Who has one of the best legs in bodybuilding historical past? Pose that query to your health club companion for some other muscle group — does Schwarzenegger nonetheless maintain the chest day crown? Is Coleman an apex predator from the again? — and you might spend your complete day within the health club debating the reply.
However Tom Platz is as near a common fixed as they arrive in bodybuilding, an athlete who is sort of unanimously considered having constructed probably the most spectacular decrease physique to have ever graced a bodybuilding stage.
If you wish to develop your wheels, studying from one of the best is a good place to begin. Platz’s leg exercise will assist you to pack on the mass, little question about it. However take heed — 30-inch thighs don’t aren’t handed out without spending a dime.
The Tom Platz Leg Exercise for Bodybuilding
A Phrase of Warning
Earlier than you slip into your squat footwear and lock the notch in in your lifting belt, you must handle your expectations. No particular person exercise (or coaching plan) is assured to make you appear to be your favourite bodybuilder, even when stated exercise comes immediately from them.
Genetics, coaching historical past, way of life, and different components all contribute to how somebody’s physique in the end seems.
There’s little question that Platz educated like a monster within the health club, but it surely’s additionally a secure guess that he was blessed with the pure propensity for enormous and highly effective legs.
That stated, all nice artists borrow from each other, and also you shouldn’t be afraid to check out Platz’s leg exercise after which apply a few of its rules to your personal exercise routine. Simply don’t anticipate to show right into a mass monster by subsequent week.
The Exercise
Platz’s method to leg coaching was complete. This exercise, pulled from SimplyShredded, illustrates his dedication to torching each single muscle fiber under the waist and forcing his legs to develop.
Notice that this was removed from the solely exercise Platz ever used, but it surely does serve to color a transparent image of how he constructed his physique. Right here’s the way it’s all laid out:
In the event you’re good at psychological math (you most likely needs to be in case you hit the health club repeatedly, if solely so you possibly can load up your barbell with the best weights within the blink of an eye fixed), you’ve most likely seen that Platz’s leg day consists of as much as 43 whole units.
If that feels like quite a bit, effectively, it’s. Nevertheless, there’s a shocking quantity of flexibility to each Platz himself (Platz was well-known for squatting by means of a full vary of movement) and his method to leg coaching.
Variable Rep Ranges
One hallmark of Platz’s leg days is the dearth of rigidity in his set-rep schemes. You’ll discover that his prescription for again squats ranges from as little as 5 reps to as many as 20.
Not solely will this assist stave off boredom (in case you select to soldier by means of all 12 units), however all kinds of rep ranges will make the most of totally different power programs and muscle fiber recruitment patterns.
For instance, in case you start with heavy, low-rep squats, you’re going to interact your Kind II fast-twitch fibers in your legs first. As you reverse-pyramid into lighter units with greater reps, the Kind I, endurance-based fibers will choose up extra of the slack.
You’ll additionally place extra of a requirement in your cardiovascular system with high-rep coaching and provides your nervous system a breather. These identical rules maintain true for the opposite workout routines, however to a lesser diploma.
Plenty of Machine Work
Whereas powerbuilders and a few bodybuilders within the fashionable period are sometimes enamored with massive compound actions (for good purpose), Platz wasn’t afraid to make good use of an assortment of train machines.
This method pairs effectively with ultra-high-volume coaching. Train machines take away a lot of the soundness demand present in free-weight lifting.
This added help may help mitigate your mounting fatigue as you progress by means of the session, permitting you to focus extra on effort with much less time spent worrying about falling over or balancing a barbell.
Sensible Train Sequencing
“Order of operations” isn’t an idea reserved only for math class. Platz employed sound and exact train sequencing to handle his fatigue and make the exercise potential within the first place.
On his leg day, you’ll start with probably the most technically-complicated and taxing train first — the again squat — when you’re recent. This ensures you possibly can put in probably the most effort, preserve good kind, and work onerous on a motion that hits nearly each muscle in your decrease physique.
By the tip of the session, you’re all the way down to the nitty-gritty of issues. Leg curls and calf raises are small, single-joint actions that hit the goal muscle mass onerous, however don’t ask a lot of you in any other case.
Even after 30-plus prior units (take into account bringing some intra-workout vitamin with you, severely), you ought to have the ability to nonetheless prepare round failure on a seated calf motion.
How one can Modify the Tom Platz Leg Exercise
Impressed by Platz’s legs however unsure in case you can hack his high-volume, marathon-style method to leg day? To start with, there’s no disgrace in that.
Second and extra importantly, you may make some minor modifications to his coaching that received’t considerably alter the type, however could convey the session down from “no approach” to “okay, let’s give it a shot.”
For Newbie or Intermediate Lifters
The only largest change you may make to Platz’s leg day (in case you lack the a long time of weight room expertise he had) is to chop out among the quantity.
Platz’s train choice isn’t really that outlandish. A few massive compound lifts adopted by focused isolation coaching is the hallmark of any well-designed bodybuilding routine. Reduce the dosages down a bit and also you’re cooking:
- Again Squat: 4-5 x 6-12
- Hack Squat: 3 x 10-15
- Leg Extension: 3-4 x 10-15
- Leg Curl: 3-4 x 10-15
- Smith Machine Calf Elevate: 3 x 10-15
Notice that that is nonetheless a reasonably high-volume leg day, clocking in at practically 20 working units (Platz was an enormous proponent of pre-workout stretching throughout his warm-up, one thing you may need to do as effectively). Nevertheless it’s a far cry from 40-plus onerous units.
