Put visible mass on legs

billyhead

Hi Folks,

I am coming from a running background and have very lean but what I think are strong legs. Aesteticall I would like to make the legs look bigger (Put visble mass on them I suppose). Any advice as to quality exercises in the gym I could do to do this i.e Squats, Leg Presses or should I just concentrate on cycling to do this. I am cycling about 100Km per week at present. Also would anyone suggest a good reliable and failry cheap Turbo trainer that I could consider getting

Diarmuid

Cycling probably not going to put much mass on, unless you are doing mostly sprints. Do squats! Good form, no straps. That's pretty much all you need to do. I used to do these years ago and IMHO they are the single best free weights exercise. Loads of discussion here.

Lumen

billyhead wrote: »

Aesthetically I would like to make the legs look bigger (Put visible mass on them I suppose).

Down with this sort of thing. Learn to love what you have.

DirkVoodoo

Diarmuid wrote: »

Loads of discussion here.

+1.

Here is great for spending money and making leg veins bulge to freakish proportions.

niceonetom

The only cyclists who have serious leg mass are sprinters. The rest of us want as little mass as possible.



It seems the shorter the event the bigger the legs too. If you want big legs, get a fixie, put a big gear on it and practice short and very hard accelerations. Check out the lead out man for the german team sprint (can't remember the name), his legs are bloody scary. You might also want to find a good surgeon to reconstruct your knees.

Or do squats.

Don't expect either to make you a much better all round cyclist though. Really big legs don't go up hills very well.

blorg

If you don't want to compromise your cycling concentrate on that. No point on putting on weight that is not useful. My own thighs expanded quite significantly from cycling, to the point that it can be difficult to get into things. As Diarmuid suggests sprinting is going to be the best for it.

Not my legs:

blorg

niceonetom wrote: »

It seems the shorter the event the bigger the legs too. If you want big legs, get a fixie, put a big gear on it and practice short and very hard accelerations.

That's actually a good idea, part of the expansion came from cycling a fixie around the Wicklow mountains. Need to be careful with the knees all right.

Caroline_ie

niceonetom wrote: »

Check out the lead out man for the german team sprint (can't remember the name), his legs are bloody scary.

And the woman too ...

Diarmuid

And it's likely Hoy got legs like that by doing squats, and power cleans. Discussion here

Raam

Speaking of big legs...

Andre Greipel

ednwireland

i used to do a lot of weight training (hence my now inappropriate (fatty physic) for cycling but i used to annoy my training partners cos even today i have 60cm thighs and 45cm calves, i think you have what you have you be able to build some muscle but dont expect miracles !

WhisperingDeath

You need to get to the gym and do some heavy weights.

You should focus on Lots of weight (80%-90% of 1 rep max) in sets of 3 doing maybe 4 sets of each lift with full recovery between sets (maybe 3 mins).

Best lifts are the squat - glutes and front of thighs and dead lift - posterior chain (calves, hamstring, quads, glutes & lower back). Both these lifts are 'compound' exercises which recruit multiple muscle groups.

Another benefit from using these lifts is they will train your core fairly intensively at the same time - front squats even more so.

Avoid power cleans if you want to build mass - they are an explosive exercise and whilst great for sprinting (fast twitch muscle) they are not great mass builder and you need to have a good raw strength base / good technique before you go near them.

Heavy calf raises on a squat rack may also be of interest to you.

PS -Avoid machines - Free weights will have all sorts of benefical side effects to do with stabilisation of joints etc - the core (as mentioned above) being a case in point.

Beasty

I love these mine's bigger than your's threads - I tend to do quite well in them;)

stopped_clock

I clicked thinking it was going to be about a pedestrians' version of critical mass.

ednwireland

Beasty wrote: »

I love these mine's bigger than your's threads - I tend to do quite well in them;)

my guts bigger than yours

brianthebard

Diarmuid wrote: »

And it's likely Hoy got legs like that by doing squats, and power cleans. Discussion here

Powercleans are useful for some things but won't put much mass on your legs. Imo nothing beats the 20 rep squat routine for adding leg mass- drinking several litres of milk and/or eating a hell of a lot are also prerequisites for this goal.

Diarmuid

brianthebard wrote: »

Powercleans are useful for some things but won't put much mass on your legs. Imo nothing beats the 20 rep squat routine for adding leg mass- drinking several litres of milk and/or eating a hell of a lot are also prerequisites for this goal.

That's probably true. As mentioned above Hoy does them for the explosiveness of the sprints.

brianthebard

I wouldn't have thought they were really suited to cycling or provided any carryover but there you go. They seem almost mandatory in any athletes programme these days from (the little) I've seen. I would've lol'd if you posted the vid of lance doing power cleans though! :pac:

niceonetom

Hoy's legs are big but that's totally incidental. He trains for strength - the size is a nasty (from his point of view) side effect. If he could retain the same strength but lose that mass he'd be delighted.

