Leg muscles won't grow

No matter how much I workout my legs, my leg muscles just won't get bigger. My upper body is pretty good sized, but I have toothpick legs. I do squats with the heaviest weight on a barbell that I can lift up over my head and rest on my shoulders. But no matter how much weight I use, and how much I workout squatting, it just doesn't do anything. Why won't my leg muscles grow? What am I doing wrong? And does anyone know of a workout program that will make my leg muscles grow? Thanks in advance.

 

Leg muscles won't grow

I do this once a week.

Squats: 6 sets - First one is a high rep stretching it out set to exhaustion then I wait 3 or 4 minutes and do 4 heavier sets 6 to 8 reps. Last set is about 30 pounds lighter as many as I can get.

Followed by stiff legged dead lifts for the hams, 3 sets of those, with 6 to 8 reps.

Then leg press for 4 sets as heavy as I can go. Followed by some calf work. I do that once a week and it takes my legs a good 4 days to feel recovered. Pretty heavy routine. I am staying away from any extensions and curls for awhile.

 

Leg muscles won't grow

I think you will find low weight high rep builds leg muscle faster then high weight low rep. Couldn't hurt to try it out for a month or so.

 

Leg muscles won't grow

Thanks geer_matt, I'll try that. But I'm not working out at a gym right now, I have weights and a weight bench at home I'm using, so I can't really do leg presses since I don't have a machine for that. But don't leg presses basically do the same thing as squats? Also, you say that you are staying away from extensions and curls. I have an addition on my bench for doing extensions and curls. Are extensions and curls not that effective?

For the dead lifts, do you grab the bar from in front of you, or from behind you?

 

Leg muscles won't grow

You can do more than just squats to exercise your legs. As geer_matt mentioned, stiff-legged dead lifts (don't forget normal dead lifts), and the leg press are two other exercises. There are also the various machines you can jump on to focus in on your quads, hammies, and calves.

 

Leg muscles won't grow

Squats work more muscle groups then presses do. Dead lift the bar from infront, you may wanna look at a you tube video for proper form.

 

Leg muscles won't grow

Are you eating enough to support your goals?

 

Leg muscles won't grow

I'm pretty sure he said he's got a home bench, not various machines...

 

Leg muscles won't grow

Drat, this was posted while I was posting my last response. Here are some other exercises to try: split squats with a dumbbell, split squats with two barbells, off-set split squats, reverse split squats with a single barbell, and bench step-ups with a single barbell.

 

Leg muscles won't grow

See my last response.