My Biggest Complaint About Your Leg Press That’s Not A Leg Press

Don’t tell me you did {insert tremendous poundage} in a leg press at the gym. Let me see you do the leg press and then I’ll tell you whether or not you actually did a “leg press”. We’ll worry about the weight later.

The leg press is the most easily distortable exercise ever. People hop in the machine and start jamming out reps like they were born to do the leg press. They just keep slapping plates on, one after the other. In most cases, the person gets more of a workout from loading the plates onto the leg press machine than the actual leg press exercise themselves.

It’s pretty simple really, if you lower the weight 2 inches, that’s not a leg press. Put a thousand pounds on there and lower it 2 inches, it’s still not a leg press. That’s cool that you were able to move a thousand pounds 2 inches, but you didn’t do a leg press. So don’t say you did.

No one ever hesitates to tell you how much they did in the leg press either. Even people who I would consider to be less than enthusiastic gym members know what their leg press stats are and they’re not afraid to tell you.

Ever heard of “Full Range of Motion?” No chance.