There he sat. A rippling hulk of a man. He clanked the full stack of weights on the pec deck machine for what seemed like 20 straight minutes! His rock hard upper chest peered over the top of his tank-top as if it wanted to escape, and his shoulders growled menacingly as he flexed like the heads of 2 demon pit bulls ready to pounce…this dude was…JACKED! And then, all of a sudden, I let out a huge GASP as he stood up…I assumed he must have been in some kind of horrible piranha attack!

You see, as he stood up…they were GONE! His calf muscles, his quads, his hamstrings…ALL GONE! Surely there must be some incredibly sad story to explain the visual before me. His legs looked like two broomsticks shoved into a pair of shoes as part of some kind of skeleton Halloween dummy! I was astounded that these narrow rods could even hold up the mountain of a man that lived above his waist…so I pretty much stared as he teetered away, only to sit down on the lat pull down…I’m thinking to myself, but wanting to scream…LEGS MAN! HIT THE LEGS FOR ALL THAT IS GOOD AND HOLY!!!! But, nope. He finished lats and started curling. I shook my head, and picked up the 70lb dumbbells and began making my way across the floor…lunging…grunting with each and every lowered step, because…

I DON’T SKIP LEG DAY DAMMIT!

And while there may have been SOME exaggeration in the above scenario, it was for the most part dead on. Many men (and women) absolutely ABHOR leg day and they’ll use just about any excuse to get out of it:

“I have a bad back”

“I have bad knees”

“I am a weak-minded individual and I’d rather work the fun muscles instead” (ok, maybe they don’t say that, but it would be closer to the truth!)

I get it, leg days, if done properly, HURT! Because there is so much muscle in your glutes, quads and hammies that gets damaged when working your lower body, all the pain receptors in that area light up on FIRE when the soreness kicks in! You feel each and every step when you walk stairs are a nightmare, and the thought of sitting down on the toilet, or worse yet GETTING BACK UP OFF OF IT is enough to make you sweat. So, for these reasons, many skip this all-important group of muscles that live below the waist.

But the fact is, your legs are pretty darn important in the whole grand scheme of things.  Not only are they our primary sources of mobility, working our lower body hard can affect just about every other muscle group in your body. As most of the big movements (squats, lunges, deadlifts) are COMPOUND movements, they work just about every muscle in your body AS WELL as your legs. In addition, studies have shown that sets of squats and deadlifts result in increased testosterone and growth hormone production. So, in effect, working your legs can help increase the size of your arms, your chest, your shoulders etc.

So, listen, don’t be a ONE-HALF WONDER…work your legs hard on leg day and your entire body will benefit as a result. It will suck, it will hurt, but it will be worth every single painful step that comes after.

Now…GET TO WORK!