PRO LEAGUE LEGS
HOW I DEVELOPED MY LEGS, &
HOW IT CHANGED WITH TIME
BY SAM FORBES IFBB PRO
W
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hen I first started to
train my legs, I would
focus on compound
exercises such as
squats and leg press. I noticed over
time that my quads were developing
well but I lacked muscle in my glutes
and hamstrings which gave my legs
an unbalanced appearance. This
was apparent during my first couple
of competitions where my legs
lacked the detail and shape I needed
to win. I asked IFBB Pro Rosie Hart
(@rosie1rascal) to coach me and
I began to notice huge improve-
ments in my leg development.
I was training in a small gym at
first which meant there was less
variety of equipment. I then moved
to a bodybuilding gym (Yorky’s Gym,
London) last year allowing me
access to machines that I had never
used before. I was able to isolate my
glutes with the abductor machine
and build more dense muscle, using
a variety of movements such as the
hack squat and lying leg curl.
Why I train the way I do?
Being a body fitness/figure athlete, I
need a balance of dense muscle and
condition. I have therefore found
that adding variety to my training is
key to me achieving both of these
qualities. I like to focus on heavier
compound movements to build the
main size in my legs. Personally, I
find barbell squats uncomfortable
for my body type so using the hack
squat and leg press works as a
perfect alternative.
80
FLEX | APRIL 2018
To achieve the detail and condi-
tioning in my physique, I tend to
select more isolation exercises. This
way I am able to focus on contract-
ing a specific muscle group. This
has been super beneficial to adding
detail and shape to my weaker
areas. I find that with my glutes, I
struggle to activate them efficiently.
To develop my mind- muscle
connection here, I choose to
perform an isolation exercise before
any compound movement. This is
called pre-exhaustion and ensures
I feel the targeted muscle working
better during my compound
exercises. An example of this
would be doing leg extensions
before hack squats.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY SNHFOTO
Training volume and cardio
Previously, just like many other
female athletes, I was under the
school of thought that training a
muscle group once a week was
optimal. Having experimented with
different training frequencies,
I began to find that training my legs
more often lead to more muscle
mass and better conditioning. For
all of my prep for the British Finals,
I trained my legs a minimum of twice
a week, leading to faster progress
than ever before.
Having trialled HIIT, I wasn’t seeing
the results I desired. I therefore
switched all my cardio to walking on
the treadmill and this lead to supe-
rior fat loss without feeling burnt