for those of you with skinny legs

i have the worst genetics when it comes to legs. During my cycles they get strong and a bit bigger. But as soon as the gear is out of my system they get weak and down to the normal skinny look. I have given up and now have admitted to myself that i will have skinny legs for the rest of my life. Now my question is this. I stay lean all year. So i must do cardio 3-4 times a week at least. I am sure that does not help my leg size. But it is the only way to get and stay lean. I when online and saw that using a puching bag for 30 minutes will burn about 275 calories and since i do cardio in the AM on an empty stomach i will burn mostly fat and not muscle. So here is my question. Will that keep me lean and help me keep more muscle on my legs? Do you bros have any other suggestions? I would love to be able to wear shorts some day. My upper body is great. When i wear jeans i look pretty big and lean but if i wear shorts its pathetic i hate that shit! :angry:

Yes, I would cut out the cardio. If you must...do something low impact like stationary bike or walking or just diet better. Also if your losing size in your legs you're most likely not eating enough. Try upping the calories and protein.

Also try harder on leg day bro. What's your workout? Post it and well see how it is. You may think it is intense, it may be, or maybe you need to change up the proper exercises. If you start with sqauts thats good, once a month start with heavy leg presses, then go to squats, then go back to starting with squts but do front squats, then another time try pre-exhausting the quads with leg extensions before the squats. Always do some kind of squat, leg presses or hack squats on occasion, leg extensions, leg curls, romainian deads, you can throw in some lunges and then go to calfs.

I would like to see an average workout that speed skaters go through to build their legs. Their legs are always huge, seemingly no matter what body type they are.

body2see said:

. Explosive movements will build and keep size with these hereditary traits.

Click to expand...

i dont know if I would say Im fast twitch, but the slow decent and fast, explosive ascent has helped me alot. Also, using good form with heavy weights (almost an oxymoron) gives good results.

My legs are nothing to brag about, but im a tall ecto and putting size on my chicken legs and arms has been a problem, but heavy squats, presses and lunges will put size on anyone.

Gotta agree with the basic suggestions here.

I did leg presses and lunges, since this was easier on my back. Added good strength and a little size, but I only started putting on some real size when I started with the squats.

I have now stopped lunges (hard on my knees) and the leg press (the machine at my gym can't go over 1100 on the pate loaded leg press), and do several sets of squats. I do one set of high reps and moderate rate (400 pounds) and work the weights up from there. The last set is partials (a nice technical way of saying I don't squat all the way down.)

Tonykemp, you might be suprised how little weights speed skaters do. My wife is a former skater and one of my best friends is a skater now. They do lots of sprinting on bikes but they are only in the weightroom 2 times a week. During the off season they shrink big time. They just have a large cell volume (don't know if that is the right words to describe it) during the season

Really? Maybe I should be including that in my workout. Perhaps it gets the fast twitch muscles growing, and that is what I need to do. How do they do their sprints? Can you detail it?

when i run, my legs get bigger. just my 2 cents