There's a lot of love and hate surrounding the leg press.
Some think it's not very functional because you're sitting on your butt and pushing, which isn't like anything you do outside of the gym. Other athletes swear by it because it allows them to lift heavy weights and build muscle without having to put the pressure of the barbell on their back.
However, most of us are somewhere in the middle of this debate. However, if done correctly, the leg press can build quite a bit of muscle and strength. With the fixed range of motion and stability of sitting, you can move heavy loads. Since one can carry heavy loads, mistakes can also be made.
Although the leg press is not a technical exercise, mistakes can be made that can lead to injury and loss of achievement. Here's how to do the leg press, what it takes for good form, and how to make four common leg press mistakes and how to fix them.
How to do the leg press
Depending on your body type, the leg press will look different on different athletes. Before starting, adjust the device so that it offers maximum safety and comfort to your body.
- Sit on a leg press and place your feet on the platform in your preferred position.
- Lower the safety bars and push until your legs are fully extended, but with a gentle knee bend.
- Lower the platform until your knees form a 90 degree angle.
- Slide the platform back to the starting position.
- Reset and repeat.
What is required for good form
The beauty of the leg press is that you can do it even if you have limited hip mobility or low back pain. Here are a few basic things needed for a good leg press.
- Take your time setting it up. Since we all have different limb lengths, take the time to adjust the seat and do a few repetitions with the empty platform to see if you can reach a 90-degree angle with your knees without compensating.
- Keep your feet flat on the platform for the duration of the set.
- There's no need to experiment with foot width, as shoulder width apart works for most lifters.
- Keep your lower back and glutes glued to the seat at all times.
- Control the stress of the eccentric contraction and be explosive with the concentric contraction.
4 Common Leg Press Mistakes
Mistakes aren't bad. This is how we primarily learn to do it right. When you know better, you do better. Besides selfishness and too much weight, here are four common mistakes when doing leg presses, because you know those two, right?
Put down the 1RM
Kzenon
Exercising heavy and maxing out 1RM on the leg press is something you should only do occasionally. Most of the time, you should be using the leg press to build muscle in your quadriceps. The best way to do this is to control all parts of the rep, including the eccentric. The weight is too heavy if you can't control the eccentric contraction.
Fix it: Focus on tension and control and a little less on the weight on the platform.
hold it tight
Per Bernal / M+F Magazine
The only part of your body that you should be moving and feeling is your knees and glutes. That's it. If your feet aren't glued to the platform or your lower back and your hips aren't glued to the seat, then you're doing it wrong.
Fix it: Pay attention to your setup. Your feet should be shoulder width apart in the center of the platform and your knees should reach a 90 degree angle without bumping into your torso. If this happens, change the seat angle so that all parts of your body stick to the platform and pad.
Don't make any short-cuts
Jasminko Ibrakovic
Your knees need to reach a 90-degree angle to get the most benefit from the leg press. It might feel good to the ego to do a half rep with a huge weight, but it won't add anything to your gains and your knees might end up hating you.
Fix it: A little less ego and weight on the platform is required here. Use a weight you can control at a 90 degree knee angle.
It's a quad exercise
Per Bernal / M+F Magazine
This may anger some Instagram influencers, but the leg press is primarily a quad exercise with a little hip extension. Putting your feet higher on the platform to work the glutes and hamstrings more is a waste of time in my opinion when there are ways. There are better exercises to target them than the leg press.
Fix it: There is no solution per se for this. Use better exercises to work your hamstrings and glutes like: B. Hip thrusts, RDL and variations of thigh curls.