I read a good article by cycling coach about how if a cyclist is going to gym work it's important he trains like a weightlifter not like a body builder. The excercises look the same but the focus is the polar opposite. Weightlifting is a lot like cycling in some ways; it's about strength to weight and staying (or gettting) below your target body weight and getting as strong as you can within that. Bodybuilding on the other hand is about, well, narcissism mostly, pound-for-pound bodybuilders are not that powerful. Sure, they're strong, but that's not the point for them, that's as incidental as hoy's mass.

This coach listed weight regimes for building power-to-weight, and they focused mostly on explosivity, and low-rep-heavy-weight stuff. 3 reps max kinda thing. You will get bigger doing this, but not as much. You're cycling could well improve though.

If you want to build mass then higher-rep and lower weight stuff with far less recovery is recommended by most. That's unlikely to make you a better cyclist though.

wish I could find that article now...

Lumen

niceonetom wrote: »

I read a good article by cycling coach about how if a cyclist is going to gym work it's important he trains like a weightlifter not like a body builder...wish I could find that article now...

A few interlinked articles here.

But that's entirely not the point of this thread, which is about vanity over performance. :pac:

horizon26

squats are excellent for leg mass,I use to use weights quite a lot and always liked squats.Great for the gaa jumping and sprinting my legs grow quite big looked cool as well.Dont reflect to do your calves as well,and your hamstrings.

They are tough at first good form is the key.You must be careful as you can injure yourself,start with a light weight and go for perfect form.Legs grow quite quickly,in a few short months you will feel much stronger.:D

Beasty

For track cyclists, and particularly sprinters, such as Chris Hoy, I do not think the extra weight matters that much (look at Matt Crampton, for example, who is even bigger than Hoy). They have no hills to climb, and hence extra power is much more important than less weight.

If you play around with the bike calculator originally posted by Lumen, with nil headwind and grade, tubulars and on the drops, and inputting a 92kg weight (which is Hoy's weight), and a power output of 800w, you get an average speed of 56.4km/h. Increase power by 10% to 880w and you get an average speed of 58.3km/h, an increase of about 3%. Increase weight by 10% to 101kg, and the average speed falls to 56.2km/h, a drop of only about 0.3%. Hence you are better off increasing your weight by 10% even if it only gives a power output increase of only 1-2%.

I appreciate the calculator is not going to be particularly accurate, but it does give a helpful illustration of the scale of impact.

That's my excuse for weighing so much, anyway;)

Lumen

Beasty wrote: »

Hence you are better off increasing your weight by 10% even if it only gives a power output increase of only 1-2%.

...assuming there is any correlation between weight and useful power.

Beasty

Lumen wrote: »

...assuming there is any correlation between weight and useful power.

Agreed. In general, however, and all other things being equal, someone weighing 100kg will have a higher power output than someone weighing 50kg.

I think you can safely assume the GB track boys have optimised their weight/power output ratios to maximise their resultant speed.

I checked Crampton's weight on Wiki, and it's showing at 82kg, which is 10kg less than Hoy (and Jamie Staff). However the data was input in November 2008, and I guess he has "bulked-up" since then (which may go some way to explaining his improved performance this year)

Bikerbhoy

billyhead wrote: »

Hi Folks,
. Aesteticall I would like to make the legs look bigger (Put visble mass on them I suppose).

May I ask for what purpose ?

Diarmuid

Beasty wrote: »

92kg weight (which is Hoy's weight), and a power output of 800w, you get an average speed of 56.4km/h. Increase power by 10% to 880w and you get an average speed of 58.3km/h, an increase of about 3%.

That's because drag is proportional to velocity squared.

Diarmuid

Bikerbhoy wrote: »

May I ask for what purpose ?

Aesthetics, according to the OP.

Slideshowbob

http://www.ienhance.com/gallery/list.asp?ProcID=46&BodyID=2&specialtyID=1

very vain

very sad

just do the sports / exercises u enjoy n let mother nature do her work

who cares about how legs look - u dont get to see them much in irish weather

Lumen

Slideshowbob wrote: »

http://www.ienhance.com/gallery/list.asp?ProcID=46&BodyID=2&specialtyID=1

That'd be worth doing purely to intimidate the opposition.

brianthebard

Slideshowbob wrote: »

who cares about how legs look - u dont get to see them much in irish weather

If they're big enough people will still notice.

Raam

Lumen wrote: »

That'd be worth doing purely to intimidate the opposition.

Yes, each time they lap you, you can give them the fright of their life.