How do gymnasts get beastly legs without lifting weights?

[Deleted member 159002]

With my new schedule I'm only able to get to the gym about once a week. I'm trying to figure out good exercises I can do at home with limited equipment. Upper body stuff is pretty easy to figure out but what about quads and hams? What do gymnasts do?

 

[MAAddict**]

 

[LegioTitan]

Repetition

 

[belph]

This... This is madness. Another Gymnastics thread....

 

[PowerHungry]

If these weren't coming from older accounts with thousands of posts, I'd claim it was an army of trolls. Kind of like the army of ax murderers in that Stallone classic, Cobra.

 

[KnightTemplar]

In answer to your question: they don't.

Gymnasts will develop a certain amount of leg strength, but not comparable to someone who regularly Squats and Deadlifts heavy.

 

[PowerHungry]

How long until we can start a Sherdog/F13 idiots thread?

 

[KnightTemplar]

This... This is madness. Another Gymnastics thread....

This. Is. SPARTA!!!



(Sorry, couldn't resist).

 

[belph]

This. Is. SPARTA!!!



(Sorry, couldn't resist).

It's fine, that was the inspiration !

How long until we can start a Sherdog/F13 idiots thread?

I don't see why we have to wait !

 

[Deleted member 159002]

I didn't realize this thread was going to stress so many people out. Mods can delete if they want.

 

[LegioTitan]

In answer to your question: they don't.

Gymnasts will develop a certain amount of leg strength, but not comparable to someone who regularly Squats and Deadlifts heavy.

To be fair TS said "beastly". I've seen many gymnasts legs and thought to myself "GTFO of here. That is ridiculous" in regards to the sheer muscle development in their lower body. As I've said numerous times I would happily recruit any decent gymnast to WLing.

 

[belph]

I didn't realize this thread was going to stress so many people out. Mods can delete if they want.

No it's fine. It's a valid question as long as we're discussing strength.

 

[ripskater]

I don't know about gymnasts and leg stuff they do except short sprints, jumping and landing. At home you could grab a pair of cleats and some orange cones and do some 3 cone drills, shuttle runs just like the NFL combine in your back yard if you have one. Do some sets of jumps in the yard. Short runs backwards and forward, and a lot of stop and go or change of direction drills. Make some up or copy some off the internet. All that can be a pretty good leg workout. It's all explosive stuff.

 

[ripskater]

In answer to your question: they don't.

Gymnasts will develop a certain amount of leg strength, but not comparable to someone who regularly Squats and Deadlifts heavy.

Gymnasts tend to have pretty explosive legs though. They may not squat like you. But they tend to be pretty athletic, fast on a short sprint and pretty good jumpers.

 

[KnightTemplar]

To be fair TS said "beastly". I've seen many gymnasts legs and thought to myself "GTFO of here. That is ridiculous" in regards to the sheer muscle development in their lower body. As I've said numerous times I would happily recruit any decent gymnast to WLing.

Well, I'll happily concede the point to your greater experience. While I actually admire the strength that gymnasts posses, especially in their upper bodies, I was approaching TS' question from the point of view of someone who considers Squatting to be the ultimate definition/test of leg strength.

But as I say, I'm not about to argue the point with someone clearly better qualified.

 

[LegioTitan]

Gymnasts tend to have pretty explosive legs though. They may not squat like you. But they tend to be pretty athletic, fast on a short sprint and pretty good jumpers.

I don't think that any knowledgeable poster here would argue that mid to top level gymnasts are not very, very athletic. That's just silly.

However it would seem that TS has an infatuation with their appearance, not their execution.

 

[Tosa]

Once upon a time it was normal for gymnasts to do similar sorts of jumping and sprinting exercises that track athletes did. But the sports changed and that's no longer the case.


Also, what's with people assuming that gymnasts don't lift weights. The gymnasts I know do.

 

[PowerHungry]

If I wanted to "work out my legs," and didn't have a squat rack. I'd squat anyway. Get a sandbag and do sandbag squats. Hill sprints, depth jumps, GHR, etc.

 

[ssdd]

Each week do this
Day 1: Do a bunch of vertical jumps, box jumps, or broad jumps, like 6-8 sets of 3 with 60 second breaks (pick one type for the day, do that type for at least 3 weeks in a row) then do a bunch of one leg pistol squats- like 3-5 sets of 10 (or approach as many as possible if you can do a lot more or less), then do 3-5 sets of ghetto GHRs (glute ham raises) again approaching as many as possible but not to failure. Then do some core work.
Day 2: (In the gym) Heavy squats- work up to a 3-5 rep max, followed by a unilateral exercise (like lunges or step ups) 3x8-12, and then a hamstring exercise (GHRs, SLDLs, RDLs, etc) 3x8-12. Then do some core work.

You should put a few days between these workouts, so theyre done monday and thursday, or tuesday and friday, or wednesday and saturday. Congrats, you are now doing the lower body portion of Defranco's program.

There are countless ways to go about this.

 

[Reverendo]

Modern gymnasts usually lift.