Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Discussion on the three big Chinese internals, Yiquan, Bajiquan, Piguazhang and other similar styles.

Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby wayne hansen on Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:44 am

It seems to me if you want strength for a long walk the best exercise would be walking
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby everything on Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:23 pm

usually to get better at X, do X makes sense.

except when it doesn't (do 25 hour walks in training).
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby kenneth fish on Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:59 pm

Walking, gradually increasing distance and incline is the best way to increase your ability to walk long distances. If you are 2 months away from a 25 hour walking event you are not likely to be able to train sufficiently to reach that goal. Perhaps you meant to write 25K (about 15 miles)? In which case, if you start training now you should be in good shape for the marathon.
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby Bhassler on Thu Apr 12, 2018 2:05 pm

My understanding is that the last 30 years or so of research done by the military on rucking performance indicates that the best way to improve performance is to increase strength.
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby willie on Thu Apr 12, 2018 2:31 pm

Bhassler wrote:My understanding is that the last 30 years or so of research done by the military on rucking performance indicates that the best way to improve performance is to increase strength.

Hi bhassler, I've been concentrating on getting my squats up for a while now. I've been doing a stripped-down version of Bulgarian powerlifting. I have to tell you that I feel strong, real strong, much stronger and much better put together then when I was a 20 year old. I'm not even a very big dude to begin with but I did finish off with a 420 lbs full parallel squat last night and then I went to 405 for 3/4 squats with reps of 6. The best way to get strong in your back and legs is squats. Nothing comes close
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby Overlord on Thu Apr 12, 2018 2:37 pm

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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby Bhassler on Thu Apr 12, 2018 3:07 pm

willie wrote:
Bhassler wrote:My understanding is that the last 30 years or so of research done by the military on rucking performance indicates that the best way to improve performance is to increase strength.

Hi bhassler, I've been concentrating on getting my squats up for a while now. I've been doing a stripped-down version of Bulgarian powerlifting. I have to tell you that I feel strong, real strong, much stronger and much better put together then when I was a 20 year old. I'm not even a very big dude to begin with but I did finish off with a 420 lbs full parallel squat last night and then I went to 405 for 3/4 squats with reps of 6. The best way to get strong in your back and legs is squats. Nothing comes close


Well, I certainly wouldn't argue with you. I will say that a lot depends on one's squat form, what type of squats they're doing, and what one's particular movement patterns and weaknesses are. You can certainly get amazing strength in the posterior chain from squats, but if your posterior chain is not already working correctly, I don't know that squats will force the issue in the same way that deadlifts or properly executed kettlebell swings will. Most folks just need to try different things until they find what works for them.

I don't know the specifics of your taiji method, but I'm guessing it's got your shit wired tight enough* to where you can do pretty much anything you want with good benefit.



*Saying someone's shit's wired tight means it's all together-- not "tight" in some weird sort of passive-aggressive tai chee hipster sort of way.
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby willie on Thu Apr 12, 2018 4:09 pm

Bhassler wrote:
I don't know the specifics of your taiji method, but I'm guessing it's got your shit wired tight enough* to where you can do pretty much anything you want with good benefit.

*Saying someone's shit's wired tight means it's all together-- not "tight" in some weird sort of passive-aggressive tai chee hipster sort of way.
I would say that the taichi really helps to keep the body in true alignment when I'm doing squats.
I also do deadlifts, but my deadlifts are not quite as refined as my squats.
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby Squeeeez on Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:14 am

Thank you again everybody.

Yes, walking itself is the best training for walking. 80km/25h walks are not easy to simulate.
So we do up to 40km walks, and during those I try to see what weaknesses pop up which might threaten the next 40km.
I have always held ITM (and CTM in general) in great esteem regarding the training, and the resulting well-balanced body. As such I thought that you might have some good input regarding the fine-tuning :)
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby richardg6 on Fri Apr 13, 2018 9:12 am

Thanks for all the great advice and videos. It reminded me how important it is for me to not skip or hedge on my daily "preflight" checklist.
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby everything on Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:10 pm

what are you finding actually works the best for the fine-tuning, from your experience? I did a 32 km walk once, but didn't train for it. Kinda stupid in hindsight.

