Why Strong Legs Are Important!

I grew up on the internet memes of the 2000s and nothing was more pervasive than ‘friends don’t let friends skip leg day’ or some variaton thereof. What was innocent for the time was a rallying call for trainees to actually train their legs and not just focus on the upperbody. Despite the recency bias in our modern fitness space, the average trainee’s reluctance to work the legs is a long standing issue in fitness.

To that end, today’s post includes a short excerpt from Chas Trevor’s 1930s how, How to Develop Powerful Legs. Trevor was an influential British physical culturist during the inter-war period and in later life wrote for Joe Weider’s muscle magazines. The below text lays out his logic for leg day. Enjoy!

The average youth taking up physical culture for the first time is, at the outset, very little concerned with the shape and state of his lower limbs. Until his studies advance to the point where he becomes really interested in symmetrical development, he is apt to imagine that his legs receive sufficient exercise in the ordinary day’s work and recreation.

That this is more or less true may be admitted, for the legs are the hardest worked part of the frame, and there is thus the excuse for thinking that they perform their full share of work and therefore further attention would be superfluous. There exists, however, a vast deal of difference between work and exercise, otherwise every blacksmith would be built on the lines of the Farnese Hercules which, as we all know, is not the case. But more of this anon.

The ideal in the mind of the beginner is to possess muscular arms, and it is only after he has added some inches to his arms and, incidentally, his chest, that he gives any thought at all to his legs. This may be a case of “out of sight, out of mind,” for although the budding athlete will roll up his sleeves to display a bulging biceps on the slightest invitation, he will not be nearly so ready to turn up his trousers leg and expose his calf.

Or it may be due to some latent Victorianism in our make-up, reminiscent of the days when it was positively indecent to have legs at all. Yet, I suspect that the real truth is that we males are conscious that we—with few exceptions—do not possess a well-turned calf worth a second glance.

The result of this general inattention to our organs of locomotion is that the average person is not nearly so well developed and shapely in the legs as he might be, nor are our legs as enduring as were the legs of our fathers. With the advent of the motor car, walking went out of fashion, and to a great extent, we have lost the full use of our lower members. Pedestrianism was a great pastime in the days when life was not so hurried and strenuous as is the case today, for to take a ‘bus for a short ride was then considered to be both lazy and extravagant. Today the opposite is the rule—even the term “pedestrian” has gone out of date, being substituted by the epithet “jay-walker”—for no one would think of walking a few blocks when a conveyance could be had. Even in these war-time days of petrol shortage and restricted transport, people will queue up for ten or more minutes to ride a few hundred yards: a distance easily walked in the time lost by waiting.

The argument is that they have not the time to walk, but the real truth is that we have lost the inclination to walk even short distances and consequently our legs suffer in strength and staminal power.

Watch the average crowd from a bus-top or a seat in the park and note how few walk correctly. They move without vigour or natural energy and in place of a buoyant stride denoting strong, supple muscles in action, they shuffle along with little or no spring in their pace and manifest none of the joy which should be associated with the exercise of walking in the open air.

Strong legs are essential for health, vitality and long life, and the saying that “an athlete is as old as his legs” is equally true for all persons; athletic or non-athletic, and the present trend of neglect of the lower half of the body is certainly not to the advantage of the race. Every one of us, man, woman or child, would be the better for a little attention tending to strengthen and beautify the lower extremities, for these exercises will not only make the legs strong and shapely, but will also improve the circulation, relieve pressure on nerves and arteries, make the joints supple and defeat the inroads of rheumatism and allied complaints that may come with later years.

Remember that your legs have to carry you around for the allotted span of three score years and ten. It’s quite a long time and it is up to you now to see that they are put in good shape for the years that lie ahead. Get action today and build endurance, grace and suppleness in your lower members so that they will carry your weight with ease, for if you do not so strengthen them now that they carry your body properly, you will find in a few short years that you will have to carry them around, painfully dragging one leg after the other.

As is well known to those who take a live interest in field sports or the arena, the first part of the athlete’s anatomy to show signs of advancing age is his legs, and many a good performer in the ring has attempted to stage a gallant “come-back” only to find that though his body is as tough and responsive as ever, his legs have slowed up and he is not so lively on his pins as before.

Read the annals of the ring, arena, track or football field and you will realise how painfully true this statement is, whereas, had more attention been given to his leg muscles in his younger days, many an ageing athlete—whose professional career is usually over by the time he is thirty-five years of age—might in all probability have extended his usefulness for another ten or more years.

The possession of a pair of powerful legs is a wonderful asset in the battle of life. They make for endurance, the power to achieve and the power to excel. The musculature of the upper legs are attached to the lower back or loins and these together form the seat of a man’s vitality and virility.