Can you still get a good leg workout with shorter rest times

KurtBarlow

Made some very significant progress in the 8 weeks up to Christmas. Lost 35lbs . However I seem to have hurt myself doing barbell squats . The joint from my femur to my pelvis in the left leg is sore. I think my pelvis is slightly lifted on one side and one leg seems slightly longer. Anyway its always been in my head that to get a good leg Workout you had to do the big 2 compounds BB squats and Deadlifts and you had to so lifting heavy with long rests (3mins) . Given my current Situation do you think lighting the load lncreasing the reps and decreasing the rest time to 60 seconds is a waste of time . Im thinking for example of 6 sets of 10 reps for barbell squats resting only 1 Minute inbetween sets. Also are more Isolation type leg exercises useless like leg curls and leg Extensions a waste of time

the baby bull elephant

What does your current squatting routine look like? What's your reasoning behind shortening the rest times? When you say a 'good leg workout' what do you mean by that, as in are you more focused on gaining strength or size?

Sorry for the inquisition but the answers to those could help you get you a suitable solution. Depending on load management etc 6x10 with 1m rest could be fine but based on what you've said I have a feeling it would exacerbate your current problems.

I definitely wouldn't say isolation exercises are a waste of time but again their usefulness depends on your goals. If you just want a big squat they have a place but aren't necessary, if you want to just focus on growth you should probably be doing something every session.

KurtBarlow

I dont care about strength or Performance just aesthetics. My reasoning behind lowering the rest is also lowering the weight

KurtBarlow

I was doing this twice weekly

Warm up sets

1x15 rest 60 sec

2x12 rest 90 secs

1x10 rest 120 seconds

Work sets

5x7 rest 3 mins between Each set

KurtBarlow

Good Workout for me is hypotrophy

the baby bull elephant

It that case I probably wouldn't recommend one minute rest times. It would mean the weight on most sets probably wouldn't be heavy enough to force growth, you'd essentially be doing conditioning.

My usual advice would also be to follow a recognised programme. 531 boring but big is one that sounds like it may do a lot of what you want.

But definitely if your focus is purely aesthetics you don't have to squat or deadlift. They're excellent exercises and can certainly help in that department but they're not mandatory especially if you're getting hurt doing them. It's perfectly acceptable to try variations like front squat or depending on equipment try leg press or hack squat for your main leg compound movement.

With a goal of aesthetics I would also definitely recommend single joint stuff like knee extensions and hamstring curls and in addition to that single leg exercises such as Bulgarian Split Squats.

Black Sheep

If your goal is just physique then you don’t need to barbell squat at all, necessarily.

High bar back squats can be a good quad dominant lower body movement but you could tick the same box with hack squats, quad dominant leg presses, quad dominant trap bar deadlifts, single leg dumbbell squats, leg extensions … All viable options.

For posterior chain / hamstring / glutes it is hard to look past barbell or dumbbell RDLs. Back extensions, leg curls, glute dominant leg press and glute dominant trap bar deadlifts are also good.

Whether you’re doing lower rep sets or getting into higher rep ranges I think 2-3 minutes between work sets is necessary to allow adequate recovery. You want to be in proximity to failure and really loading the muscles and having productive work sets. Rushing between sets is just not conducive to doing quality sets. If it’s clusters / rest pause training then that’s fine but if it’s sets across I think better to rest then make a good fist of it.