So, I've really been trying to work on strengthening and defining my legs, without too much success. My upper body has gained a LOT of muscle and definition, and, I dare say, I'm getting pretty "buff." Even my abs, under the last little layer of fat (and, sadly, loose skin) are getting pretty darned muscular and solid.

But I just cannot for the life of me seem to gain the same definition and bulk in my lower body. I've been trying to go back to basics with my lifting (squats on the smith machine instead of the press machine/extensions machine, etc.) with the thought being that involving my stabilizer muscles might help me focus on the legs more. However, now I'm at a place where I'm stuck -- I'm at just over 200 lbs on the bar when I'm doing squats; that's as much as I currently feel safe doing without a spotter. I don't want to wreck my back or my knees. And it's close to my current limit. But I don't feel like I'm really GAINING that much doing that weight; yes, the reps are hard and I'm huffing and puffing once I do 3 sets of 8 squats w/200, but I don't feel that wobbly legged "burn" that I can get in my other muscle groups. For instance, tonight I also did military presses and rear delt flies, and I can STILL feel it in my deltoids, but my legs aren't even sore!

One more thing to throw into the mix; I've been starting some beginning yoga classes to try to improve my flexibility and balance (and tone my stabilizer muscles and core even more) and I've noticed that when I'm holding a leg-centric pose (say, warrior pose) for a long time, my legs get really wobbly and tired. I'm not sure what this means; maybe I'm lifting wrong, and my legs are still pretty weak?

Any advice would be appreciated. My legs are pretty muscular, it's just that compared to the rest of my body they're not in balance, and since I've lost so much fat I'm hoping to beef up my quads and butt to fill out some loose skin!

The only suggestions I have are horseback riding or bicycle riding. Every bike rider I see has phenomenal muscle definition in their legs and horse riders seem to have lots of leg muscles. Good luck!

Take up tennis, works the entire body, especially the legs.

Tennis and cycling are all good, but you'll never get beefed up from either. If you do a lot of cycling at high resistance for years, it'll help, but you'll get much better results from weight training.

You don't actually need a spotter for squats if you do front squats.

http://stronglifts.c...oper-technique/

You load it up on the rack first, so if you can't hoist it up right away, you simply drop it back. If you use the clean grip and find that once you get all the way down, you can't get back up, you simply drop the weight. It's best to use rubber plates on a rubber floor to minimize the auditory offense when the weight hits the ground. If the weight is too heavy, you'll be tipping forward, not backwards, so you never have to worry about being crushed by a weight you can't control - you just let it hit the ground.

You'll be amazed at how much weight you can actually squat - the lower body is very powerful. You can also gain strength quite quickly. I've been increasing my weights by 5% every week.

Deadlifts are another good one exercise for the lower body.

Plyometrics are also good to build muscle mass. We regularly do box jumps at Crossfit - 12 inches or 20 inches, depending on how tall you are and where you're with your training. You hop up and make sure your legs are fully extended before you hop back down, and do a couple of sets of 10.

Tennis and cycling are all good' date=' but you'll never get beefed up from either. If you do a lot of cycling at high resistance for years, it'll help, but you'll get much better results from weight training.

You don't actually need a spotter for squats if you do front squats.

http://stronglifts.c...oper-technique/

You load it up on the rack first, so if you can't hoist it up right away, you simply drop it back. If you use the clean grip and find that once you get all the way down, you can't get back up, you simply drop the weight. It's best to use rubber plates on a rubber floor to minimize the auditory offense when the weight hits the ground. If the weight is too heavy, you'll be tipping forward, not backwards, so you never have to worry about being crushed by a weight you can't control - you just let it hit the ground.

You'll be amazed at how much weight you can actually squat - the lower body is very powerful. You can also gain strength quite quickly. I've been increasing my weights by 5% every week.

Deadlifts are another good one exercise for the lower body.

Plyometrics are also good to build muscle mass. We regularly do box jumps at Crossfit - 12 inches or 20 inches, depending on how tall you are and where you're with your training. You hop up and make sure your legs are fully extended before you hop back down, and do a couple of sets of 10.

Wishing you were my trainer

LOL, Sexy Lady. I was just thinking that I'm glad Blackberry Juice is NOT my trainer! I'm not ready for her yet!

