How To Get Legs Like Lance Armstrong

Of all the sports on the face of the planet, professional cycling produces some of the most impressive legs. But you don’t have to ride a bike for 4-6 hours a day to get those same rock-hard quads, rippling thighs, and powerful, muscular calves.

In this article, you’ll learn how to use a highly effective series of strength and toning moves to get legs like Lance Armstrong. By splitting the legs into three basic muscle groups (the quadriceps, the hamstrings and the calves), you can create a strategy for targeting each section.

Here’s how:

1) Quadriceps

There are two reasons that the legs of a marathoner look skinny or stringy compared to those of a cyclist:

• The leg muscles must contract with a greater amount of force to pedal a bicycle compared to taking a step while running; and
• Jarring, impact-based running is far more catabolic and able to significantly tear down muscle fibers compared to cycling.

Based on these two reasons, a strategy for building impressive quads should involve choosing activities that:

• Require high force production, such as lifting weights or uphill bike riding; and
• Avoid excessive catabolic activities like running, or long, easy cardio sessions.

Since the quadriceps (which run along the front of the thigh) are primarily responsible for extending the lower leg at the knee joint and flexing the upper leg at the hip joint, any program designed to build the quads should focus on these motions.

A perfect exercise for combining both these movements is the “kick-forward” move (video below). For this exercise, simply attach a cable or elastic band to the ankle or lower leg, stand on the opposite leg, and kick forward while keeping the leg relatively straight and the quad muscles contracted. Move in a slow, controlled fashion for this exercise.

2) Hamstrings

In many exercise books or magazines, you may have read about a bad quad:hamstring ratio, which basically means that the hamstrings (which run along the back of the leg from the hips to the upper calves) are
disproportionally stronger than the quads. While this can sometimes be the case in elite athletes, in the average individual the problem is not that the hamstrings are too strong, but rather that they are too tight. In either case, the result is poor performance and lower back pain, as well as an inability to properly develop the muscles in the hamstrings.

For this reason, it is important to choose hamstrings exercises that focus on both mobility and range-of-motion in the hamstrings as well as strength. Since the hamstrings are responsible for extending the leg at the hip joint and flexing the leg at the knee joint, a perfect exercise for this objective is the "Romanian Deadlift".

For this movement, which can be done standing on one leg or two, you simply hold a weight and hinge forward at the waist while sticking your butt out behind you. If you keep your back straight and look forward, you'll reach a point where the hamstrings feel very tight and you simply can't go any further without bending your back. At that point, simply stand back up to the starting position. During the entire Romanian deadlift, keep your knees just slightly bent.

Click here to see a video/photo of me performing a Romanian Deadlift.

This exercise will address both tight and weak hamstrings, and allow you to develop the backs of your legs without having to worry about a strength imbalance between your quads and hamstrings. Once the hamstrings and backs of your legs are strong, you'll have impressive muscle development from the upper calves all the way up to the butt.

3) Calves

It may seem intuitive that to get nice calf muscles (which run along the back of your lower leg) you should do lots of toe raises, since the calf muscles are responsible for extending the toes. While this can certainly
help, it is a very slow and inefficient way to get strong, powerful and toned calves. It also doesn't take advantage of the fact that the calf muscles are also partially responsible for flexing the leg at the knee joint.

Instead, a good calf program should focus on movements that require flexing the knee and high amounts of strength and power, while shifting some of the weight onto the middle or front of the foot so that the calf muscles are forced to contract.

Two such movements are squat jumps (video shown below) and incline sprinting. For squat jumps, simply get down into a squat position, swing your arms and jump as high as possible, then land in a controlled fashion with the knees slightly bent. Once you're good at these types of body weight squat jumps, you can progress to doing squat jumps with a barbell on your back or holding a medicine ball to your chest.

For incline sprinting, I recommend using a treadmill. My favorite incline sprinting workout on the treadmill is a 10x30. To do this, just put the treadmill at as high an incline as possible, then set it at what would be considered a fast running speed for you even if the treadmill were not on an incline. Get on, run for 30 seconds and then, while the treadmill belt is still moving, hop off and recover for 30-60 seconds (if you want, you can do crunches or push-ups while you recover). Once you're rested, hop back on for another 30 second bout, for a total of 10 rounds.

By combining the quadricep, hamstring and calf exercises above with a few cycling workouts a week, you can develop legs like Lance without having to ride a bicycle as much as he does!

If you want to learn more about how to swim, bike and run lightning-fast but also have a nice body, and get access to the other 6 articles in this series, then head over to http://www.Tri-Ripped.com for a brand new approach to training for the ultimate triathlon body.

If you liked this article, you can check out some of Ben's available training plans here. You can also check out similar articles by Ben: 5 Top Butt-Busting Moves, 3 Ways to Get the Benefits of Barefoot Running, and 6 Ways to Run Faster.

TrainingPeaks contributor Ben Greenfield, M.S. PE, NSCA-CPT, CSCS, is recognized as one of the top fitness, triathlon, nutrition and metabolism experts in the nation.  For more information on coaching and training with Ben, check out his blog/podcasts, follow him on Twitter, or visit his Facebook page. 

Comments

[Cyclist Rose]

This is awesome! Well, I was always wondering about why runners don't have the same "bulk" on their legs like cyclists. I hope I get started on these exercises in time. I really need to get back in shape.