If You Don’t Have Machines
Within the occasion you aren’t blessed with entry to a well-furnished public health club, you’ll need to make some extra important alterations to Platz’s leg day.
Nevertheless, that doesn’t imply you possibly can’t prepare as he did. Train substitutions are obligatory, however working onerous is a necessity.
You ought to have the ability to knock this routine out in a storage health club or specialty facility, so long as you’ve gotten entry to totally different free weights and maybe some resistance bands.
These actions are chosen particularly to copy the machine-based work in Platz’s default leg day.
Notice, although, that extra free-weight coaching would require extra stability and endurance as effectively. The quantity has been dialed down a bit to accommodate that.
The Anatomy and Perform of Your Legs
Correct leg coaching is easy in observe however might be fairly complicated in concept. Platz largely caught to primary actions (carried out with borderline absurd devotion), however you must nonetheless know the why behind his program design.
Understanding the anatomy and performance of the muscle mass under the belt could assist you to prepare them a bit higher.
Quadriceps
If you have a look at Tom Platz’s legs, the very first thing you most likely discover are the big, striated slabs of beef on the entrance of his thighs. These are the quadriceps, they usually steal the present — no less than at a look.
Your quads are a four-muscle compartment of tissues that primarily perform to straighten your knee. Assume every part from getting up off the bathroom to squatting with a barbell in your again.
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Regardless of solely crossing your knee joint (apart from the rectus femoris, which inserts in your pelvis), your quads are huge and powerful and may take fairly a beating within the health club. That’s why you’ll generally see athletes like Platz carry out squats with massive quantities of weight and excessive reps.
Hamstrings
Consider your hamstrings (formally generally known as the biceps femoris) because the antagonist to your quads. They’re positioned on the again of your thigh and carry out an opposing perform.
Your hammies assist bend your knee, however additionally they insert in your pelvis and thus assist to increase your hips from a hinged place.
Actions just like the deadlift are mainstay hamstring workout routines (very like the squat is for the quads), however Platz selected to focus on his posterior chain primarily by means of machine work, no less than in sure exercises.
Nonetheless, anticipate to get some hamstring engagement from hack squats to a level in addition to the remoted leg curl.
Hip Abductors and Adductors
Eye-popping legs like Platz’s take greater than massive quads within the entrance and beefy hams within the again. Your hip adductors, positioned on the within of your thigh, assist so as to add three-dimensional form to your legs and enhance your silhouette from the entrance.
The adductors serve to adduct, or convey towards the midline, your thigh. Additionally they assist management the angle of your femur when you squat and preserve 360-degree stability.
You’ll get some adductor work on most compound leg actions, however side-to-side workout routines just like the lateral lunge can hit them extra immediately as effectively.
Glutes
No good pair of legs is full with out well-developed glutes. Positioned in your bottom, the three gluteal muscle mass — that’s the glute maximus, medius, and minimus — are additionally among the many strongest tissues you’ve gotten.
Appearing primarily as hip extensors, your glutes assist power you upright from a squatting or hinged posture. Assume the latter half of the squat and deadlift, or everything of a loaded hip thrust or bridge.
Platz’s leg exercise doesn’t include any direct glute work, however high-volume squatting is a sure-fire approach to construct your behind.
Calves
Identified for being infamously cussed (and infrequently uncared for), your calves make up a big portion of your general leg aesthetic, particularly for the way small they’re compared to, say, your quads.
Positioned in your decrease leg, the 2 calf compartments (the gastrocnemius and soleus) perform to flex and lengthen your ankle joint. Notably, you possibly can bias every head of your calf by performing ankle raises from both a standing or seated posture, which is probably going why Platz consists of two variations.
Furthermore, underdeveloped calves can detract from the looks of your physique general, which can be why Platz devoted a lot time to blasting them on the finish of his leg day.
Who Is Tom Platz?
American-born (June 26, 1955) bodybuilder Tom Platz is among the many most well-known figures within the physique sport to have by no means received the game’s largest title.
Platz established a popularity all through the Seventies and Eighties for having terribly well-developed legs, even in comparison in opposition to multiple-time Mr. Olympia winners.
His unimaginable muscularity — Platz was no slouch together with his higher physique both — earned him the moniker The Quadfather.
Regardless that he appeared at seven totally different Mr. Olympia exhibits, Platz by no means bagged himself a Sandow, together with his greatest general placement being a single third-place end in 1981:
Tom Platz Mr. Olympia Competitions
- 1979: eighth
- 1980: eighth
- 1981: third
- 1982: sixth
- 1984: ninth
- 1985: seventh
- 1986: eleventh
Nevertheless, Platz earned a number of smaller titles, together with a victory on the Worldwide Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB) Mr. Universe in 1980 and a number of other regional wins beneath the American Athletics Union (AAU).
Regardless of having a commendable pedigree on the bodybuilding stage, Platz’s popularity and legacy largely revolve round his once-in-a-generation leg progress.
Grow to be the Quadfather
Tom Platz is greater than a marvel of muscle mass. His lifelong pursuit of leg good points additionally made him robust as an ox, having demonstrated feats like a set of 500-pound, 23-rep again squats deep sufficient to make an Olympic lifter proud.
His legs don’t simply discuss; they stroll — and if that isn’t a glowing endorsement of his method to decrease physique coaching, nothing is.
In the event you’re trying to take a look at your willpower, inflate your wheels, and change into freakishly robust , comply with within the footsteps of The Quadfather.
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