How to thicken depth of thighs?

Jimmy Bottlehead

Hey all.

Currently figuring out the body parts I wanna focus more attention on to bring up.

From the front my thighs aren't bad, but from the side they seem very skinny.
Would more hamstring work redtify this? Have to plead guilty to not doing anything specifically for hams so far.

Advice would be appreciated muchos, thanks!!

kevpants

Yeah that's be the infamous all quads no hams look. How do you work your legs? If it's good deep squats and regular deadlifting your hams shouldn't be left behind.

If I was to recommend an exercise to specifically target them I'd say Romanian deadlifts and Good mornings.

the drifter

kevpants wrote: »

d.

If I was to recommend an exercise to specifically target them I'd say Romanian deadlifts and Good mornings.

Man tells it like it is!!!

Jimmy Bottlehead

kevpants wrote: »

Yeah that's be the infamous all quads no hams look. How do you work your legs? If it's good deep squats and regular deadlifting your hams shouldn't be left behind.

If I was to recommend an exercise to specifically target them I'd say Romanian deadlifts and Good mornings.

I squat to parrallel, and also leg press, followed by either standing or sitting calf raises.
Now genetically, I've been blessed with scrawny bandy chicken legs (not my proudest body part!) but getting the quads bigger has helped a lot. This is where they're lagging now.

Tips, lads? Maybe replace leg press with good mornings? Or throw it in as well?

hardtrainer

When you say squat to parallel do you mean until your hams are parallel to the floor or until the top of your quads are? Get someone who knows how to squat properly to check your form out and I would advise lowering the weight and squatting deeper (as deep as you can) to really work all the fibers. Leg press is fine, but where are the deadlifts? If you're not deadlifting, start and you will see the benefits and never look back.

Jimmy Bottlehead

hardtrainer wrote: »

When you say squat to parallel do you mean until your hams are parallel to the floor or until the top of your quads are? Get someone who knows how to squat properly to check your form out and I would advise lowering the weight and squatting deeper (as deep as you can) to really work all the fibers. Leg press is fine, but where are the deadlifts? If you're not deadlifting, start and you will see the benefits and never look back.

Deadlifts are done on Back/Bicep day. and I do love them!

I squat til my quads are parallel... I've trained with a few guys and my form is always grand (I'm sure it's not 100%, but its very solid and its corrected if it feels off)

Do you mean full squats, til my hams touch my calves?

kevpants

It sounds like you aren't squatting fully. 99% of people who say they squat to parralel are generally doing the equivalent of a curtsy with the bar on their back. There's no reason to squat high. You must get right down or you're only kidding yourself. The problem is you'll now have to drop the weight to get down lower so it's hard on the auld pride. Out of curiosity why do you squat to parralel and stop there? Why not the whole way down? Just wondering of someone fed you some nonesense about minding your knees or something.

You could throw in the Good mornings or alternate them with the leg press. Just see how you feel and what you can handle on leg day. I'd replace the calf raises with them IMO but that's just me.

RoosterIllusion

hardtrainer wrote: »

When you say squat to parallel do you mean until your hams are parallel to the floor or until the top of your quads are? Get someone who knows how to squat properly to check your form out and I would advise lowering the weight and squatting deeper (as deep as you can) to really work all the fibers. Leg press is fine, but where are the deadlifts? If you're not deadlifting, start and you will see the benefits and never look back.

Squatting is your man. Also, try doing single leg squats too, use a smith machine to make it easier. When you do sets of single leg then go to both legs it recruits more fibres so you end up working your legs more. Or so a rugby coach told me

Jimmy Bottlehead

kevpants wrote: »

It sounds like you aren't squatting fully. 99% of people who say they squat to parralel are generally doing the equivalent of a curtsy with the bar on their back. There's no reason to squat high. You must get right down or you're only kidding yourself. The problem is you'll now have to drop the weight to get down lower so it's hard on the auld pride. Out of curiosity why do you squat to parralel and stop there? Why not the whole way down? Just wondering of someone fed you some nonesense about minding your knees or something.

You could throw in the Good mornings or alternate them with the leg press. Just see how you feel and what you can handle on leg day. I'd replace the calf raises with them IMO but that's just me.

Hey Kev,

I do see a lot of guys going very shallow... I go til the front of my legs are parallel with the floor. I've had others check my form and it is ok at that. I don't do full squats because its too wobbly... even bodyweight! Would they really make a big difference though?

I'm threw in the hamstring machine leg curl http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Hamstrings/CBLyingLegCurl.html the last day and I've felt it all weekend!

Pugsley

Jimmy Bottlehead wrote: »

I don't do full squats because its too wobbly... even bodyweight!

Could be a flexibility issue?

kevpants

A technique issue I'd say. Squatting deep will make a huge difference once that angle between the hip joint and the knee goes to sub parralel the weight gets an awful lot heavier. You'll be activating more muscle and using a much bigger range of motion. Full squats and half squats are incomparable. The results of them are incomparable as well.

Just noticed you have a log. Would you be willing to video your squatting? It would be interesting to see your regular squat and why a deep squat feels wobbly to you.

Do you feel like you're going to fall forward, back, to the side?

Transform

Jesus the whole point of the squat depth is simple - get as low as possible for you.

Now for the original question on getting bigger legs - how much are you squatting???

Is really a matter of getting stronger and bringing your squat/deadlift to ideally double body weight.

I know for sure that by then there will be no questioning ideal leg exercises.

Adding in more exercises are very very rarely the answer - hard work and progressive poundages are the rules to lift by.

Jimmy Bottlehead

Kev: I think I feel like I'm gonna fall backward when I go all the way down on a full squat. I can video my squatting I guess... possibly this week. Might throw in my deadlift as well just to get your opinions - no harm doing it anyways!

Transform: I do imcrease the weight all the time. I'm about 85kg or so at the moment, and have just started back after a few months of half-arsed training. So week one only hit a 70kg squat, got 8 reps out of it though. Hopefully it'll build as the weeks go on.

nice_guy80

so, does the parallel squat produce better results than a half squat??

would i be better ditching a lot of weight of the bar and going for deeper squats? would i see a difference in gains?

Transform

go to at least parallel always

Hanley

nice_guy80 wrote: »

so, does the parallel squat produce better results than a half squat??

would i be better ditching a lot of weight of the bar and going for deeper squats? would i see a difference in gains?

A parallel squat IS a half squat :D:D

Jimmy Bottlehead

Do a half set of parallel squats and a half set of half squats

nice_guy80

i have knee issues with going beyond parallel

thanks for responses

Transform

Em, current squat/deadlift weight???

Brian?

You really should do more work for your hams that deadlifts alone.

On Transforms advice, I switched stiff leg DL's from my DL day to my squat day as well as already doing hamstring curls on the squat day. The results have really been great, if painful.