For a lot of people, having strong legs isn’t their goal; rather, they are searching to have a maximum quantity of leg power. The difference between having a high quantity of leg power and a high quantity of strength is that if you’ve got very powerful legs, you will be able to press a great deal of weight over a short time of time.
Essentially, you can create a high quantity of force and create that force quickly. This comes in very helpful if you’re involved in a higher quantity of sports that require you to be strong and quick at the same time.
In order to develop this physical characteristic, its important that you adjust your training accordingly since there’s certain aspects you need to touch upon to get a high degree of leg power.
The Exercises
1. Heavy Squats Or Leg Press:
To best achieve a high level of power, you want to be both quick and strong. Many of the exercises below are not going to stress maximum strength to a huge degree, so its important to perform at least one exercise where you will lift as heavy as possible.
2. Barbell Squat:
Since squats put you in your strongest position (or the leg press for those who struggle with squat positioning), perform this exercise for a rep range of 5-8 reps lifting as heavy as you possibly can. Do 3-5 sets of these and you’ll be well on your way to develop a very solid strength foundation.
3. Leg Press:
Following a good rest after doing the squats (at least 3-5 minutes to fully recover), next you want to move into jump squats. These won’t be performed with much weight if at all (you can wear a weighted vest if desired), but will focus on maximum quickness and explosiveness.
4. Freehand Jump Squat:
When doing these, you want to jump up off the ground as high as possible while reaching the arms above your head to help increased the entire movement pattern.
5. Calf Raises With A Quick Eccentric Component:
One factor that lots of people forget about is the role that calves will play in generating power. Since this is the final link of the chain when you perform type of run or jump, its vital that this muscle is also trained for power.
To do this, you want to perform your standard sitting or standing calf raise with a heavy weight, but focus on really making the concentric portion of the exercise (where the muscle shortens – in this case when you rise up) as fast as possible. Then pause for a moment when you’re at the top and slowly lower to a count of two or three seconds.
6. Seated Calf Raise:
Repeat this process for 12-15 reps for a total of three to four sets. If you really want to make things challenging for yourself, consider doing it with one leg calf raises as well.
7. Uni-Lateral Standing Calf Raises: Using One leg at a time, hold the wall, something stable, or keep the ball of the foot on the step of a staircase while allowing the heel to lower. Point the toe in slightly (pigeon-toed) and elevate the foot to horizontal (halfway), briefly pause, then elevate to full extension. Lower with one single movement. So “2 Parts going up; 1 Part going down”. Try 15 reps for each leg, alternating legs, for 3-5 Sets. When the bodyweight gets to be too easy, you can hold a dumbbell in the hand of the same side that the calf is being exercised to increase difficulty, but you will be amazed at what you feel with just your own bodyweight and the 2 Part movement with the pause midway.
8. Tempo Hamstring Curls:
While both the quads and hamstrings will be worked when you perform a squat, to zero in and focus on purely the hamstrings, adding some tempo hamstring curls to the program will also be a good idea. For these, focusing on maintaining a constant speed throughout the entire movement so there’s a constant tension on the muscle tissue. A tempo of 3-0-3 will work well, but you can extend this to 4-0-4 if you really want to slow things down.
9. Lying Leg Curls
Perform two sets in this manner and then supplement that with another two sets where you shorten the tempo to a 1-0-1 or 2-0-2 (you may must adjust the weight for these ones). This will give a good mix and train the muscles to effectively fire at unique rates.
10. Interval Sprints:
Finally, the final way to really boost your leg power is to perform interval sprints. Ideally you would want to do these at a completely separate time than you do your leg weight workout however since weight training will slow the muscle tissues down making it very difficult to work to maximum effectiveness with sprints. Perform your sprints either later in the day or on an entirely unique day altogether depending on your overall workout set-up. Aim to sprint for 10-20 seconds at 100% effort and then rest for 30-60 seconds accordingly. You are not aiming to sprint lengthy but rather focusing on being as quick as possible off the absolute start.
Conclusion:
So if you’re searching to boost your leg power, make sure you’re including these exercises. Avoid doing too much leg work though as training for explosiveness is somewhat stressful on the body and you could quickly get yourself overtraining if you are not careful. Two sessions a week will be more than enough and it would be ideal if these are separated via two days in between workouts.
Sample Leg Workout:
Squats/Leg Press: five sets of 5-8 reps
Jump Squats: three sets of 10-15 reps
Calf Raises: four sets of 12-15 reps
Leg Curls (Fast): 30 seconds
Leg Curls(Slow): 45 seconds
Interval Sprints
- Zeke Samples, IFA, IDEA
