Hey, what's up guys? Today
We're going to talk about the leg extension
and we're going to talk about why it's a great
Exercise for you guys to do if you're trying to build your quads
Now the reason this video came about is because it seems like whenever a publication gets bored with their content
They need to use clickbait words and one of the most popular things
They do is they say never do this exercise, or this is the worst exercise
You could do for your legs
You get what I'm saying and the funny thing is is when they usually do that. They pick one of my
demonstration videos to show how to do the exercise
And then they bash it which I think is pretty funny if you guys haven't seen my video and how to do leg extension properly
I'll post a link to that
But this video is give me more about why it's not bad for you now when you guys are bodybuilding
Alright? You're trying to isolate different parts of your body to increase the size of those muscles
Just like if you were to work out your biceps you try to find as many bicep exercises as you can to target them different ways
well the leg extension is it a great exercise to help target your quads now the number one reason why
Publications will say that this exercise is bad for you is they claim that it puts too much pressure on your knees
Now you and I both know that a lot of exercises put pressure on your knees
But the thing they don't tell you is the people who are usually complaining about knee pain
When doing this exercise are the ones that have no idea how to set it up properly
most people don't even know that you can adjust this machine. They just go over and they sit down
Then they go to town on the exercise, but there's two things you need to keep in mind when doing a leg extension
Number one you have to adjust the back Pad and number two you have to adjust the ankle Pad
Now how do you adjust this machine? And why does it make a difference? This right here
Every leg extension machine has one of these and this is the pivot point of the machine
This is where the machine is going to go up and down this needs to be exactly where your knee is
And in order for you to line that up properly you have to push your seat back, so once you push your seat back
You'll be able to sit back far now
pull my shorts down a little bit in my long shorts today
You'll be able to put that seat back far enough
so if you can sit up straight your lower back is comfortable against the back of the seat and your knees lined up with the
Pivot point of the machine now step two is adjusting the ankle pad you want to have this pad
Adjusted so that it rests just above your foot almost the front of your ankle right here, so right now. It's on [XL]
That's way too low for me
It needs to be usually be on M or medium that's going to be pretty standard for most of you guys unless you're super tall
Now the last thing to keep in mind when doing this exercise is that if you're body building you're trying to build muscle
How do you build muscle? There's a few different ways you can do that
I'll link a video to the top three ways to build muscle the three muscle building
Mechanisms you guys check that out in the info section below
but when it comes to this exercise this isn't a max output exercise anybody can put the whole stack on here and then
You know make them self do this and lift the whole stack
But I'm using so many more muscles in my body in order to do that
That it makes absolutely no sense it makes for funny YouTube viral videos when you see people doing it
But it's not helping you with your gains
If you guys are trying to build muscle and trying to isolate your quads
You need to use an amount of weight that you can do the exercise properly with and if you're worried about
Tension or you're worried about muscle breakdown or muscle damage
You should be worried about those things
but what you can do in order to get more muscle breakdown is shorten your rest periods take a 30 second rest period or a
60 second rest period. There's no reason why you need to do a leg extension
finish your set and then wait three to five minutes to do your next set
It's not a max output exercise like a squat or a dead lift or a bench
You're simply sitting here just to target your quads, so if I was to do this exercise
And I do do this exercise, and it's actually included in my shredded 12-week transformation challenge.
I take 30 second rest periods in between my sets and so what I'm going to do is set myself up properly
I'm going to get a full extension at the top
I'm going to squeeze my quads as hard as I can at the top of the movement
Control it on the way down
So the weights that go most touches all the way up squeeze for a second all the way down
All the way up squeeze for a second. I'm going to do 10 repetitions
I'm gonna get off on the wait 30 seconds, and then I'm going to hit it again
Most people even if they set the machine up properly if they do get a knee injury from this exercise is
Because they're lifting weight that is way too heavy. Okay, like I said this is a bodybuilding movement
You're just trying to isolate one area to improve your quads to improve your tear drop
It doesn't take the whole stack to isolate that area it takes controlled reps
Controlled negatives and shorter rest periods so I hope this video helped you guys out
I'd love to hear those comments down in the comment section
Be sure to hit that like and subscribe button if you guys haven't signed up for my shredded 12-week transformation challenge
Make sure you click that link down in the info section below see you next time