leg press

When we talk about lower limb training we can not but weigh on the leg press .

It is considered to be a complementary exercise to the Squat , although it can be considered a basic exercise. Unlike the squat, unlike the squat, unlike the squat .

What muscles trains the Leg Press

La Pressa provides an almost complete stimulus to the lower limbs at the anatomical level we have:

– extension of the hip : Mainly generated by the posterior of the thigh and only marginally from the buttocks
– extension of the knee : originates from the first mover of the exercise or quadriceps
– extension of the ankle : consequently Also the calves participate on in the movement
– Blackberries or less important intervention of the adductor muscles in relation to the width of the feet ADOPTED

This article was originally published under Italian prior to 2007, but it was not possible to report this exercise into two cagories:

– ” Knee-Dominant “: the focus on the quadriceps due to the detriment of the hip that will be limited, this concept is pronounced as the feet will be low on the platform;
– ” Hip-Dominant “: Hypocryphae and buttocks ( so-so-and- not) thanks to a greater angle of work of the hip and a very limited knee ROM; this happens by placing the feet high on the platform;

The following image shows very differently and purely indicative.

muscle press and training

Types of Leg press

There are various types and models of Leg press, but we could summarize them in 3 major categories:

– Leg press at 45 ° : certainly the most widespread and used in Bodybuilding, provides to sit on a specific backrest bound while the trolley on delivering the pressure of the feet runs on rails inclined about 45 °; we find it can be loaded with disks or with pre-installed weight pack.

– Leg press horizontal : more used in fitness or rehabilitations, in this case the fixed point will be the platform on which we place our feet while the movable point is the back that moves on a horizontal trajectory; generally they are with pre-installed weight pack so as to conveniently select the load to be used.

– Vertical leg press : this machine is very rare in Italy, while it is more common in American gym, but it can be recreated using the Smith Machine and a special platform to be installed on the bar. In this variant the body is placed directly on the floor

What we can guarantee is that in the vast majority of cases, during the Leg Press, except for training methods advancing the “Prime Mover” will be the Quadriceps muscle.

This does not occur when the program includes a set of pre-congestion or pre-activation of another area of ​​the thigh (such as in Super Sets or in the giant series): ex. Leg Curl + Leg press + Deadlift GT.

types of press

Is the press really safer than Squat?

As said before the press from ample space to a large slice of users in gyms: from the agonist BB, to the girl who does Fitness up to the elderly lady who has to recover an injury. Having said that, it is wrong to think that the Leg press is a safe and risk-free tool, while the Squat is the culprit of all ills, as we often hear in word of mouth from the locker room. Since the press is an exercise that affects large muscle chains and therefore many joints such as knees, hips, ankles and the whole column, when we approach this we must use the same precautions that we would use with other free multiarticular exercises.

The fact that the tool is guided and our back bound is only an illusion of greater safety at the lumbar level : even if taken “under the skin” this pure sensation will turn into a relaxation of the spinal erectors during the squatting (remember that they are the active tie rods that protect the joint) and consequently a greater load on the column itself; furthermore, the backrest does not discharge any compression force.

rather common mistake is that of wanting to push the ROM of the crowed over to one’s own possibilities: once you have reached the maximum extension with knee and hip, the depth will be entirely on the column since we can not move it. consequently, the more it is exceeded with the flexion of the lower limbs, the more the pelvis is retroverted until the lumbar tract is re-linearized and the joint damage will be greater.

On the knees, on the other hand, we can say that not being complete the extension of the hip – as mentioned before – and therefore the activation of the ischiocrurali will never be complete (these act as active ties and protect the knee joint) cutting and compression on the knee itself will not be minimal.

We can conclude by saying that this tool, despite being accessible to almost everyone – unlike the Squat – requires an approach that is anything but “pressure” to the latter, rather we must adopt the same precautions and precautions that we would do with another exercise that involves several joint rings and that allows us to move large loads.

leg press or press

When to use the Leg press?

I would say that the useless diatribes ” Press VS Squat “, “Bench VS Dumbbells”, “BB VS PL” leave the time they find, but we can say that a good annual program should provide a little ‘all the stimuli, provided that these are well contextualized and intelligently inserted in the program itself.

The Leg press certainly provides us with excellent advantages compared to a Squat when the goal is the mere localized co-incidence (in this case of the other lower) because its guided trajectory and the constrained position guarantees us for greater security if we want to bring a series of inability (or even more, through the use of intensity techniques such as stripping, rest-pauses, spaces, clusters, etc.).

Surely the press – by its nature – lends itself very well to the range of hypertrophy and / or lattacid repeats (from 6 to 15), but as always nothing is written in the rock but rather always varying nuances and interpretations of each individual exertion, and they are all valid.

As always, “depends”!

See Another Article: Leg extension and knee

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