Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How about droopy boobs? Do they count? There just "ain't" no muscles in there to lift the damned things up. lol
On the other hand, I think I have a great set of legs.
Wish my upper arms weren't so large, but I did a lot of lifting hay bales and bags of grain, (had horses) plus I was a Tom-boy when I was younger (had to keep up with my 3 older brothers)
The Good: no cellulite, and I tone up very quickly. Also, I have an extraordinary level of discipline and self-control when it comes to diet, which makes it easier to keep in my ass in gear
The Bad: my midsection. I've got a short torso, so even the slightest bit of slacking off will show in that area. It looks pretty good now, but I have to be really strict about my diet
^ Do you do squats? I'm curious how a 1,000 pound leg press translates into a squat. I'm sure it's a little different for everyone. I used to do leg press as a substitution for squats but started doing squats again after my second knee surgery. I'm slowly building up a respectable squat number but sometimes struggle with range of motion. On a good day I'll hit 285-295 for reps. I've hit 575 on the leg press a few times but never leg press until after squats, deadlifts, weighted lunges, so I'm usually smoked by the time I get there.
Good question! I used to do squats back in the day, though not very often, and I only did what I found to be light squats because first of all I find it to be a very awkward and potentially dangerous exercise, and I was doing 225 but for me it was the opposite -- something I did after leg press and didn't really fuss over much.
Now, I am going to build up my leg strength back to where it was before and then try doing some squats because I'm as curious as anyone what that would translate to, how much could I potentially squat. That being said, I have some other issues that make squats... a bit scary, for me. Don't want to get into that really lol but I'm nervous about it.
I know, as anyone who reads a million fitness articles, that virtually all "gym bros" (for lack of a better term) like to say, "It's all about squats, nobody cares about leg press," etc. That's all well and good but squats don't isolate quads as well as leg presses. At all. Squats are a better overall lift because they've been proven to generate more testosterone and engage more overall muscle mass, which makes perfect sense, but that's a problem for me. I'm not doing leg day to work out my lower back and have a heavy weight on my neck (??? that's just awkward...) and have all of these other limiting factors. I don't want to be limited at all when I'm engaging my quads, I want to be able to isolate them perfectly and just focus on them. Squats don't do that. They may be the ultimate workout for power lifters but I'm only interested in pure hypotrophy and have no interest in ever competing in a meet.
I also find it absolutely hilarious when guys will say, "Heh, whatever, you may be able to leg press 800 pounds, but what can you squat? Leg press isn't a REAL leg workout." Oh ok, it isn't? Then surely if it's such a joke and so easy, it would be NO PROBLEM for any of the gymbros who are so great at squatting to leg press far more than I can. After all, if I was making the same argument about Smith machine bench presses, I should put my money where my mouth is. If someone can bench press 300 pounds on the Smith machine and has never touched a free weight bench press, I can certainly say, "Dude you should totally try the free weight barbel because it's a real challenge and you'll like the way it engages your entire upper body." But if I can't bench more than 300 pounds on the Smith machine, bottom line that person has a STRONGER chest than I do, because it's an EASIER lift. The same goes for leg press. I don't care if someone squats 400 pounds, if they can't leg press more than I can, my legs are stronger than theirs are. Their squats may be better -- i.e. literally one lift -- but their quads are obviously not as strong. I would venture to say anyone who is great at squatting, though, probably has a great leg press too! At least, I can't imagine why that wouldn't be the case.
For my own annoyance if nothing else I plan to do some heavy squats later this summer because I'm so tired of hearing about how squats are the only true leg workout and everything else sucks.
Also I think people underestimate the transference of strength between different exercises. As a recent example, last September I had maxed out our condo building's chest press machine at 170. All you do is push up, so definitely not a true bench press. My friend kind of scoffed like, well, that's not a real bench press, it's just a machine, so it's not really that much weight. He even joked, "It seems pretty light." He was actually totally wrong as I have found that machine is heavier than the weight listed. Shortly after, I went to the gym and in my VERY FIRST time doing bench press in a decade, I benched 3 x 205, so clearly it didn't matter that I had only used a machine for the past 5 months, I was still able to lift very successfully on a free weight bench and even more weight than I was doing at the condo gym.
Everyone knows you can't squat what you can leg press, but I have a lot of trouble imagining I couldn't squat 315 by mid-summer. Beyond that, I have no clue, sounds like a lot of weight when you start getting above 3 plates on each side. That's pretty intense! And... I'm not sure I would want to!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.