Increasing Legs Volume

[tobyweston88]

At the moment, for legs, I'm training at a pretty low volume, due to hamstring/hip flexor issues earlier in the year, and because I'm doing 2.5 hours steady state cardio + 3 HIIT sessions a week, for fatloss.

Sometimes I do 5 sets of SGDL in my back workout, but generally I will train legs once every 8-9 days.

- 4 sets of warm up on DL.
- 4 working sets on DL (3-5 reps) I'm ruined after this - am finding these draining on a low kcal diet!
-4 sets of reverse lunges off a step - I am for 5 reps per leg, and for each rep less than 10 overall, I do a squat at the end of the set.

20+ mins cardio or HIIT after.

I have very limited equipment: bar up to 185kg weight, adjustable dumbells, leg extension/hamstring curl attachment, sawing horses (as a rack/ safety for squats:-)) aerobics step/breeze blocks for steps - Jippo I know!!

I want to slowly increase the volume, so that I can really get some size back on my legs, but I'm not sure what approach to take.

Any suggestions welcome.

[Was_once_fat_dave]

try swapping your deads for a2g squats for a bit.

[tobyweston88]

How would this help with volume?

[aq3of8]

squatting 3x a week should add a good amount!
also, try zercher squats (YouTube - Dead-start Zercher Squats) or front squats for that little extra stress on the quads.
or powercleans? I beleive they hit the legs ( YouTube - Power Clean )

[Luffers]

To increase leg size stop doing all the HIIT/cardio, eat more and do squats.

It seems you want two goals! Fat loss and size, go for one or the other.

[Bison]

What Luffers said, you aren't going to build big legs doing loads of cardio... look at marathon runners

I find lifting heavy and often is key to building the legs, you need the extra calories too!

[tobyweston88]

Sorry, I've clearly caused confusion.

I'm cutting, and I've gone into this cutting period with small legs due to injury, but I want to increase volume slowly, so I'm ready to hit legs hard when I finish dieting.

On a side note, how do you guys do front squats - Olympic Grip, arms crossed on your shoulders, or with those plastic things to hold the bar in place?

[James]

Pronated grip on the bar here... same as the finishing position of a clean.

[cr0wd0g]

I don't understand this thread.

If you want to increase the size of your legs, as Luffers and Bison said you need to limit the amount of cardio you're doing and start performing heavier squats. Maybe you should wait until you've finished cutting then start a bulking routine.

[dope540]

i'm with james, oly clean grip.