LEG EXERCISE
For any serious weight trainer, developing large and powerful legs is an important goal. In doing so, you will increase strength, power and stability of your entire body. While your legs are made up of dozens of muscles, weight trainers, bodybuilders and general fitness enthusiasts mainly focus on three; the quadriceps, the hamstrings, and the calves. We will list each separately and profile origin, insertion and action for each as well as list various exercises to train each muscle.
Quadriceps
The quadriceps are made up of four muscles; vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, vastus intermedius and the rectus femoris. These muscles originate along the head of the femur and insert upon the patella and reach the tibial tuberosity via the patellar ligament. All four muscles act together to extend the knee. It should be noted, however, that the rectus femoris muscle originates on the iliac spine and as a result can assist in hip flexion.
A complete leg exercise routine for the quadriceps could include squats, leg presses, lunges, hack squats, step-ups, plyometric exercises and the leg extension machine.
Hamstrings
The hamstrings are made up of three muscles; the biceps femoris, semi-membranosus and semi-tendinosus. These muscles originate along the edges of the pelvis and insert upon the tibia and fibula. Contractions of these muscles produce flexion at the knee and they aid in extension at the hip.
The hamstrings contract while performing leg curls (seated, standing and lying) as well as straight leg deadlifts.
Calves
The calf muscle is actually made up of two muscles, the large superficial gastrocnemius and the underlying soleus muscle. The origins of these muscles are the femoral condyles and head and proximal shaft of the fibula, respectively. Both muscles insert on the calcaneus via the calcaneal tendon. The gastrocnemius muscle in responsible for plantar flexion at the ankle, inversion and adduction of the foot and flexion at the knee. The soleus is a postural muscle when standing and also plantar flexes the foot.
Both the gastrocnemius and the soleus muscles contract during straight legged heal raises (calf raises). The deep soleus muscle can be isolated when performing heal raises with bent knees (seated calf raise). Both movements should be performed during your leg exercise routine.
Building large, powerful, well-defined legs will enable you to perform better regardless of the sport or activity. From daily living activities such as walking up stairs to recreational running to competitive cycling, increasing leg strength and endurance is a key to success. Use this leg exercise guide to help you improve these muscles.
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