Quick Tips for Building Stubborn Legs
Quick Tips for Building Stubborn Legs
Get Big Legs: Evan Centopani Shows You How
Time for a history lesson. Here we go back to when he struggled with leg development and how he overcame the problem. Heed his words, incorporate his ideas into your training, and get those legs growing.
LEG LESSONS: Q&A
MD: can you talk about your first leg workouts?
EC: I started training in my basement as a kid with one of those old multi-use benches. I could raise the posts way up on the bench and use it as my squat rack. It also had a crappy leg extension attachment so I would do those, too.
MD: What were the workouts like when you started going to a gym with more equipment? Did you see results or was leg growth always a challenge?
EC: From those early days and right up through turning pro, I trained with a lot of volume. I was doing long workouts with a lot of sets. I was seeing results and every year my legs were growing. When I started competing and was getting criticized for my legs, I was still getting great results in the off-season. But when I would diet, they would shrink every time. I came to realize that a lot of it had to do with my diet. I was doing so many sets and reps and not eating enough to sustain all the volume, so I was just eating away at the muscle I had built in the off-season.
MD: You’ve been squatting since the days in your basement, so it’s not like you were avoiding them (like a lot of guys). Can you explain the changes you made to the squat that made it so much more effective?
EC: After I turned pro, one of my friends (Justin Miller) kept telling me he could help me with some techniques to improve my legs. I had been using a narrow stance and pushing more from my toes and up through my knees. Justin reworked my form on the squat, and showed me how to use my hips and glutes to generate the power. I started using a wider stance, pushing through my heels and driving straight up through my hips.
MD: How did the new form on squats effect the weights you could handle? Did you start getting stronger or was this about backing down on the weight and focusing on form?
EC: Both! At first I had to step back and lighten the weight. That was just part of learning how do squat with this new form and do it correctly— it wasn’t because I wanted to go light. Once I got the form down, I became stronger than ever.
MD: Looking at your early leg training routine [see below] It jumped out immediately that you never did leg presses early in your career, but now they are a huge part of your leg training. Why the change?
EC: This was another concept that I began using when I was training with Justin. I had to learn how to press with a wider base and through my heels so I could feel it; before that it never felt effective. I also started doing them before squats as a sort of pre-exhaust movement. With the improvements in my form, I could really blast my quads with the leg press. As I move into squats I’m already fatigued, so I can use less weight to get the same effect and it’s safer.
MD: After being a high-volume guy for so many years, why the change to two working sets on the big exercises?
EC: 3-4 sets per exercise is just too much time in the gym, and it does so much damage to the body. You don’t want to make recuperation impossible, and long workouts will do that. Your training is only as effective as your ability to recuperate, so you’ve got to find the balance. And like I said before, my legs are destroyed after these workouts.
MD: One thing that you did not change is training your hamstrings in a separate workout from you quads, so what’s your reasoning?
EC I just knew that whatever I trained last was going to get cheated. Leg training is demanding of your body and mind, and it never made sense to train anything right after quads. It’s not like training arms where you can do biceps and triceps in the same workout— those are small muscles and you can only do so much in an arm workout. Quad training puts demands on your whole body, and you shouldn’t be able to do anything when you’re done.
Evan’s “quick hit” tips for building legs.
1. Press through your heels and drive with your hips, not your knees.
2. On squats, be sure to keep your head and chest up— once you break your form and lean forward, it’s all over.
3. Quality is worth more than quantity— that goes for weight, form and the intensity of your sets.
4. Find a good partner to help you to force reps and reach failure safely.
5. When deciding between heavy weight and high reps, opt for both!
6. Warming up is a good investment. Just 10 minutes on the StepMill will pay you back, big time.
EVAN’S LEG ROUTINE BACK IN THE DAY
Quads
Squats: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
Hack Squats: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
Walking Dumbbell Lunges: 4 sets of 10-12 reps
Superset with
Sissy Squats: 4 sets to failure
Leg Extensions: 4 sets of 10-20 reps
Hamstrings
Lying Leg Curls: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
Standing One-leg Curls: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
Hyperextensions: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
Straight-leg Deadlift: 4 sets of 8-12 reps
UPDATED LEG TRAINING
Quads
Leg Extensions: 3 sets of 30 reps
Leg Press: 2 warm-up sets of 20 reps/2 working sets of 20-25 reps
Squats: 2 warm-up sets of 10 reps/2 working sets of 10-15 reps
Hacks: 2 sets of 20 reps
Hamstrings
Lying Leg Curls: 2 sets of 15-20 reps
Standing One-leg Curl: 2 sets of 10-12 reps
Glute-ham Raises: 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps
Deadlifts: 2 sets of 15-20 reps*
* These final 2 sets are all-out with the goal to do as many reps as possible.
PLAYLIST: Evan’s Top 5 Tracks for Leg Day
1. Pantera— “Mouth for War”
2. Dio— “Rainbow in the Dark”
3. Queensryche— “Sister Mary”
4. Metallica— “For Whom The Bell Tolls”
5. Slipknot— “Snuff”
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