Training & Nutrition - How do i get big legs with no gym?

How do you build up your leg miscles real good without having access to things like weights and leg press machines etc.

Hills are good, so are running, squats and lunges, combine all of those with something like a Tae Kwon Do class and you will have great legs in a year, but if you want to get big (as opposed to strong) then weights are the only way.

Dan

Strong and big.

A few seasons of USSA GS, Super G, and Downhill, ski racing will do the trick.. ;) It did it for me.

Hi,
buy some weights. If you look around, you can prob find 'em used 'n cheap.
A gym is a better choice, easier to work certain muscles that way. But you can cover the basics. You can also buy a 25 lb bag of kitty litter, and a couple 60 lb bags of sand. Do squats with the bags. Don't do lunges, lunges are a crap exercise to begin with...and the bags will put you off balance putting too much stress on the knee joint. For pulling exercises go to a medical supply store and buy some thick latex tubing. Wrap lengths of tubing around plumbing and you can do rowing exercises. Stand on the tubing and you can improvise a variety of exercises. Tie a loop in one end, and you can do part of a hamstring curl. Nice thing about the tubing, is that you can work to exhaustion and just let go.
Get a book on weight training, like Hatfield's "Power" and knock yourself out. Check out plyometrics, and don't forget the abs.

Get fixed. ;)

Big legs doesn't mean better.

Agree with Fubar. I have absolutely puny legs, yet I often find myself dropping people with much bigger legs than mine, even those riding faster bikes (particularly on hills).

It's all about the CNS. The faster you can contract those muscles, the stronger you will be. Yes, the "bigger does not equal better" argument is quite true. Look at small olympic lifters who can clean up to 3 or 4 times their bodyweight, or powerlifters squatting up to 4 or 5 times their bodyweight.

my legs are jacked from doing hills every day. i kill myself doing hills. I went from being able to leg press about 300lbs and within 2 months from just biking, i was able to double it to over 600lbs. I can do close to 200lbs on the calf raise also.

Well bigger is better theoretically. A big muscle is stronger then a small muscle.

But the mix of muscle fibers is important. For explosive strength, quick twitch fibers are supreme. For endurance, slow twitch fibers are the way to go. However, one's fiber composition is genetic and really can not be adjusted. I might have a quick twitch fiber, but I have never seen it. I do have great aerobic power though.

I did some strength training once with weights. It really did not seem to help my cycling much. I just needed to "teach" my leg muscles to lift iron and then they did it fine but the ability did not seem to transfer to anything.

I would suggest just train and don't worry. A lot of people who don't have big legs do fine. Maybe they have a high VO2 max or a great power to weight ratio or something else.

A lot depends on how you bike as well. If you keep your cadence high at all times over long distances you will generally develope less muscle mass but great strength/condition. If you go for shorter rides and crank slowly on the higher gears, especially uphill, you will develope more mass. If you are going for some bulging thigh kind of look that's the way to go but if you want great condition go for high revs.

I do leg weights, I press big weights on the leg press.. around 240kg reps. Mind you, I'm 6'4" 110kg.. have naturally huge legs :) They are just muscular and tight now. I dont run at all, do long long long kms on my mag trainer and it works for me.

The answer depends on your objective... muscular looking legs, faster sprint, better climbing? Let me guess... all of the above. Then in what priority?

being one "blessed" with legs that just grow and grow in girth, i cannot understand why anyone would want all that extra bulk to carry around. i want to become a lean mean hill destroying machine... but i am stuck with these thunder thighs that won't go away.

*sigh*

Got to do some kind of weights to get big legs.Even if you dont have a gym to get to.start doing one legged squats holding some dumbells.if you cant get dumbells, find some other weights to hold onto.

I do a lot of weight training myself, mainly off season and some upper body work during the racing season, but try not to put on bulk.Ive put on some muscle granted through weight training but the strength ive gained has probally balanced the extra weight carrying up hills.

what ive found, especially when cycling is that it is very very hard to put on muscle if you are doing a lot of aerobic work.your metabolism is sky high if you are training a lot and you already are eating a great deal of food(shoud be).The thing is when trying to put on muscle is that you have got to eat eat eat eat.Cant emphasise this enough.If you really want to put on muscle you have got to have good clean diet, plenty of carbs, but up the protein you are taking.Guide is that you should have a gram of protein each day for every lb of weight.

Best way, join a gym even for 6 months.work really hard, eat eat eat and you will bulk up.splash out on creatine as well.....does wonders.There are plenty of weight training sites out there as well.

It also has a bit to do with your body build. I'm 5'8", longer torso, a little shorter than the average legs and my climbing ability just seems to be more natural than my sprint. I do a combination of squats, calf raises, leg press and leg extensions at the gym and then find any and all hills here in the North Florida Panhandle. My thighs and calves show it and I don't kill myself in the gym!!!

Big is great for "looks" and comments from the... well, whomever you want comments from.
But as lots of others have said big legs won't necessarily make you faster or stronger on hills.

Bicycling magazine had a short article on building "great looking legs" a year or so ago.
I scanned the page and here is the link (http://home.mindspring.com/~rhorne/great%20leg%20workouts.jpg).

Hills baby hills!

Genetics and seat time
or
Implants:D

Depends what you want to use em for , for cycling you need strong legs , big legs are heavy legs :eek: not only do you have to propel them along the road you have to lift them up & down as well, so any leg muscle bulk that does'nt assist with peddaling is a handicap to the cyclist, so you,le have to come to a comprermise;)