The better question would be, "why the fuck aren't you working legs?"
I like the brutally taxing nature of a good leg day. Unlike upper body work, I dread every leg day. But they're the days I feel the strongest on so...
Before I bought a few programs to keep me more regimented in workouts and to even out areas that were lagging behind, I was doing legs thrice a week. Two were dedicated glute days because they are a tragically undertrained muscle group that, when built up, makes a lot of lower body issues disappear. Real men, or should I say, smart men, utilize the barbell hip thrust. I personally love it as I've NEVER really felt much activation when doing squats and not much better with deadlifts. On that same train of thought, donkey goods are something I enjoy as well as side leg lifts, as yes, the "female" go-to, side cable lifts. If James Harrison works these exercises into his routine, stop looking at them as "pansy ass" female movements.
Nowadays it's been more like one dedicated and brutal leg specific day per week.
I do squat, but I use a safety squat bar equivalent. The build of my shoulders has never made naked back bar squats all that comfortable even with squat pads. I am, unfortunately, rather thin boned. Always had more of the build of a marathon runner than anything though I have finally been able to put on a reasonable amount of size. Anyway, safety squats makes squatting far more comfortable and I find I can control the weight more easily. Also shifts a bit more of the load onto the quads.
Deadlifts are probably my favorite. Nothing more important than a strong posterior chain. And it's probably the most anatomically safe of the big lifts along with squats that transitions to everyday life applications.
I like lunges as an auxiliary movement and mainly the reverse variety as they're more forgiving of my knees and are very good for burnouts.
My gym donated our kick ass leg press to the Fire Department after buying new equipment. Equipment that's total shit I should say as the YMCA doesn't know what the fuck it's doing when buying new equipment. Puts undue stress on the patella tendons if you're over like 5'8 in height. So I'm kinda stuck with other leg press variants I just don't like.
Stay away from leg extensions. Yea. Enjoy your aesthetics. Just enjoy fucked up knees down the line if you keep going up in weight.
I've never overlooked working the legs. But now l no longer lift for mass but just to stay in shape. When l say stay in shape though, l have a very high standard.
I still do squats but with less weight than l used to. I do leg extensions and curls, and l work my calves hard. I've quit doing weighted lunges. I do a lot of bicycling and running. My running regimen includes sprints. Between bicycling and sprinting, my thighs grow. I really don't need bigger thighs now. I hope the distance part of my running helps keep thickening thighs in check.
I guess my glutes respond well as l've always got a lot of compliments from women on my butt.
There are always guys at the gym who've put much more emphasis on upper body development and their legs lag behind. For some reason working the legs does feel more like work but l suggest to those to push hard to develop lower body. Anyone who doesn't sport a balanced physique not only looks weird but your missing half your strength. Upper body strength needs that lower body support.
My body just doesn’t allow me to do what I’d really like anymore. 4 knee dislocations, 3 on my dominant knee shredded my cartilage. I don’t even do light weight leg extension burnouts. I may not feel pain doing it that way but I don’t trust the structural integrity of my knees that much.
All the exercises that pack muscle on the quads just kill my knees. I think that’s made it harder to put mass on them. That’s why I like Bulgarian split squats. Unilateral training is incredibly important and there’s the benefit at least for me, with greater quad activation with split squats. I need to incorporate them again.
All my dislocations were in high school and yes, lateral patellofrmoral. Haven’t had knee issues really in years since dedicating time to building the muscles around the knees in an effort to keep them where they should be kept.
My sports days ended in 7th grade after a goalie took my knee out on a fast break during club soccer. Massive muscle and cartilage bruising. Never got back into competitive sports and after the dislocations my orthopedic surgeon advised against ever doing contact sports again pretty much.
The groove my patella should sit in on the right side is almost a straight line. And my patellas kinda of float around. They’re very easy to manually manipulate when relaxed.
in the winter I do leg curls, leg extensions and a few squat variations, all with relatively low weight. I try to ride my bicycle indoors 3 times per week. The rest of the year I cycle outdoors mixing road and mountain bike with various levels of intensity.