The Body Sculpting Bible for Women (33 page)

ANSWER:

Actually, the leg press can be much more harmful than any other leg exercise, when you have an injured lower back. This doesn’t have to be the case, so you must follow some advice to avoid further injury. One of the best exercises you can do on the leg press, if you are concerned with your lower back, is the one-legged press. Working just one leg at a time prevents you from lifting your back from its correct position. While one leg is working, the other is planted and supporting correct form. You must be careful, though-don’t go too heavy. Make sure to stay steady during the movement; any jerking can disrupt your form and possibly injure your lower back.

VARIATION

Leg Extension

This exercise can be a miracle when it comes to really zoning in on the quadriceps muscles, located right on the front of the upper leg area. This exercise also helps strengthen the knees, which are a commonly injured area. The leg extension is recommended by most physical therapists as a good exercise for knee rehabilitation. Please take note: The key to the effectiveness and safety of this exercise is to choose a machine whose starting position allows your toes to be right in front of your knees. A machine in which your toes start behind your knees (with the upper leg and the lower leg at an angle of below 90-degrees) can cause injury to the knee.

There are two ways to perform this exercise: one leg at a time or both legs at the same time. In this book we will discuss the more common two-legged version. However, the execution for the exercise remains the same for both versions. Note: Please make sure not to attempt to use very heavy weights if you decide to try the one-legged version of the exercise.

PROPER ALIGNMENT

Seat yourself on the machine and position the back pad so that you are sitting totally upright.

The back of your knees must be pressed flush against the front of the seat, which will help you avoid a potential knee injury caused by allowing the knee to hang over the seat without support. You also want to make sure that the axis of the knees are in line with the machine axis, helping to set up the proper alignment (biomechanics) of the knee and direct the maximum resistance to the quadriceps. In addition, ensure that the starting position allows the toes to be in front of the knees and that the upper leg and lower leg create a 90-degree angle.

Adjust the shin roller pad against the lowest point of the shin to help optimize the shin as a lever and the knee as the fulcrum. This will again help to direct the majority of the resistance to the thigh muscles. Before you begin the exercise, lightly grip the handles provided or grab the front of the seat on each side of your legs.

TECHNIQUE AND FORM

Begin the exercise with your legs totally relaxed and your shins behind the roller pad positioned at the bottom.

Isometrically contract the quad muscles and slowly begin to lift the weight by lifting the roller pad with the shins.

As you extend upward, stay in control by allowing the quad muscles to lift the weight. Do not use momentum or leverage. This is a very easy exercise to cheat on by using quick bursts of momentum at the bottom of the movement, or by leaning back and using leverage to lift the weight.

As you reach the point of full extension, when the part of your leg below your knee is extended and as close as possible to being in a direct line with your upper thigh, focus only on fully contracting the quad muscles. Sometimes people have the tendency to go through the exercise motions without consciously contracting the muscles that are supposed to be lifting the weight. As long as you make a great effort to contract the quad muscle fully at the top of full extension, you will be taking full advantage of the exercise.