Geschatte leestijd: 6 minuten
Also hate leg day? Here you will find 5 reasons why people hate leg day and 5 solutions.
“Never skip leg day”
How often do you hear someone say, “Never skip biceps day,” or “Never skip chest day”? Probably never. So why is the expression “Never skip leg day” so well-known and frequently used? The most obvious explanation is that nobody minds training chest or biceps. However, many people can relate to hating leg training.
I hate leg day!
I personally know that hatred for leg day too. I have hated leg day for many years. I often hear the various reasons for this from others, along with additional reasons people come up with to avoid squats and deadlifts.
That’s why in this article, we’ll cover the 5 common reasons why people hate leg day, but also 5 solutions if training legs just isn’t your thing.
Five Reasons Why People Hate Leg Day
Let’s first explain that hatred.
1. Training Legs is Mentally Tough
For any other muscle group, my muscles give up during an exercise before my brain does. My head still wants to do a few more repetitions even when the point of muscle failure has been reached.
When I train legs, it’s exactly the opposite: My muscles could handle a few more repetitions, but the point of ‘motivational failure’ has long been reached.
After 20 years of strength training, leg training is still the only one I have to get through based on motivation and self-discipline, while all other workouts have just become routine.
2. Lots of Work for Little Result
But that’s not the (main) reason why I hate leg day. At most, it’s why I don’t like it. Enduring less enjoyable things for the reward is what discipline is all about.
The reason I truly hate leg day is because the reward is just disappointing.
I am blessed in many ways, but my legs are not an example of that. You won’t find a photo of my legs, even though I’m not particularly selfie-shy.
My upper body gains muscle mass fairly quickly, and a low body fat percentage helps make it look more impressive. However, my legs are anything but impressive. When I give my legs as much attention as my upper body, the result is just enough to not be embarrassing. Just enough to prevent anyone (to my face) from saying that I shouldn’t skip leg day.
“Just train legs more often”
There are probably more people who notice that their legs are not their genetic showpieces. However, that’s not a real excuse for (relatively) small legs. After all, you could say that we should give those legs more attention.
I did that for a year once. Training legs twice a week. It gave me slightly more results for a whole lot more work. I found that reward quite disappointing. Not worth it. Not compared to the result if that time had been spent on other muscles.
3. No Satisfaction During and After a Workout
When you train arms, back, shoulders, or chest, you can feel yourself growing during the workout. That muscle pump provides an almost instantly visible result of your training. A day at the beach? Let’s hit the gym.
Of course, you train for long-term results, but it certainly helps if you see such immediate results. Even if such a muscle pump is only temporary.
To have that effect on legs, you need to have a pretty hefty set of legs. That’s precisely the problem.
Some people don’t like leg day because they can have muscle soreness for days. That works positively for me because it reminds me of the hard work I’ve done for a few more days. There’s a reason I once wrote an ode to muscle soreness.
4. You Don’t Puke from Bicep Curls
I’ve thrown up once after a workout, both times it was a leg workout. That’s no coincidence.
You can find many videos of people finishing their squats or deadlifts while vomiting. You never see videos of people vomiting after bicep curls or tricep press downs.
Exercises like squats and deadlifts require much more from the body. That means, among other things, a much greater need for blood due to a larger amount of involved muscle mass. This can temporarily reduce blood in the stomach, slowing gastric emptying. This can cause feelings of nausea, or even make you vomit.
Vomiting in the gym is never pleasant. Especially not when you’ve just had your post-workout shake. A waste of that protein.
5. Just Not That Important
Enduring something is a matter of motivation and discipline. For legs, you need more discipline because it’s just harder work. It’s a shame that this isn’t compensated for by greater motivation in me. On the contrary.
I personally never really found big legs interesting until fairly recently. Not as interesting as a muscular upper body, at least. I only cared that they weren’t so small that it became laughable and there was no balance.
Everyone has their own priorities.
Five Solutions If You Hate Leg Day
But over the past two decades, many things have changed in my perception of fitness and strength training. One of the latest changes is that, for the first time, I find big legs interesting. Because I find it beautiful myself, not because of someone else’s opinion.
Also, the fact that, as a fitness photographer, I’ve worked with various women whose legs outshine mine may have played a role in this. Although the difference in strength between men and women is smaller in the lower body than the upper body, male, sexist pride still plays a role. If she can do it…
Here are some tips to finally get rid of that hatred for leg training and some easier solutions.
1. Spend the Whole Summer in Ridiculously Short Shorts.
You know, shorts like the ones the Cruyff generation used to play football in. Of course, you’ll look ridiculous. But what better motivation than all those stares from people clearly struggling to hold back their laughter. Schwarzenegger wore short shorts for the same reason, to force himself to do something about his chicken legs.
Only when you see people looking admiringly instead of laughing, you can switch back to normal shorts. It’s just a question of whether you still
want to.
2. Wear Multiple Pairs of Pants
The reverse can also work. Instead of solving the problem by confrontation, you can also just hide and ignore the problem. Wear training pants under your jeans with long thermal underwear underneath.
Definitely protest against climate change and global warming though. After all, your grandchildren also deserve a world where they can hide their spindly legs under three layers of clothing.
3. Realize Your Future Girlfriend Might Squat Heavier Than You
Gone are the days when your girlfriend goes straight to the treadmills upon entering the gym while you head for the dumbbell rack.
Women have become increasingly interested in strength training in recent years, especially when it comes to buttocks and legs.
I wouldn’t have any problem with a partner who earns more than me. A woman who squats heavier wouldn’t be good for my ego.
4. No Leg Day but a Quads Day and Hamstrings Day
This one is specifically for people who tend to skip leg training. For me personally, this trick was the way to get rid of the Leg Day hatred, and I still apply it regularly. It’s a solution to that lack of satisfaction after the workout.
A typical leg workout involves several exercises for the quadriceps and several exercises for the hamstrings (and possibly buttocks and calves). For me, that means a whole workout of exercises I don’t like without the reward of that visible pump at the end of the workout. Not much to look forward to.
So, a few years ago, I thought: “Why not train quads on one day and hamstrings (and calves) on another day?”.
That turned out to work perfectly. First of all, I only have half as many exercises to dread per workout. The motivation for the exercises I do have to do is higher, and the effort is greater. During those squats, I don’t have to think about heavy deadlifts that still follow.
Moreover, I have something to look forward to during that same workout. Because I only did half a leg workout, I can still train another muscle group. A muscle group I enjoy training. A muscle group that rewards me with that delightful muscle pump.
5. Take It Slower
My hatred for leg day was accompanied by a certain degree of fear for many years.
When squatting and deadlifting, I always felt like my muscles could handle more than the involved attachments, joints, and vertebrae. Not entirely unfounded. Knee and low back pain are not unfamiliar to me. Feeling the wrong kind of pain while not even training with heavier weights doesn’t really inspire confidence.
Forced by an injury once, I trained legs with light weights and many repetitions for a while. Thirty-plus reps with 60 kg in the squat, for example. That apparently trained the form of execution and muscle control in such a way that heavier squats and deadlifts later felt much more familiar. As if the limiter has been removed.
