Legs | The Don't List | Men's Health Muscle
Legs | The Don't List | Men's Health Muscle
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00:00Some leg exercises like squats and deadlifts and lunges you just know you need to do if you've been anywhere near a gym
00:06but what about some of what's on Instagram a lot of this is just a
00:12Cosmic waste of your time and it's really hard to know if a lot of the leg exercises
00:16You're seeing that pop up on your feed have any value at all
00:19The truth is especially if you're trying to build leg muscle
00:23Often what you're seeing on Instagram and on tik-tok is just a waste of your time and isn't really gonna help make you strong
00:29So here are four ridiculous leg exercises and think of these as ideas, too
00:33so when you see anything similar than them
00:35You're gonna want to skip them and we're gonna give you some options that are gonna help you actually build leg muscle and strength that
00:40You can do instead one of the most cosmic waste of time exercises
00:44I have ever seen when it comes to training lower body is a BOSU ball squat now
00:48Listen, if you want to work on the BOSU ball
00:51It is fine as an activation exercise aka warm-up and it is fine in some situations if you're rehabbing an injury
00:58But if you are actually trying to build strength and muscle, there are simply better options
01:02Here's the issue with the BOSU ball squat. No matter what you're loading. No matter how much you're loading on it
01:08Your stability is so compromised that you're just not loading as much as you possibly can and you're just not going to really
01:14generate as much force as your legs are really capable of when you're in that squat position the
01:19Upside of the BOSU ball squat is that it is going to teach you to keep your chest upright
01:24but the move we can go to
01:25Instead of the BOSU ball squat is simply any kind of goblet squat or even the front rack kettlebell squat
01:31If we're going to those exercises our feet are now grounded properly
01:35Our abs are gonna be a lot more engaged no matter what they tell you about the BOSU ball squat in terms of its ab
01:40Engagement our abs are gonna be more engaged with the goblet squat and we're gonna be able to work through that squat pattern and load
01:47It a ton more so you're gonna get a lot more out of that than you are the BOSU ball squat
01:51The most common leg exercise you'll see in group fitness is also one of the biggest leg training wastes of your time
01:56And that is going to be any kind of combo squat
01:59And this is a great way to tell if somebody is an Instagram pretender or if they actually know what they're doing from a fitness
02:04standpoint you're gonna see a squat into a lateral raise or a squat into a biceps curl or a squat into anything else and
02:10All of those exercises just aren't getting the most out of your legs
02:14Here's why your legs are much stronger. Even if your legs are not strong at all
02:18They are much stronger and capable of generating more force and moving more load
02:22Than your shoulders are during lateral raises than your biceps are during curls
02:26Then your upper body is during any of these accessory motions
02:30So when we combine that accessory move with the squat
02:33We're only challenging the accessory move and we're just wasting time by doing the squat if you really really
02:39Desperately have to do a combo move
02:40The only combo move that is worth your time is something called the dumbbell thruster or the kettlebell thruster here
02:46We are working through that squat pattern and we can generate maximum force in one direction
02:52And we're using the power that we create
02:54From our squat the excess power to then drive dumbbells or kettlebells overhead in that overhead pattern
03:00All of our energy is going in one direction
03:02So if you have to do a combo move make it a thruster if it is anything else
03:06Don't even bother with it if you're trying to train your legs the most contrived leg exercise out there and the leg exercise
03:12That just doesn't really get you anything except for group fitness props is something called the jump squat now
03:18Understand this about the jump squat. It is not a natural jump
03:21If you're jumping you're not lowering deep into your squat pattern to do it
03:26So we're not taking ourselves through a truly athletic version of the jump is also not a natural squat
03:32Because there's nothing that's really allowing us to create maximum force with the jump squat
03:37Especially when we're doing the jump squat to kind of pile up multiple reps because then we're very often
03:42Actually not driving our hands upwards. We're just not creating the maximum force that we possibly can
03:47This is a waste of time group fitness move and nothing more if you want to do an athletic leg exercise idea
03:54That's going to help you build
03:56Athleticism and help you to jump better your better option is going to be something called the depth jump here
04:02We're gonna stand on a bench a box something like that. We're gonna land into the ground
04:06Decelerate our body absorb that force and then redirect upwards
04:10This is gonna teach you how to build power and strength
04:12We're gonna keep the reps low
04:13But it's a lot better than those jump squats that you can do and the ultimate waste of time
04:18Exercise if we're trying to build leg strength is the pistol squat now
04:23Understand this about the pistol squat is a tremendous expression of strength and mobility and you can't take anything away
04:29From anyone who can execute a pistol squat
04:31But it is not the best way to add the leg muscle onto your body and it is not the best way
04:37To build leg strength and if you look at those people who have massively jacked legs and do pistol squats
04:42understand that they're doing a lot in addition to the pistol squat to
04:46The problem with the pistol squat is the stability demands of the move are so great that you never ever ever
04:52Will truly get to load the movement enough to build strength again great move and it looks great
04:57It's just not the best way to help you build strength
04:59If we want to go through that single leg pattern and still be able to load and actually to be honest still have a little
05:06Stability demand we're gonna go to the Bulgarian split squat here. We will eventually get to go heavy
05:11We have just enough stability that way we can focus on that single leg without having to worry about our balance paramount above all and that's
05:19Gonna let us eventually go heavy with this exercise
05:21The Bulgarian split squat will be your ultimate single leg pattern. The pistol squat is great
05:26But if we are chasing strength and size on our legs instead of doing the pistol squat
05:31We're gonna go Bulgarian split squat instead
05:33So if you stick with those leg moves and get rid of the other stuff and stop wasting time on Instagram
05:39You're gonna see a lot more growth in your legs and you're gonna make strength gains a lot faster