Episode 42: A leg to stand on

By Ron Harris

Having been training now for over a quarter-century and in a lot of different gyms, there is still one common sight that never ceases to disappoint me. So many times I will see a guy with an upper body that’s anywhere from better than average to highly impressive, but below the waist it seems he’s hardly trained his legs at all. The old joke used to be that in cases like these, there was always the legal danger of the upper body suing the legs for lack of support.

Even recently at my gym as summer had pushed the mercury into the 90’s and kept it there for a few weeks straight, I’d only learned the ‘shameful secret’ of a few guys after seeing them in shorts for the first time. In all cases, these were men who did not compete in bodybuilding and to the best of my knowledge, had no aspirations to. As far as I knew, they were perfectly happy with possessing exceptional muscular development in the chest, shoulders, arms, and in some cases, back (a lot of these guys typically don’t have very good backs, either, which is not a coincidence). Unless they went to the beach, they could continue to cover up those chicken legs and stick calves in jeans, slacks, long baggy shorts, or whatever. This is, of course, their prerogative and really none of my damn business. I do find it interesting to note that my wife is attracted to muscular men, but those without big legs to match the buffness upstairs never get a second look. I don’t know how many other women feel the same way, but I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them do.

When it comes to competitive bodybuilding, occasionally legs can be a deciding factor. I recently attended the first annual IFBB Battle of Champions in Hartford, Connecticut. Though there were also Open men, female bodybuilding, Figure, and pro bikini events being held, the toughest and most closely-watched battle of the weekend was in the pro 202 division. This is somewhat ironic, because when the 202 class was introduced three years ago a lot of people considered it a joke. They had assumed it would be nothing more than a pseudo ‘handicapped’ division for the shorter and lighter pro bodybuilders who had no prayer of hanging with the bigger men, and that this provided them with an opportunity to compete against other shrimps. As time went by, we saw that the 202’s carried plenty of size, were typically in much sharper condition on a whole than the open men, and often had better overall balance and symmetry to boot.

At the Hartford show, the 202 title came down to two men. One was the heavy favorite going into the contest, David ‘The Giant Killer’ Henry, who had done quite well as a pro even before this lighter weight division was created. Henry’s back has been called a miniature version of Ronnie Coleman’s, and his chest, shoulders, and arms are equally freaky. He has that round ‘bubbly’ look to those muscles that makes you wonder if they are somehow inflated with air, as they look ready to burst. Dave’s legs aren’t bad, but compared to his upper body they are nothing special. They certainly don’t match the freakiness going on from his waist up.

His main opposition came in the form of my friend Jose ‘The Boston Mass’ Raymond. At 5-3 and 195 shredded pounds, Jose is built like a tank. Though Henry clearly edged him out on chest and back, Jose had everything else, including amazing wheels with killer sweep to the quads. He was also sharper in the glutes and hams. In the end, the judges decided to give Jose first place over David with a perfect score, leaving no room for arguments that it could have gone either way on that particular day. I’ve seen Jose train legs a few times and I’ve even been lucky enough to join him on a couple occasions. The man is as strong as he looks. On squats he has done 500 pounds for 15 deep reps (he always squats below parallel), 405 for 31, and front squats with 405 for 12. Though he’s only 35, he’s been training just as long as me because he started ridiculously young. Even as a teenager he was squatting 315 for sets of 25-30 reps. What I’m getting at is that regardless of his genetic gifts, Jose has worked damn long and hard for those insane legs of his.

And when you get down to it, that’s the reason most guys in the gym and even a lot of those who consider themselves bodybuilders don’t have leg development on par with their upper bodies. Let’s face it – areas like the chest and arms are a blast to train. Have you ever once heard someone complain, “ah crap, it’s arm day today.” Chest training is so popular that a large percentage of young men (and some not so young) will often train it two or three times a week, or hit chest and arms two or three times before getting around to legs – if they ever get around to them at all. Of those who do train legs, only a few really push themselves. Instead of gut-busting squats, they opt for the easier and more comfortable leg press. Laying down with back support is a whole lot less demanding than bending down and standing back up over and over again with a heavy bar across your back! A few sets there doing little half reps, a couple light sets of leg extensions and leg curls, and see ya next time, all done!

This pales in comparison to how the men who built the greatest legs ever trained and continue to train theirs. Tom Platz, ‘The Golden Eagle,’ was legendary for his intensity and for going miles beyond standard failure. Some of his feats in the gym have acheived mythic status, such as squatting with 225 for a full ten minutes non-stop, and 350 pounds for a mind-boggling 52 reps. If any of you have watched training videos of men like Dorian Yates, Ronnie Coleman, or Branch Warren, you know that leg workouts for them were almost inhuman displays of strength, willpower, endurance, and a willingness to endure levels of pain that would probably kill some men. There was nothing ‘fun’ about those workouts, just brutal intensity and hard work. Few people are willing to generate that amount of intensity, work that hard, or tolerate so much discomfort. And so, you don’t see a lot of great wheels out there.

But rather than be discouraged by these facts, we should all see the golden opportunity that presents itself to us.  If you decide that you will refuse to let your physique be unbalanced and that you will put just as much time and effort into training legs as you do your upper body muscle groups, I guarantee you that you’ll stand out from the crowd. I’m not promising you that you will ever have wheels like Tom Platz or Branch Warren or Jose Raymond or that your legs will ever be the deciding factor in winning a pro bodybuilding contest, but I can assure you that having impressive quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves will put you in very rare company and imbue your physique with a look of overall power that few others will ever display. And if you’re a little bit scared and filled with dread as leg day approaches every week – good! That just means you’re training them right.