If you’re looking to increase your overall body mass as quickly as possible, your legs are going to be your ticket to getting there. The thigh muscles are the largest muscle group to be found on the body, and they are the most intense to train for this very reason.
Try, for just a moment, to imagine what a ripped up body builder would look like with skinny legs. Maybe you’ve seen some top heavy guys in the gym with huge upper bodies and small legs, but really looking great on the top also requires you to have size and definition in your thighs.
This is because the upper body looks disproportionate without sizable legs to match it. Even more than that, the intensity of the leg workouts can help to change your body’s metabolism and help to get your body into a muscle-building and ripped-up state. That means that your upper body is literally enabled to have greater growth because of your legs. Leg development is the foundation for building up a powerful physique.
And of all the exercises out there for building up your muscles, squats are probably… no, make that definitely the single best exercise for building mass and strength. Many people debate the long-term benefit of squats. The argument is the combination of poor form and injury prevents squats from being as effective as leg presses. Also, they argue that leg presses focus directly on the thighs more than the squat.
While leg presses do focus solely on the thighs, there are several muscles that they are less effective in working such as the buttocks and stabilizer muscles. Squats will provide you with the best all-round heavy workout and greatest benefit. Probably the fact that squats are so tough is why so many people avoid them… but this is also the reason that they give you the greatest gains!
The muscles worked are composed of two major groups: the quadriceps and the hamstrings. The quads, as the name implies, are made up of four heads on the front of the thighs. These muscles contract to straighten your leg from a bent position.
The hamstrings are a group of muscles found on the back of your legs. These muscles work together to bend your legs from a straightened position and pull your ankles toward the back of your thighs. The most prominent muscle here is called the biceps femoris, or the leg biceps.
Also included in the legs section are the buttocks. These technically aren’t part of the thighs, but they are included in the legs workout section because they are worked using the legs exercises. The gluteus maximus is the main muscle of the buttocks.
Finally, on the outside of your legs are muscles called the leg abductors. These muscles contract to pull your legs apart when they are held close together. Training these muscles helps to create the cut on the side of your leg that separates the front and back of your legs. On the inside are the leg adductors which pull your legs together. Train this muscle for inner thigh development.
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