Leg Extensions

[vortrit]

I've read enough on this board to know that most people think they suck... However, I'm working around a foot injury right now. Lower pull is easy enough as I can do hypers and light weighted good mornings, but for lower push I am thinking of doing leg extentions for now unless anybody has a better idea. Thoughts?

 

[Hoglander]

I like them. I can't much longer because even with a 2 second pause at the top the machine is maxed out. I don't know what I'm going to do now. For now I do squats first then hit the machine, asap. BTW if the machine says that they should be secured to the floor maybe they should be. Every time one scoots I feel like I've done something wrong.

 

[Hoglander]

Sorry, Mr Wanker said I'm being self centered. Is it your heal, balls of feet or what.

 

[vortrit]

Sorry, Mr Wanker said I'm being self centered. Is it your heal, balls of feet or what.

Actually both of my heels. I'm seeing the doctor tommorow, but I'm going to be laying off of the squats for awhile, and lunges, etc.

 

[Hoglander]

Machines... get to know them.

Good luck

: )

 

[Duncans Donuts]

leg extensions are a fucking wonderful exercise.

 

[Witchblade]

leg extensions are a fucking wonderful exercise.

that has a great potential for knee injuries.

 

[AKIRA]

From what ive read on here, they are only risky if the leg goes beyond 90 degrees on the eccentric (or start) phase.

I personally dont like them cuz all they do is burn.

 

[Plateau_Max]

I love quad extentions. One of my favorite push moves on leg day.

 

[Duncans Donuts]

that has a great potential for knee injuries.

I've heard this many times but absolutely have no idea what the injury risk is

 

[DOMS]

I've heard this many times but absolutely have no idea what the injury risk is

It supposed to revolve around the shear force on the fully extended knee.

 

[Duncans Donuts]

It supposed to revolve around the shear force on the fully extended knee.

there is no shearing force on the fully extended knee! shearing force occurs when the knee is flexed at beyond 90 degrees.

 

[vortrit]

My only reason for staying away from them is I prefer more compound movements. It don't matter now because the doc says what I have is Plantar Fasciitis. He gave me a list of exercises to do and calf raises with light weight were one of them. He also said doing squats, etc. were fine, but not to run for awhile, but I can swim, do elliptical, bike, etc. And to worry about it if it don't get better in another month.

It's still interesting seeing what everyone has to say about them nevertheless.

 

[AKIRA]

From what ive read on here, they are only risky if the leg goes beyond 90 degrees on the eccentric (or start) phase.

I personally dont like them cuz all they do is burn.

 

[katt]

I love them - especially drop sets! They hurt so bad....

 

[soxmuscle]

Leg Extensions can be used in so many different ways.

A phenomenal exercise, to say the least.

 

[vortrit]

And I guess my main point was for the sake of a foot injury wouldn't it be better than doing nothing at all?

 

[bigsahm21]

It's a love hate relationship here.

When you go to failure, IMO it's my most painful exercise. The burn is so bad. (worse than squats cuz I don't squat to failure, I don't feel comfortable enough with the movement and I don't want to kill myself or break my neck). You get up afterwards and have real trouble walking and going down stairs for a little while.

Because of this, though, I love the exrcise, I do it every leg day.

 

[Duncans Donuts]

My only reason for staying away from them is I prefer more compound movements. It don't matter now because the doc says what I have is Plantar Fasciitis. He gave me a list of exercises to do and calf raises with light weight were one of them. He also said doing squats, etc. were fine, but not to run for awhile, but I can swim, do elliptical, bike, etc. And to worry about it if it don't get better in another month.

It's still interesting seeing what everyone has to say about them nevertheless.

Neglect the leg extensions and you'll be hard pressed to fatigue the quads fully using other exercises. Typical squats are glute/ham/hip flexor movement mainly.

 

[vortrit]

Neglect the leg extensions and you'll be hard pressed to fatigue the quads fully using other exercises. Typical squats are glute/ham/hip flexor movement mainly.

Any ideas for glute exercises that don't put much pressure on the feet?

 

[Blooming Lotus]

bigsahm : Are you sure you dont mean uncomfortable and not painful??.. If you're in pain then .. ..

