For some off reason, many people hate to train their legs. If you are like me, you have friends and family members who just do some cardio and then ignore the legs the rest of the time; many of them love to train upper body, but that is it. For me, I crave leg day; while my legs do not appear to be enormously big and overly chiseled, they are [by most accounts] pretty strong. One thing that I have done in the past is focus on body parts / muscle groups that people hate to train and become the best I can be at it. Back when I was in the United States Marine Corps Reserves and was training at Camp Johnson in North Carolina, many of the physical fitness trainers (who were Marine NCOs and above) would lead PT with some killer exercises, mainly core abdominal routines [like flutter kicks for minutes long], that were designed to break Marines or at least push the Marines to the limits. For me, it was an opportunity to get really good at those so I could basically do those [flutter kick] exercises in my sleep! The same type of thing happened in boot camp a few years prior (2000) wherein many drill instructors would burn out a ton of diamond pushups or the infamous mountain climbers. I took these lessons and attitude and further applied it to my workout routine. As a result, I pride myself on going strong on leg days; sure, these days might be dreaded by many, but we must not shy away from and ignore our leg routines. On numerous occasions as a young adult, I was reminded that our legs are our foundation; if you want to get bigger in the upper body, you need to start hitting the legs.
Changing up the routines from time to time is a great habit to get into. For me, I need to add some lunges into the mix in the very near future. So, what exercise have you been ignoring or putting off until another day? If you want a great leg routine to add into the mix, I highly recommend Mike O’Hearn’s power leg routine. He puts together some great routines, and he is highly active in and throughout social media channels, always answering questions from fans and avid fitness folks! You can find him and his great tutorials on Twitter and Facebook, among other places online. So, take it from me, and check out his routines and tips. Below is his leg routine (7 sets of squats for 3 reps each, 5 sets of leg press for 10 reps each, and 5 sets of leg extension that I have found great results with; give it a try the next time you are in the gym!
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