Thanks guys! Think I finally found the training stimulus they need to grow
Nice legs garlic! what are good for hams? we only have a seated ham curl machine, not lying, some say lying down is better some say not lol, and every time I try straight legs lifts I pull a ham in my left leg, no matter how much I stretch, fucking hate it, now that knee has been fixed and other is way better and lower back isn't acting up I am smashing legs now to catch them up to upper body, thighs are 24" now and I only want to go up 3-4 inches to match Arnolds when he competed, don't want huge thighs like the guys now, just too damn big!
Thanks
Well I do like both lying and seated ham curls actually. I get more simulation in the extended/stretched position when doing lying ones and better at the top part of the movement with seated. I do both, but I smash them hard. I typically either pyrimid up to a really hard set where I fail at 8 and then do 3 drops to failure, or I work up heavy and do a DC style rest pause set where I fail around 10 on the first interval, take 10 breaths, fail again, another 10 breaths and fail again. Then I do 2-3 drops until they're demolished.
Since you keep straining something, chances are you have some kind of tightness/imbalance causing that. Could be in your hips, IT band, glutes, lower back, maybe even your calves. For me, loaded stretches after finishing the bodypart works best, but I also have to do a good bit of soft tissue work like rolling and smashing with a foam roller or lacrosse ball. Especially in my hips/piriformis as it causes a lot of issues for me. I'm about to invest in one of those theragun things to see how that works pre and post workout. They're supposed to help quite a bit.
I'd also try going lighter and getting a little more knee bend if you haven't tried that yet. I personally cannot do SLDL without a bit more knee bend because I end up hurting my lower back/hamstring. Another thing I do to hit quads/glutes is smith machine lunges at a deficit. Use a board or something to bring your front foot higher, then lunge all the way about to the floor. Go lighter and push hard with your glutes and hams, you'll feel what I'm talking about.
in for answers... mine aren’t wide enough. How do I make my quads poke out to the sides? They bulge in the front .... gay....
I hate to tell you, but it's genetic man. Some guys just don't have that wide sweep on their vastus lateralis. Look at Luke Sandoe. Dude has huge legs but they don't look as good from the front because his sweep just isn't wide. I think the best thing to do is get them bigger with heavy compound movements, and then blast them with metabolic/pump work. Cluster sets, rest pause sets, and FST-7 type cluster sets of leg extensions seem to work to get them wider at the top.
I've found that I respond the best to 2-3 heavy loading sets of about 6-8, then I hammer the volume with a Widowmaker 20 or so rep set on a compound movement like squats or leg press, then a couple more movements where I utilize other intensity techniques like those rest pause and cluster sets. For instance above, sets of 6 heavier on leg extensions with 10 breaths between until I couldn't do 6 reps. That was 10 sets. It's painful but it works for me really well
