Sara Brown 2

After the Gateway Naturals Bodybuilding 2011 show, Debbie told me we’d be changing up my leg workouts by doing mostly heavy weight, single exercise sets or 2 exercise super sets with extra rest in-between (1-2 minutes). The rational was that I was beginning my first “off-season” and I needed to build muscle mass. I especially needed to improve my quadriceps. Until then, I’d powered many of my leg movements with my glutes. I happen to have the pelvic-hip orientation that allows me to build glutes easily, and for a long time I’d taken advantage of that by mostly working my glutes! This left my legs underdeveloped and I simply needed more fullness in my quadriceps and hamstrings.

Debbie used leg machines, such as the leg press and hack squat for me because they allow my legs to lift a lot of weight and the movement is stabilized.

I could count on one hand the number of times I’d ever used a hack squat machine. I’d been doing free-weight barbell squats on my own, although with my long torso the amount of weight I could squat was limited and often I ended up twisting my back or developing back soreness. The hack squat proved to be an extremely valuable exercise in this regard.

Debbie also utilized the swing squat machine. We typically took the squats to parallel to minimize glute activation and concentrate the tension on my quadriceps. During weighted lunges, Debbie closely monitored the spacing of my feet and the execution of the movement to help me focus extra attention on my quadriceps. On deadlifts, she corrected my form to prevent back injury and ensure that my hamstrings were getting a workout. Front weighted squats were added in weekly to strengthen my mid-back while still challenging my legs. It has been helpful to have a trainer with me to spot when the weight is very heavy and to check my form. Quadriceps extensions, single hamstring curls, and others I was able to do on my own. While it takes a long time to build legs, I’m optimistic about the progress I've made in such a short amount of time.


My legs are noticeably bigger as a result of using safe, effective exercises that focus on the desired muscle group, lifting heavy whenever possible.

It deserves mentioning; to facilitate the leg workouts, I dedicated one day a week to a heavy leg workout and used my day off work so I could devote the energy to it. Debbie also encouraged me to eat. Instead of taking in carbs and protein every 3 hours I increased it to every 2 hours, seven days a week, resulting in almost immediate increases in strength.