5 exercises to build bigger, more athletic legs

So you like bench press and curls! Same, but tiny ass pins on a guy that allows you to wear skinny stretch fit jeans from top shop is well. Constricting.

I’m not a fashion guru, I decided I wouldn’t wear a suit full time to coach in shorts and polo shirt full time but why am I seeing guys wear legging type jeans walking around, how does anything have room in those?! Ouch.

                                                        The feeling in most retail outlets

Anyway, you decided you want some leg development. Here it is

Front Squats- Allows for a great range of motion and to handle some heavy loads to cause some serious mechanical tension!

I’d recommend starting out with 3 sets of 5 reps and adding a couple of Kilos each week.

Hip Thrusts- what an excellent exercise to develop Anteroposterior strength (this movement could have more carry over to sprinting than squats, more on this soon) Hits the glutes and hamstrings really well, takes a very little amount of time learn/ master. You can get some really heavy weights on this with minimal spinal loading.

I’d crank out 4 sets of 6-12 reps, be explosive and hold for a second at the top.

Rear foot elevated split squats- Start developing single leg strength and balance, helps to identify imbalances. Awesome! Personally I like to see this exercise done with a slower tempo on the lowering phase of the movement and not locking out at the top. This keeps constant tension on the quads and leaves you wanting to curse me for a few minutes after.

3 sets of 10-20 reps. Euw, just. Euw

Supine Fit ball Hamstring curls- Providing you can keep your glutes squeezed you will find a superb burn in the hamstrings. This is a great exercise to get a pump, keep the knees and back healthy, where some serious improvements to clients legs come from is when you can do single leg hamstring curls. These. Are. Tough.

Until I see a video/ in person of you completing 3 sets of 15 each leg then you have not maxed this thing out.

Backward sledge drags- Grab hold of a weight and walk backwards, holy quad burn.

                                              Ben Bruno showing us what strong is all about

2 sets of 45-180 seconds, yup 3 minutes. This sucks yet works so well.

You now have all the tools you need for building some serious leg size and athleticism. Let me know how you get on!

The keys to your fitness success- The Intangibles

The Intangibles

There is normally a look of confusion on people’s faces when I start saying something like your fitness and training success will depend on a set of intangibles.

Intangible 1) Not tangible, incapable of being perceived by the sense of touch, as incorporeal or immaterial things

2) Not definite or clear to the mind

If you are anything like my mum watching the Matrix, you are just as confused why these “intangibles” matter. Think of it like he was in a computer game, then he wasn’t…. and she’s lost. Meh.

So what are they and which ones will on I focus on with yourself and your own fitness goals. We will look at:

Awareness-How well do you know how your body moves through space, reacts to certain foods and sleep? Well, you should.

Passion- Why you do, what you do.

Patience- In a rush, probably best to slow the heck down.

Awareness.

With the above meaning, for me, it looks at how well do you understand your own body and the way it moves through space. How it feels completing movements like squats, lunges, pull-ups, push ups and what it reacts like to every movement with various training loads, frequency etc. This is why when designing a program is not just as simple of choosing a list of exercises and hoping that they work, but requires you to look at what the specific needs of the day are and does it serve that purpose.

Look at your design and methodology, what is the originality and value? Most of the time originality is a piss poor idea. Be aware of methods that hard worked for decades before “innovators” came out with things like the shake weight and all other things akin to “Toning”. Leave Toner for the printer please.

 “Truth is not something outside to be discovered, it is something inside to be realized.” 

― Osho, 

I can’t give you an answer for how aware you are of your own training, nutrition and other lifestyle factors, these are not something that can be measured by me or anyone else. Only you.

Passion-

Rudy Tomjanovich- “Never underestimate the heart of a champion”

Passion can’t be given and sure isn’t lying around for you to find, you will have to enjoy what you do. Care about what you, Love what you do to be passionate about it. Once you have passion, motivation won’t be a problem, you’ll care too much to even consider anything else.

For me “buying in” to whatever I take part in, to create a new lifestyle change has been paramount. You have to know the why you are doing something and really understand the benefits of why you should do it. After this point, going forth and taking action with everything you have got to get there much like a champion would. Now I’m not saying you should put everything else on hold in your life just to nail a double bodyweight deadlift or any other fitness goal you may have. But when you step into the gym, your garage or the local park. Know why you are there and be passionate about it. Don’t check your phone, don’t talk forever, just start really caring about what you doing and put some passion into your workouts.

Patience-

Aristot le was on to saying this was a virtue. How many people do you know can wait for something without complaint?

Well I sure did not posses this quality for a very long period of time, especially with regards to fitness. Like pretty much everyone have been sold on 6 weeks until ripped abs, 1 simple trick for a toned toosh, learn to tame a unicorn in just minutes a day. As you can tell I’m trying to be light hearted about this ;-O

Before and after done in 5 hours!

Within fitness stuff just doesn’t happen in days, weeks or a month for honest results. The path of fitness takes time, to build muscle or lose fat and getting stronger all take a considerable amount of time and energy. It takes time to cultivate, there will be stumbles, falls and dead-ends on this journey. Does this mean you should stop, well you could but you you’ll be waiting even longer and not progressing. AND NO YOU SHOULD NOT STOP! If you are here it is because you know there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Get educated, Buy-in to whatever you are doing and let the results come.

Like the matrix, I hope to expand on these points with following post. Just with less round house kicks, but more high fives.

Fitness elitism

There are few things I would go as far to say I hate.

-Bullies

-Wasps (at least they serve a place in the Eco system)

-Fitness elitism

Yup, I hate those within the fitness industry who deem themselves thee elite, the go balls the wall hardcore within their workouts and the rest of their lifestyle.

As you can tell, this maybe a bit rant based

After recently training in a different facility from the great placed I am based out of (link to elitas fitness) and coming a client who had been “put through a fat burning workout” was crying in the changing room. This gentleman who was new to fitness and had placed his trust in someone to help him into the gym, I assume build a bridge to a new life and not burn it.

His trainer was a fitness elitist, everything had max out effort or it’s pathetic. WHAT THE ACTUAL F! I practice a long term approach with my clients and since 2013 have been seeing between 25-40 hours a week of one-to-one training. I’ve not had anyone throw up, no one is restricted to eating only certain types of foods, it’s about being more awesomer and how fitness can be apart of it.

We as fitness Pros can shape new lives for people allowing them to make keeping active a better part of their lifestyles. I get the fitness industry is fancy, there is always something new around the corner, bigger, better. MORE! But what is wrong with getting better at moving your body through space and then adding load? Doesn’t sound super sexy, heck it works though.

But I want to encourage people through strength training, how it can make you move better, reduce the risk of injuries. AND let you have some cake while maintaining a kick ass bod.

This can swing both ways and at the end it comes down to the individual making someone cry through them not feeling good enough to be in the gym is not cool,

Be better, empower others and keep being awesome