The Internet gave me exposure to weightlifting and powerlifting that I would never have gotten otherwise. But that there Internet lets a lot of bad ideas flourish. So my exposure to proper weight training was riddled with some really ridiculous ideas.
I have believed stupid things like:
- the bench press was a lazy movement that built man boobs but not useful strength
- the front squat could entirely replace the back squat
- and today's topic: the leg press was a waste of metal that distracted the uninitiated from real lower body training like back and front squats and deadlifts.
What I have come to discover is that the leg press offers salient benefits that the squat simply doesn't. In my case these benefits were:
- quad size beyond what the squat has ever given me
- an end to chronic knee pain
I care a lot more about the latter. Maybe it's the slightly greater stress on the quads at the very bottom of the movement that activated some stability that my knees had been missing. Whatever the reason, though my knees have hurt for years from squatting (low bar, high bar, whatever), they have stopped since I started leg pressing.
And my quads are bigger and fuller after only one month of including the leg press. I have squatted over 400 lbs for (very) low reps. My quads were larger than average, but not anything special. And of course, my knees almost always hurt. But now my quads are starting to get "sweep" and "separation". And my knees just don't hurt anymore.
Articles and forum posts warn of the danger to the low back when letting the weight descend too much on the leg press. But the same thing that fixes a bent over squat fixes back forward rounding in the leg press: a sensible weightlifting shoe with a decent size heel. I wear my weightlifting shoes with their pimped out modified heels when I leg press and I can let my thighs press against my chest and my lower back stays neutral.
I don't understand why no one does this. Olympic level weightlifting athletes use a heel when they press with their legs in the back squat, front squat, the snatch, and the clean. You would think that people would figure out that the heel that allows full hip and knee flexion without compromising a natural arch in the lower back would also help correct the lower back rounding in a deep leg press that destroys lumbar spines.
Instead, even voices that tout the benefits of the leg press also warn of too much range of motion. I suppose these are the people still squatting in Chucks instead of taking a hint from the best squatters in the world.
As we all know stimulation to the lower body muscles will always lag with the squat due to the torso stabilization muscles always giving out before the legs. This is even truer for the front squat, which is a step in the wrong direction, toward the overhead squat; other factors limit the lift that have nothing to do with leg strength, so even though the more upright torso emphasizes the quads, the front squat is really a test of the upper back's ability to hold the rack position, not a challenge for the quads. In the deadlift, the grip tends to give out, but the torso is also usually caving when things get tough.
But the leg press...ah, now the legs can actually get some work done without the movement-resisting muscles of the torso or the hand putting the brakes on by giving out and letting the back round or the grip open up.
I have been a fellater of the high bar back squat for all of my training life. But I have to admit that while they reign for improve total body strength with an emphasis on the legs, the leg press is better suited to taking the legs to their full potential for size and strength.
I'm treading dangerous ground now, I know. I'm not saying that the leg press is better than the squat for increasing things like vertical jump. The squat is still the best way to develop strength to locomote one's body in the real world with things like vertical jump and sprint. (That's why the leg press is necessarily a little better at developing the legs; it doesn't hold the leg adaption back while adapting the torso muscles to making the spinal column a better transmission for the energy generated by the legs.) But the leg press seems a good choice for sprint/speed cycling wherein a relatively fixed upper body has the legs churning beneath it.
Back squats make me strong on everything else involving the legs, and this includes the leg press. If I improve my back squat by 100 lbs, my front squat will almost automatically go up about 80 lbs, my deadlift about 90 lbs, and my leg press by about 150 lbs. I can abandon those other movements for years and within a couple of sessions of practice with them, I can realize all the strength gains from the back squat.
My best front squat was 275 years ago when I focused on it for months. I dropped the movement for years and upped my back squat from around 330-365 to 425-440 (depending on whether I added light knee wraps). When I tried to front squat again, I found that my max was initially 315 and within a few weeks I got it up to ~350. Same with my conventional deadlift which got up to around 425 years ago, but went up to 500 x 2 when I got my Olympic squat up from mid-300's to low-400's.
