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A cure for chicken legs: our monthly quick fix for all your trouble areas

Men's Fitness, August, 2005 by Alwyn Cosgrove

BRINGING UP WEAK LEGS IS A TEAM EFFORT--specifically, the team of muscles that extends the knees (the quads) and hips (the glutes). Both have to be able to work in perfect unison--firing at the precise time with the fight amount of effort--before your body can move any serious weight. If they can't, your progress will stall--and you'll look like an ostrich in gym shorts. The solution: Do a set of partial co-contraction lunges at the start of every workout.

HERE'S HOW:

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Start out in a lunge position--step forward with your right foot and lower your body until your front knee is bent 90 degrees and your lower leg is perpendicular to the floor. Place your left hand on the inside of your right thigh--the teardrop-shaped muscle (your vastus medialis)--and your right hand on your right glute. Now raise your back knee one inch off the floor. You'll feel the vastus medialis and glute contract together-that's the starting position [1]. From there, take three seconds to raise yourself up by extending both legs (as if you're standing up from a lunge position), all the time feeling the tension in the two muscles [2]. The moment you lose the tension--in either muscle-pause where you are, then take three seconds to lower yourself back to the start position (one inch off the floor). That's one rep. Perform as many reps as possible with each leg, pausing two seconds in the bottom position between each rep. In four weeks, you'll have a dream team for awesome leg development.

A cure for chicken legs: our monthly quick fix for all your trouble areas

Men's Fitness, August, 2005 by Alwyn Cosgrove

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