Anyway.. i think that shaking you're talking about isn't from failure .. being that when i was lifting maybe 3 x my bw at work in one hit ( give or take ) , I didn't get that. .. remember it at other times fondly as I do .. in fact i barely even got d.o.m.s. , .. but i don't think i really stopped long enough to not remobilise all those nasties neither.
Thinking about it just now, the leg shaking and doms, I have decided that the diffence is probably in stretching . I say that because when you do a push exercise, particularly the one being discussed, I think without stretching properly that the connective tissues or tendons become unblanced and the respective nerves become aligned to hit the ground in with your weight where they other wise wouldn't've.

apparently your levers aren't facilitating the load distribution evenly .. wouldn't have poor form by then by any chance?.. imagine it was a heavy load in someone's hands and their arms were shaking..
you may not neccessarily understand any of that, but there you go nonetheless.

check this out Off-Skate Fitness

from t - nation T-Nation | Shugart's Hammer

 

[KelJu]

My legs grew more when I stopped doing leg extensions and focused more on compound movements.

So I don't like them, but if you are working past an injury, go for it.

 

[Duncans Donuts]

I love them and would recommend them to virtually any client.

 

[bigsahm21]

Blooming Lots:

It's not pain as in injury pain or doing them wrong. It's just pain like a burn, right in the front of my quads...and I'm never extremely sore in this area, I always stretch well after, I just do this exercise fairly high rep so I get a good burn going. And this is after my last set, usually after RDLs, jump squats, leg presses, step ups, etc...compound movements like that.

 

[KelJu]

I love them and would recommend them to virtually any client.

I'm not saying I know it is related, but I also had a lot of knee problems when I was doing leg extensions, but now I have no knee problems after I stopped. I think they were related, but I have no proof, only a sneaking suspicion. I had reached a point where I was doing sets of 10 reps with every plate on the machine, so they might have been a factor, also.

 

[buening]

I have heard the same about being bad on the knees at the 90° point. This goes hand in hand with doing 1/4 squats where your leg form the same angle. This article may help some

TESTOSTERONE NATION - The Truth About Leg Extensions

 

[Witchblade]

Leg Extension Risks:

1. Increased patellofemoral joint reaction force, knee movement, and joint stress in the most commonly used range of motion.

2. Reduced hamstrings activity.

3. Reduced VMO activity and late onset of firing.

4. Non-existent hip adductor and abductor contribution.

5. Increased rectus femoris firing.

6. Constant ACL tension.

7. Higher patellar ligament, quadriceps tendon, and patellofemoral and tibiofemoral forces with the most commonly utilized loading parameters.

8. Increased lateral patellar deviation.

9. Insufficient involvement of surrounding joints to ensure optimal functioning.

10. Poor training economy (no carryover to closed-chain performance from open-chain exercises).

Leg Extension Benefits:

1. Will give you a good pump, but not even close to the benefits you'll get from squatting and single-leg movements.

2. Uh, wait, there's really only one benefit ??? and it's pretty weak.

Risk > Reward IMO. You're training muscles you don't want to train, teaching your quads to apply suboptimal stabilization force and you're getting quite some joint stress. Overall, it's a nonfunctional machine on which you can do an isolation exercise.

Bodybuilders who desire extra big quads might take their chances and professionals like DD might be able to work around the drawbacks of machines like the leg extension, but I generally wouldn't recommend this exercise.

 

[buening]

Bodybuilders who desire extra big quads might take their chances and professionals like DD might be able to work around the drawbacks of machines like the leg extension, but I generally wouldn't recommend this exercise.

 

[AKIRA]

Good show Witch.

I know this is a bodybuilding site, so they do have their place, but I cant see much functionality coming from leg extensions.

 

[KelJu]

Risk > Reward IMO. You're training muscles you don't want to train, teaching your quads to apply suboptimal stabilization force and you're getting quite some joint stress. Overall, it's a nonfunctional machine on which you can do an isolation exercise.

Bodybuilders who desire extra big quads might take their chances and professionals like DD might be able to work around the drawbacks of machines like the leg extension, but I generally wouldn't recommend this exercise.

Nice! That is pretty much how I felt, also.