Leg Press (Machine)
Heavy leg work with no bar on your back and no balance to manage.
- Quadriceps
- Machine
- Weight and reps
What it works
Quadriceps primarily, with the glutes and hamstrings contributing more as you go deeper or place your feet higher. Because your torso is supported, it adds leg volume without much of the trunk fatigue a squat brings.
Setup
- Sit with your back and hips flat against the pad. There should be no gap behind your lower back.
- Place your feet about shoulder width on the platform, toes turned out slightly. Higher on the platform involves the glutes and hamstrings more; lower involves the quads more and demands more ankle mobility.
- Release the safety catches and take the weight with your legs slightly bent.
- Hold the handles. Do not put your hands on your knees.
The movement
- Breathe in and lower the platform under control.
- Descend until your knees reach roughly 90 degrees, or as far as you can go before your hips start to curl up off the pad.
- The moment your lower back lifts away from the pad, you have gone too deep. That is your depth limit, not the machine's.
- Press back up through your whole foot without letting your knees cave inward.
- Stop just short of locking your knees out, then go straight into the next rep.
Common mistakes
- Lower back rounding off the pad: the single thing to avoid on this machine. Shorten the range rather than chasing depth.
- Slamming into lockout: with several hundred kilos on the sled, snapping your knees straight is asking for trouble. Stop just short.
- Hands on the knees: hold the handles. Pushing on your knees hides how much you are actually lifting and puts your hands somewhere dangerous.
- Knees caving in: push your knees out in line with your toes as you press.
- Loading it because the numbers are big: the leg press flatters everyone. Judge progress against your own previous sets, not against the plate count.
Variations and alternatives
The barbell squat trains the same muscles plus the whole trunk, and is a better primary lift for most people. The Bulgarian split squat trains one leg at a time. A single leg press on the same machine is a useful way to find and fix side to side differences.
If a movement causes pain rather than ordinary training effort, stop and speak to a qualified professional. Programming context for this lift is in how training programs are built.