Same thing with the leg press. I hadn't tried it for years until I hopped on to show my girlfriend how to use it. I was able to work up to four plates a side for a set of ten when my curiosity about my ability on the movement overcame my embarrassment from being seen on it. I'm working up to six plates a side now as I reclaim the squat strength I recently lost.
But while my squat strength drives my leg press strength, the actual practice of the leg press is conferring something extra. Again, I think it's because while the squat develops the combo of leg and strength and torso rigidity like nothing else, it has to divide its benefits between the legs and the postural muscles. Meanwhile the leg press lets the legs "keep going" without the torso being a limiting factor so that more size and strength is attain in the leg muscles.
The combo of back squats and leg press ends up producing a multiplier effect. Like hot dog and mustard. Sure no normal person enjoys mustard on its own as a meal. The hot dog is the meat, literally, of the meal. But mustard makes it so so so much better.
So it goes with the leg press. The squat is the overall more productive movement and I do believe that if it can be done with no risk to joint or back health, then the lifter should do it. But the addition of the leg press can make the end results for the legs so so so much better.
If proper coaching and sufficient motivation aren't present -- or if the lifter's body type really is just too skewed away from squats and toward deadlifts (like my girlfriend's who has a combination of long femurs and short spine that makes my own deadlift-favored ratio seem like a natural squatter) -- then the leg press -- the "mustard" -- will have to be used on its own. But I would still strongly urge the use of a proper weightlifting shoe while leg pressing.
There are those who may be better off with the leg press instead of the squat, but I'd wager most people who squat seriously (Olympic-style weightlifters not withstanding) would be better off adding the leg press from time to time.
Addendum:
Hours after I typed this up, I went to the gym to see if my shoulder was up to letting me press or chin up. It wasn't so I decided to play with the deadlift. It's been months since I last deadlifted and I promised myself I would do not grinding attempts where my grip was giving out and my back was painfully rounding.
I warmed up with 315 for a fast triple and then did doubles with 365, 405, 435, 455, and then a nice single with 475. Gotta say I was giddy at that point. My best ever pull under the same conditions (conventional, no belt, hook grip -- how I have been training exclusively these last couple of years) was 500 x 2 when I was using a lot more supplementation and weighing somewhere around 200 lbs.
I loaded up with 485 with the hope that I could do multiple singles. I got the first one well enough, but realized that every pull after that with any real weight would be murder.
What's amazing about this is that it's been months since I deadlifted and I'm rebuilding after losing almost 20 lbs in a few days. My squat is still in the toilet compared to my best a few months ago (a very hard but legitimate 365 no no no back squat versus a much easier 405 no no no in December.
I am a natural deadlifter, but I have seen my deadlift go down the drain very easily if I either pull heavy too often or don't pull heavy often enough. Lately not even upping my squat has had the same one-to-one benefit to the deadlift it used to have.
So I'm chalking this startlingly good performance to my recent inclusion of the leg press...which is why I'm amending this article. At a relatively low bodyweight I pulled a fairly hard single that was less than 5% of my best ever when I was ten pounds heavier. After not practicing the lift for months and after losing a lot of ground on my squat.
This is anecdotal, not scientific, but the thing I did differently this time was add the leg press and really push for higher numbers and volume on this lift the days my squat was feeling awful, which has been almost every squat day these last few weeks.
There may be another reason that while I can only no no no back squat 365 right now, I can comfortably pull 485 without a belt at 188. I felt very strong off the floor, stronger than ever. I'm going to keep using the leg press after squats and saving the heavy pulls for once or twice a month.
And because I'm just another middle aged amateur howling into the wind, here are some references from stronger and more respected people who love the leg press:
"The Leg Press -- Part One" by Jan Dellinger
"The Leg Press -- Part Two" by Jan Dellinger
"The Leg Press -- Why So Hated?" by Brian Carroll
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