The leg press machine is a near miracle machine that allows you to strengthen your quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus maximus and your calfs.
This machine is another piece of equipment that few weight trainers can go without. So how does it work?
About the leg press machine
The leg press is a machine where the weights are pushed up a ski-like slope. The weights attach to the front of the leg press machine and the weight trainer pushes the weights upward. This exercise relies on the weight trainer pushing weight against gravity, just like the bench press machine.
Leg press machine benefits
Leg press machines strengthen the majority of the muscles in your legs. Having stronger legs means that you will be protected from osteoarthritis in the joints.
Overtime, the cartilage in your legs is worn down. One of the only ways to protect against arthritis is to strengthen the muscles around your bones. These stronger muscles will provide support for your bones, making it easier to avoid pain and injury.
You can also gain a good amount of muscle mass from the leg press. The squat is the sister to the leg press, but the squat mostly strengthens your gluteus maximus and your quadriceps.
The leg press does a much better job strengthening all your muscles at once. This is essential if you do not want to look like an orange on toothpicks.
Not only will stronger leg muscles look better, but you will also be burning more fat on your legs. As you can see on flabby legs, all parts of the body can develop deposits of fat. Luckily, strengthened muscles can pull calories out of these fat deposits, forcing them to go away.
The neat thing about leg presses
Leg presses stabilize your body and slide weights in a direction that is not exactly vertical. This allows weight trainers to lift enormous amounts of weights. Many experienced weight trainers can lift hundreds of pounds of weights [Weight lifting equipment]
The downside is that the weights can come to be quite expensive, since you will have to continue purchasing new weights and the number of weights you are able to lift increases.
The only way to increase strength without reaching a plateau is to consistently increase the amount of weight that you lift.
Picking a leg press machine
Your leg press machine should have safety brackets in order to protect you in case the weight becomes too much for you to lift.
You should also consider how much space you have in your workout space. In general, sliding leg presses are too large for small work spaces. But there are also cable leg presses that are great for confined workout spaces.
