[Public Journal] Darknet

Good to see you've started a log, tracking your workouts and food compliance along with weekly waist measurements will add a lot of accountability and fast forward your results. It doesn't seem like you're doing the beginner workout though? There's no heavy leg exercises or hamstring exercises, no overhead press...any reason for these changes?

Why wouldn't you train your legs?

There's heaps of reasons to train legs, stronger legs lets you use more weight on back exercises like rows and heavy pulls, to build a broad back that gives you a V-shape and makes your waist look smaller and your shoulders wider, it gives you a balanced physique instead of looking like a lightbulb, a strong and sexy butt is very important to women, much more than guys think, training legs burns a lot of calories and makes upper body exercises feel easy in comparison....and on and on....

One legged squats and calves? That's not really working the legs much. Try to squat, RDL and do calves. Also add in some overhead pressing (barbell press, db presses etc) and horizontal rowing (DB bentover rows, chest supported rows etc).

Lots of things 'work' for different people, at different times and in different ways. Single leg stuff is good for mobility, symmetry and variety, but I wouldn't make it your #1 leg exercise because you need to do twice as many sets to get the same effect, it doesn't strengthen your whole body and the amount of weight you can use will always be limited by stability, no one will ever single leg squat or leg press or whatever 200kg, so the ultimate potential of the exercise is limited.

85-95% of your results will come from diligent and consistent application of a few basic things, showing up at the gym regularly, eating a caloric surplus or deficit (based on goals), getting enough protein, adding weight/reps/sets to some basic movements (squat, bench, dead, row, chin, dip, press, curl, hip thrust, abs), doing some cardio and doing this for months and years. Then the extra 5-15% can be milked out with tweaks to nutrition, more exotic warmups, assistance exercises, training styles etc, but always remember that hard work on the basics is what gets you to where you want to go, and the esoteric stuff can be fun to read about and try at the end of a workout, but if you're not getting leaner, stronger, muscular etc, ensure that you have the basics in place.

Good leg training and cardio is easy. Get a weight vest. Run for a mile with 20+ extra pounds on you. Your legs will certainly feel the burn and your cardio gets a beating too. Things like Lunges, Star Jumpers and suicides also build leg strength and cardio. Throwing those into a leg routine will certainly add some burn to your day. Just be sure to stretch well before the lunges, those can be mean.

Actually yeah, You're Def right HBK, Sometimes my Marine side kicks in. I did all that in Basic so it naturally made sense to me. I forget training is a touch different than Civvy life. I still think Weighted lunges, or body weight lunges are a must have on legs though...I love those things. Anyway, shutting up now.

No worries Dave, we all have occasional brain farts.

quote Darknet

I may do some cycling or some kind of machine that is zero impact.

Cycling, rowing, swimming, elliptical, incline walking, stairmaster, versaclimber, airdyne....heaps and heaps of low impact options available.