If you have just joined a gym for the first time and are yet to train your legs, or if you have spent most of your time training your upper body up until now, you really should think about devoting one day of the week to leg training because this will help you to create an impressive full-body physique that is perfectly in proportion.
After all, there is no point showing off your impressive biceps and your six-pack abs if you have skinny little legs.
A good leg workout will help you to develop your quads, hamstrings and calf muscles, whilst also developing your glutes, ie your butt muscles, and will benefit both men and women because they can help you achieve muscle-building and toning goals.
So with that in mind, let me share with you some of the things that you will discover when you do start training your legs regularly, both positive and negative:
Leg Workouts Are Really Hard Work
I can still remember the first leg training session that I ever had with a personal trainer, and it was absolute hell. He had me doing squats, dumbbell lunges, leg curls, leg extensions and leg presses right from day one, and because I had previously neglected my legs, I found it to be extremely difficult.
It doesn’t get much better as your legs start to become stronger either because you will just end up increasing the weight on all of these exercises in order to keep seeing results. So this is the first thing you will quickly learn, and is one of the main reasons why many people hate leg day.
You Will Have Aches And Pains For Days Afterwards
Following on from the last point, it is bad enough that your legs will feel sore after you have finished each workout, but it doesn’t end there. You will generally find that your legs will continue to ache for at least 2-3 days after your workout as well.
This doesn’t necessarily prevent you from going back to the gym because you can still work your upper body during this recovery phase, but it does mean that some of the simplest everyday tasks, such as walking up and down stairs, standing up and sitting down become almost impossible because of the pain and soreness.
Your Legs Are Stronger Than You Think
Let’s move on to the positives now because it is not all bad. For a start, you will immediately notice that your legs are a lot stronger than you might think.
After a few weeks, you will soon find that you can do squats with a decent amount of weight on the barbell, and will be able to load the leg press machine with one or two 50-pound plates and complete 10-15 reps without any problems.
In short, your legs are big and powerful to start off with, and will only continue to get stronger over time if you train them regularly.
You Won’t Have To Wait Around For Machines To Become Free
There will always be some people in the gym who are training their legs on any given day, but you will generally find that you won’t have to wait around as much for the leg machines to become free.
That’s because most gym members will be far more interested in burning calories on the exercise bikes and treadmills, for example, or using some of the strength training machines to develop their arms, chest, back and shoulders.
This is particularly true on the first day of the week, and if you want to know why, I have already written an article elsewhere on this site that explains why Monday is the best day to train legs.
You Will Feel Fantastic After Every Workout
This last point might be hard to believe because I have already pointed out that your legs will ache like hell after you have finished your leg workout, and will continue to hurt for the next few days, but despite all this, you will feel on top of the world when you walk out of the gym after a really good session.
It really does make you feel good when you have worked your legs hard, and after a while you will learn to embrace the pain that follows immediately afterwards because you know that the long-term rewards more than make up for it.
So don’t put it off any longer. Make tomorrow the day that you finally start training your legs because it really isn’t that bad once you get started.
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