Leg extensions vs sissy squats

[3325]

For those who have experience with both, which do you prefer? Not to replace a compound movement, but as a “finisher” or “burnout.” Perhaps also as prehab/rehab.

 

[LCguy]

Neither, front squats. But of the two, leg extensions.

 

[mtnbound]

For those who have experience with both, which do you prefer? Not to replace a compound movement, but as a “finisher” or “burnout.” Perhaps also as prehab/rehab.

Both have their place. I prefer to rotate exercises every 3 weeks, so I would do one for a training block, then rotate to the other.

 

[mtbraun]

As Pavel says, "Leg extensions only make you better at leg extensions."

 

[TaperPin]

Leg extensions have a long history of working well to strengthen quads and help toughen up knees. Nothing wrong with other things if they are done right, but a winter stuck inside doing nothing but heavy leg extensions gives many of us the all the bump in quads we need for steep country. In college we added a hard squeeze at the top for nicely defined beach muscles that looked hot in the latest spandex short fashion - girls looking us up and down like pieces of meat made it all worth while. Now everyone has muscles popping out we never knew existed, and workout gear leaves even less to the imagination than our industrial thickness spandex, so there’s more than one way. lol

An old school leg extension substitute for smokejumpers and others stuck for the summer at a Forest service bunk house was a chunk of fire hose and a knee height pole.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

I thought leg extensions were just for rehabbing knee injuries. You guys actually do them as part of a workout???

 

[3325]

I thought leg extensions were just for rehabbing knee injuries. You guys actually do them as part of a workout???

I often do one high(er) rep set of a single joint movement to finish off. Example: I focus on dips and pull ups, but I throw in a set of rear delt flies, curls, and triceps extensions.

 

[3325]

As Pavel says, "Leg extensions only make you better at leg extensions."

Okay, but Pavel also says kettlebell swings and Turkish get ups make you better at pull ups. Mike Mahler and Steve Maxwell say they don’t.

 

[S.Clancy]

For those who have experience with both, which do you prefer? Not to replace a compound movement, but as a “finisher” or “burnout.” Perhaps also as prehab/rehab.

Neither.

For a "finisher" or "burnout" do a couple hundred yards of BW walking lunges.

If you are really after "pre-hab" I would focus on the glutes and hamstrings as they are the weak link in like 90%+ of the population. I suggest Glute-Ham Raises. Thank me later.

 

[3325]

An old school leg extension substitute for smokejumpers and others stuck for the summer at a Forest service bunk house was a chunk of fire hose and a knee height pole.

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I had seen that (or a similar) photo before and read about old time smokejumper calisthenics. I thought that was done as an isometric hold for gut toughening. But I suppose getting in and out of the horizontal position would require a lot of quad activation.

 

[LCguy]

I know I advocated for front squats earlier but I did a pause-rest to 36 reps on leg extensions last night and that was quite the burner. Highly recommend pause-rest for added intensity.

 

[Poser]

I've only used leg extensions for the purposes of knee injury rehabs.

That being said, I wouldn't do any type of "burnout" for the purposes of strength training/athletic performance. -you have too many other demands, such as conditioning to balance so its not worth the extended recovery time. What you're describing is moving more into the hypertrophy realm of training which is going to have a "expensive" recovery time for little or no value that translates to performance.

 

[TaperPin]

I had seen that (or a similar) photo before and read about old time smokejumper calisthenics. I thought that was done as an isometric hold for gut toughening. But I suppose getting in and out of the horizontal position would require a lot of quad activation.

It wasn’t a stationary position, but guys did reps. I can remember watching old government films as a teenager showing it as part of their daily PT.