How To Do A Leg Press - Spartans Gym

Leg Press Overview

The leg press is a compound leg movement where resistance is pushed away from the body using our legs. Being a compound movement, the leg press works our quad muscles, calves, hamstrings and our glutes. This is a great exercise for anyone in the gym wanting to target their leg muscles, but also for beginners as it is a safe and very controlled movement pattern.   

Target Muscles

The Leg Press primarily targets our quadriceps, but they also hit our hamstrings, glutes and calf muscles. By varying our foot position we can emphasize different muscles also.  

Adjustments

Place your heels flat on the foot plate, keep your head and back against the seating pad and be sure not to hyper extend/ lock out your knees. 

How to Execute

Brace your abdominal muscles and push the platform away from your body with your heels and your forefoot, keep your heels flat on the footplate. While exhaling your breath, extend your legs whilst keeping your head and your back flat against the padded seat. Extend slowly, and not explosively and pause at the top of the movement for a few seconds, make sure you are not bowing your knees in, or locking your knees out in this process, they should have a tiny bit of movement even at the top of the exercise, while inhaling slowly bend at the knees and bring the foot plate back to the starting position to repeat the exercise.

When To Do A Leg Press 

A leg press can be completed as a major/ compound movement at the start of a leg workout, or mid leg workout, as it is a compound movement and is working more muscles, it requires more energy, so ideally having this exercise at the beginning will mean your output will be greater and you will have more energy for the exercise.