LOL' date=' Sexy Lady. I was just thinking that I'm glad Blackberry juice is NOT my trainer! I'm not ready for her yet! <img src='http://www.bariatricpal.com/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.png' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />[/quote']

Lol well the moment I have my surgery I'm ready for everything and anything nothing is going to stand in my way to get to my goal weight

Sadly, I don't have access to a free weights bar; all I have is a smith machine, so I can't drop the bar if it's too much. This is one reason that I've been very careful to avoid putting too much weight on it; I want to add strength and bulk (and I agree, ultimately to add muscle bulk you need to lift heavy) but not at the price of blowing out my back or knees...

Squats on the smith machine aren't helping you. Actually, they are just plain not safe.

If you don't have access to free weights (what kind of gym has a smith machine but no free weights?), then do you have kettle bells or dumb bells? Some lunge walking with those would be MUCH better than the smith machine.

Still, your best bet is to get to a gym with free weights and get into the Starting Strength program, or Madcows, or something along those lines.

Actually from what I can tell, lunges are kind of the gold standard for "safe, effective leg training" for us non powerlifters. And I have to say: a well performed lunge (good form, etc.) with weights is actually ten times as hard on my quads and hamstrings as 200+ on the bar on the smith machine. And they don't make my legs hurt!

(Also, I've discovered that many of the "hardest" poses in yoga seem to just be modified lunges; warrior pose, anyone?)

Good luck on getting it worked out.

exrx is a good site to help you find exercises to target specific muscle groups.

Dave

All I have to say is LUNGES my friend LOL..walking lunges are awesome to do both!

I sometimes have the same leg problem. I have to constantly work lower body to add/keep muscles on my legs. I do front squats, then regular squats and dumbell or barbell lunges. If I do 3-4 sets of each to failure, I find that I'm able to get that good burn/jello leg feeling and they do gain muscle, albeit slowly. Just make sure when you do these that you can grab a spotter that can get you out of a tough situation when you take that set to failure.

Yeah, sadly, squats with any kind of weight are out of the picture because my sad little gym only has a smith machine, and apparently those just WRECK your body with squats. I can and will do walking dumbbell lunges (my balance is kind of iffy, but hopefully that will improve) at home every day and the leg press machine at the gym three times a week.

As you say, it's hard to know "when to say when" with legs stuff -- I've discovered that I need to go a little lighter on the weight and do enough reps for a burn if I want to feel it the next day. If I go heavier, to where I hit failure before I hit the burn, I'm not sure I'm actually doing my legs much good.

If you can't do free weight squats, the leg press is probably the next best thing, just be careful and watch out for spinal compression. Also, like "Blackberryjuice" stated, those front squats are really nice, and you can probably do those with a smith machine as well, though I haven't tried them that way. Unfortunetly, muscles will only grow (add mass) and get stronger when we push them to failure. Which especially with legs, are not all that fun.

Here's a good article that hits a bit on this and motivates me to TRY and push out that last rep.

http://www.musclehack.com/targeted-hypertrophy-training-tht/

If you can't do free weight squats, the leg press is probably the next best thing, just be careful and watch out for spinal compression. Also, like "Blackberryjuice" stated, those front squats are really nice, and you can probably do those with a smith machine as well, though I haven't tried them that way. Unfortunetly, muscles will only grow (add mass) and get stronger when we push them to failure. Which especially with legs, are not all that fun.

Here's a good article that hits a bit on this and motivates me to TRY and push out that last rep.

http://www.musclehac...y-training-tht/

Thanks for the good advice. I think that there's only one thing that I wanted to comment on: "muscles will only grow ... when we push them to failure." That's absolutely true, but I wanted to point out that there are different kinds of "failure," especially with the legs. There's the "okay, three sets of eight reps with near-max weight" kind of failure, which produces a very short-term wobbly-leg feeling, but almost no "burn" or "pump," and then there's the "two or three sets of twenty five reps with sixty percent of max" kind of failure, which produces not just the wobbly legs, but also a good burn (well, a hell-on-earth feeling burn, but you know what I mean with "good" ) and a good pump. And I haven't been focused on it long enough to be certain, but I'd be willing to bet that -- for my legs at least, the latter, higher-reps, lower weight, types of sets are doing more long-term good with regards to adding mass and strength and endurance. I definitely know the difference in feeling between an anaerobic and an aerobic workout, and it's still an anaerobic workout, but the lower-weight-higher-reps sets seem to produce more anabolic side effects for me. I'd bet it varies for different people, and I'm not skimping on the max weight stuff (my low weight, high rep stuff is lunges and cycling and so on, but I still do leg presses on the machine with 250 pounds or more), but I really have to focus on what seems to produce the best effects for me.

That's one of the weirdest things about bodybuilding; it seems like you just can't find a one-size-fits-all solution, since everyone's body and muscles react differently.