Don't forsake the legpress

[Enock]

In the past I've made the mistake of totally fogetting the legpress is favor of the squat. I'm not argueing, the squat is a superior movement, but the legpress does have things to offer.

Mainly the fact that it is very difficult (and dangerous) to goto failure on squats. With the leg press you can load up and squeeze out reps untill you bottom the thing out and can't get it back up.

I use to take squats to failure, squatting ATF and being my squat weights were quite light at the time, (under 200). It was not much of a problem for my spotter to help me out when I tripped with fatigue or failed.

As the weight increased it got increasingly dangerous, I first realized I couldn't really give 100% safty when my friend was warming up doing 315 (working set was 405). All of a sudden his left leg gave out, caught me off guard since he was just warming up. I grabbed the weights as they fell and it nearly ripped my arms out since it was dropping. No one was hurt, he wasn't sure why his leg just gave out but it made it clear to us at that point that while we could spot we couldn't really do too much if failure is 100%.

Now, because of schedules I don't even have a spot. The catch bars while better than nothing. Don't give me full confidence to really push myself to my limits.

In comes the leg press.

I can push myself untill I really do fail. So long as you have enough flexibility that if the weight bottoms out you don't crush yourself. You can give it you all and no need for a spot.

I still squat, its the base of my leg day.
but, I actually think more growth is coming from the legpress at the moment. (in quads only, since my leg placement on the press takes my glutes largely out of the movement)

Eventually I wish to rig chains to the squat bar and hook them to the top of the rack (theres a chin bar uptop) that way we can once again squat to failure untill then my leg day won't be complete without the legpress.


In short, don't forget about the legpress because of all the tadoo surrounding the squat. The squat is a great movement but most of us probably can't safely push our selfs to the limit on it.


PS. I have set up benches on either side of the rack and then put some wooden bocks on each side effectively making a cage. I've failed a few times like that and watched splinters of wood go flying off. It worked and occasionally I do it, but a few times I've failled so that I would have broken my neck if the benches were not in place and it eventually started sinking in that banking safety on this half-assed cage wasn't worth the risk.

 

[needsize]

I do agree that the leg press is a little safer to take to failure than squats, but I've never been afraid to hit failure on squats either. I am more confident in the supports in the squat rack catching me, than in a spotter anyway, all you have to do is make sure they are set just below the depth you normally squat to, and if you fail, just sit down.
My favourite use for leg press is for drop sets, I like to go to failure, pull some plates and do it again, While I have done this on squats as well, I do prefer to do them on a machine.

 

[gymtime]

Good post. While I don't think squats should ever be replaced by the leg press, it remains a great excercise. I do them both all the time and have seen great gains. The leg press allows certain freedoms that squats do not, as you said. You can concentrate on going a little heavier without worrying about balance or back strain quite as much. I think they compliment each other real well.

 

[aurelius]

Just remember, with the leg press your back is supported so it won´t strengthen along with your legs gains.

I found this one out the hard way and had to back track to strengthen my back after my legs had left it behind.

 

[HighIntensity]

don't forget the sled and hacksquats as well