5 Tips: How To Gain Weight On Your Legs

Today I’m going to be talking about how to gain weight on your legs. I have received a couple of emails in the last few weeks from guys who were having trouble packing on decent size on their upper legs. Before I get started on my top 5 tips for gaining weight on your legs you need to know something. That is be prepared to take some pain! Proper leg training is not for the “I can’t” people. You need to be ready to move some serious weight and really push your limits. If you can get in the right mindframe here, you can really start packing on the size.

Another point I want to touch on is balance. I’m not talking about standing up straight, I’m talking about muscle balance. Muscle balance between the front and rear of the legs (quads and hamstrings). Many people train their quads much more than their hamstrings which creates a rather weird looking upper leg! You want to gain weight on your legs evenly, so don’t neglect your hamstrings!

5 Methods of Gaining Weight on Your Legs

1. You need to squat. I don’t care what anyone says about the leg press or other leg exercises being equally as good as the squat, they are not. I did not see ANY significant growth in my upper legs until I started moving some serious weight on barbell squats. Your lower back get sore? Mine did too. You can strengthen it with lower back exercises like hyperextensions and stiff leg deadlifts (AKA Romanian deadlifts).
2. Heavy weight must be moved, but with good form. The muscles in your upper leg are large and able to adapt to change quickly. If you want to gain weight and size on your legs you’re going to need to focus on moving heavy weight, with good form, for 6-9 reps.
3. Progression is key. Well, progression is key with any workout routine but this is more important when you have muscle groups that are stubborn and don’t want to grow. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an extra rep, 2 more pounds, whatever. You just need to progress.
4. Intensity. Heavy squats can be painful. But how about heavy squats supersetted with 12-15 reps on the leg extension? It’s time to take some pain. This is where you really do need the mindset. How much do you want it? The good thing about learning to deal with the intense burn and exhaustion is that it transfers over to other exercises. Suddenly the pain when doing those bicep curls doesn’t seem nearly as intense as your leg day!
5. Finally, good old consistency. If you don’t stay consistent with your training you will not gain weight on your legs! And if you do gain some weight, your body will quickly get rid of it if you don’t keep up the training. Typically legs are an endurance muscle so the body doesn’t want to add too much size. This means when you take away the need for the size (training) the body decides it no longer needs the muscle.

There you have it, how to gain weight on your legs. If you want any more information about leg training or have some questions about my post please leave comments below. I try and answer all comments!