Squeeeez wrote:Thank you again everybody.

Yes, walking itself is the best training for walking. 80km/25h walks are not easy to simulate.
So we do up to 40km walks, and during those I try to see what weaknesses pop up which might threaten the next 40km.
I have always held ITM (and CTM in general) in great esteem regarding the training, and the resulting well-balanced body. As such I thought that you might have some good input regarding the fine-tuning :)
amateur practices til gets right pro til can't get wrong
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby Peacedog on Sat Apr 14, 2018 6:38 am

The most impressive aspect of the few African personnel I’m familiar with is their walking ability. Those guys have some serious walking legs.

As has been mentioned, while strength training definitely helps with rucking, the key to walking long distance is to walk a lot and far.
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby P. Li on Sat Apr 14, 2018 7:49 am

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=175&v=GuPZBN1hepQ[/youtube]
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby windwalker on Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:01 am

Cliff Young was a toothless 61 year-old potato farmer from Beech Forest, Victoria, who'd lived in a one-room bark hut with six brothers and sisters during the Great Depression and showed up to the starting line of the race in overalls and rain boots. The assembled media took one look at him, shoved a microphone in his face, and asked him what it was going to be like when he keeled over and died of a massive heart attack a hundred and fifty meters in to the 875-kilometer race.

He told them, "I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or four wheel drives… whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 head, and we have 2,000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I’d catch them. I believe I can run this race; it’s only two more days. Five days. I’ve run sheep for three."

Ok, whatever, old man, good luck with that.

It also didn't help his case when the starter's pistol went off and this guy started running like this:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OD96zo ... e=youtu.be



The field blew him off the line like an '87 Camaro drag racing against the Amish. The pack traveled dozens of miles in the first day alone, pounding their pavement with the ergonomic soles of their cross-trainers while this old geezer shuffled along like a dumbass in his Wellington gumboots, his pace nowhere near that of the elite ultramarathoners who by this point were tens of miles down the road away from him.

Then night came. Exhausted from 17 hours of pushing their bodies to the limit, the racers all made camp by the side of the road and went to sleep.

All of them, that is, except Cliff Young.

You see, it turned out that when Cliff Young said he chased sheeps around his farm for three days, he meant he'd single-handedly manually herded a flock of frightened ruminants across 2,000 acres of farmland for three days straight without stopping or sleeping.

When the rest of the field woke up the one morning and saw the tiny shadow of a 61 year-old man shuffling along a few dozen miles down the road ahead of them, they realized they were in trouble. Cliff Young, an overalls-clad sexagenarian potato farmer who had previously been diagnosed with arthritis in most of his leg joints (he claimed he'd "ran it out… like running the rust off an old car") was beating the best athletes in the world – men more than half his age – in a sport that was exclusively dependent upon pushing the human body to the limits of its physical ability.

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/young.html
Last edited by windwalker on Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Most efficient leg strengthening exercises

Postby Steve James on Sat Apr 14, 2018 9:38 am

My friend Bruce does ultra-marathons: i.e., 100 miles or more. He doesn't do any weight training. He eats a lot, though.

I agree with Dr. Fish that --if you're out of shape-- there might not be enough time to train. That doesn't mean that you couldn't do it. Everyone has a first marathon or 100 mile ride. Only a few elite runners train for marathons by running marathons.

Whatever you decide, start now. If it were me, and the distance or time were X, I'd see how much I could do. I'd do that every day for three days, rest a day, do twice as much the next day, and rest on the seventh. Next week I'd do the same. The third week, I'd up the mileage or time, and repeat the same process. Rinse and repeat until the race, which would ideally be on a day where I'd be peaking.

The more time you have, the less chances of injuring yourself by overtraining. If at any point in your training you sprain something, that'll mean less opportunity to train. That's the tricky part, and everyone is different. Well, until they get hurt. So, maybe your goal is to do this event. If you really think you're out of shape, start training for next year and you might even win. :) Do some shorter events of the same type in the meantime. But, I'd bet that with enough determination you could do it anyway.
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