Ryan Jewers

This has been my preferred way to do unilateral leg extensions for some time now. I’ve made a few stories about them in the past, but I thought these deserved a post. You might like these better, you might not.. but hopefully some of y’all find this helpful.

I feel less knee discomfort, it’s more stable, and it’s more comfortable. If you want to further increase stability, you can use a seatbelt to help pull the hips down. But, you should be actively pulling down with the handles anyway for the whole set. Don’t be one of those guys/gals who do their leg extensions with their hands on their head/body, you are severely limiting stability, reducing motor unit recruitment (less gains).

Other tips (can be applied to bilateral variant):

• Actively pull yourself down into the seat with the handles. It’s important to keep the working-side hip down to avoid excessive torque at the knee and hip. This will result in better stability, and will make it easier to standardize form.

• Maintain a neutral foot position with it pointed up. A common misconception is that internal/external rotation will bias different parts of the quadricep. This isn’t accurate despite electromyography (EMG) research suggesting it to be. Whereas the vastus muscles (inner & outer quads) differ in their origin, they come down together surrounding the patellar tendon at the same insertion point. EMG isn’t measuring actual mechanical tension; thus it does not always reflect the hypertrophic potential of an exercise/technique. All the rotation will do is make the mechanics worse and cause more shearing forces on the knee.

• Knee lined up with the machine’s axis of rotation (don’t sit too far forward/back). You’ll feel knee discomfort right away if your setup is off. Line it up with the pivot point to avoid unnecessary joint stress.

• Don’t force full lockout if it causes knee pain. Stop just shy of lockout if going all the way up causes you discomfort. If it doesn’t, use that end range.

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The concentric is the most important for muscle gains, but the eccentric is the most important for training 🤔

• The concentric produces active tension, creating radial growth. It produces far more gains than the eccentric, and radial growth will account for the majority of your overall muscle gains made.

• Whereas, the eccentric produces passive tension, resulting in a different type of growth (still produces active tension but less), longitudinal growth. You don’t have any type 2 fiber recruitment here, mind you. The adaptations made are also limited, and made early on in the noob stage (first few months).

• ..and while you can get type 2 fiber recruitment if you overload the eccentric (lower more than you can lift), it isn’t worth the fatigue and injury risk. Normal strength training is better.

• With that said, just because the eccentric isn’t hypertrophically beneficial, and creates more fatigue & damage, this doesn’t mean we should speed it up a lot, use deadstops, or use sloppy form. It is still VERY IMPORTANT.

• I use a very controlled eccentric on most exercises to help strengthen my tendons and keep my joints happy, but I don’t overdo it to where I am missing out on a lot of gains (ultra slow eccentrics will reduce the # of concentrics you can get). The duration is dependent on the exercise I’m doing. Find that sweet spot (durations on screen).

• Benefits of controlled eccentrics → Improve tendon force/stiffness/strength, standardize form & ROM, reduce load, reduce injury risk, improve stretch tolerance, continue to make/maintain stretch adaptations.

• Additionally, bombing into the bottom of a lift isn’t good for gains, relying on the stretch reflex to create momentum reduces the work the muscle has to do.

• ..and lastly, tendon adaptations happen slower than muscle adaptations. Even more reason to work under control and spend a little extra time in end ranges to help strengthen them so they can sustain greater loads. Don’t just drop the weight really fast because you think it’s “optimal due to less fatigue,” I promise you it’s not.

As always, watch the video in full for a more detailed breakdown and insight.

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1:1 coaching available.

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Avoid form breakdown for best muscle gains.

This is generally accepted in the fitness space, but as sets get harder toward the end, many lifters let their form break down.

• When form breaks down, this can result in central motor command being sent to other musculature, often synergist muscles, reducing motor unit recruitment for the agonist muscle (less muscle gains). This is obviously not what we want, because the last few reps in a set are the most stimulating and effective for muscle growth. Although all repetitions are stimulating, the most important part of a set is toward the end; advanced lifters will typically only grow from the last few.

• This means we must keep our form and tempo consistent for the entirety of the set (except for the concentric, as it will slow involuntarily due to fatigue). So.. IF YOUR FORM IS BREAKING DOWN, there’s a problem. You’re either training past failure (you should’ve stopped the set sooner) or using too much weight.

• Additionally, avoiding form breakdown will help us avoid unnecessary fatigue in other muscles, avoid extra joint & connective tissue fatigue, as well as reduce injury risk.

• Lastly, avoiding form breakdown allows you to accurately track progressive overload over time and ensure you’re truly progressing (i.e., building muscle), rather than just using poorer technique to lift more weight, resulting in misleading numbers (a.k.a. “fake progress”).

For $1 a day, join my app for the best ongoing science-based hypertrophy training, coaching, and community to guarantee the fastest gains.

1:1 coaching available.

Code: RY
Code: RYJEWERS