5-6 days per week. You're either not overloading the muscle or if you are, not giving it any time to rest and rebuild.

nuff said...

I beleive the way you do but then again I never trained like a Bulgarian and I dont plan too neither lol.

The High Step-Up exercise alone is a great exercise.

There is another good exercise I've seen and done, using a DB or BB that consist of doing lunges into stairs, and there is some variation to this exercise. I dont know the name of the exercise but I call them step lunges.

[dengar]

Wow, this looks like a great squat replacement. I dont have a squat cage at my gym. Im going to try these next week.

[brayndrayn]

I like to use both the leg press and squats, I know some people in fact "LOTS" of people say the press is inferior.

My thought is this when I eliminated presses I was not able to get the weight up during my squats, maybe the press was acting as a kiler warmup .....

when I train quads I normally do something along the lines of..

5-10 minute warm up on bike,

Light set on leg extension machine (2 sets maybe) to fill the muscle with blood

Then I get into my training

Leg Press 4 sets - starting at 400 and working up to 900

Squat's 4 sets starting at 300 and working up to 500

Leg Extensions 4 sets starting at 150 and working up to 200

Stretch

Then hams - or calves if I have gone really heavy and brutalized my quads , preventing a good ham workout