The cable machine is the one machine in the gym that offers endless opportunities for training every muscle group in your body. If you have been lifting weights for a while, you may have realized that you don’t have to only use dumbbells or barbells (free weights) to build bigger and stronger legs.
You can also use cable exercises in your leg training.
Below you will find ten effective cable machine leg exercises that you can do to build muscle on leg day. But first, you’ll need to get warmed up.
Especially if you tend to go to the gym early in the morning, your muscles are usually going to be quite stiff as you get started.
Warming up properly for the exercises you will be doing and following a regular eating plan are a few of the things that many new lifters sometimes overlook when they are starting a full body workout routine.
In most gyms, you’ll find a level bench that can be used for easy warm-up exercises before and after your workout. The step at one end of the bench can be used to get your legs ready to work. Also, the bench can be used for modified planks by placing your forearms on the bench and holding a plank position.
Do a few planks to strengthen your core muscles and upper body, and get yourself feeling generally loose for your leg workout.
Once you have finished warming up, head over to the cable machine. There are plenty of different ways you can use the cable machine to work your legs and do glute exercises too, and here are just a few of them for you to try. Be sure to keep your back straight and never bend your spine as you do these exercises.
This exercise works your glutes, quads, and hamstrings. We recommend doing 12 to 15 reps as you are learning the proper form.
This exercise works your glutes, quads, and calves. We recommend doing 12 to 15 reps for each leg as you are learning the proper form. You can also do this exercise using one leg at a time, such as doing 12 reps on your left leg followed by 12 reps on your right leg.
This exercise works your glutes and hamstrings. We recommend doing 10 to 12 reps as you are learning the proper form.
This exercise works your glutes and hamstrings. We recommend doing 10 to 12 reps as you are learning the proper form.
This exercise works your glutes, adductors, and hamstrings. We recommend doing 10 to 12 reps for each leg as you are learning the proper form.
This exercise works your calves. We recommend doing 15 to 20 reps as you are learning the proper form.
This exercise works your glutes, quads, and hamstrings. We recommend doing 3 to 5 reps as you are learning the proper form.
This exercise works your glutes, quads, and calves. We recommend doing 6 to 8 reps as you are learning the proper form.
This exercise works your glutes and quads. We recommend doing 10 to 12 reps for each leg as you are learning the proper form.
This exercise works your glutes, quads, and hamstrings. We recommend doing 12 to 15 reps as you are learning the proper form.
As you can see, there are so many varieties of lower body exercises that can be performed as a cable workout or even with resistance bands. Some of them tend to place more tension on the muscles throughout the entire exercise.
This causes your muscles to fatigue faster, which leads to hypertrophy of the muscle groups and ultimately more impressive strength gains.
Always try to strike a balance between adequate weight and number of reps during your workouts. Try to complete about 10 to 12 reps of each of your leg extensions with enough weight so the last few reps are a challenge, but not enough of a challenge to prevent the use of proper form and technique. Some lifters use an ankle strap when doing these exercises, but you are not likely to need one of those until you get to a more advanced level.
It has been shown that following a high protein diet can increase your metabolism and provide you with more energy. An increase in dietary protein intake can be metabolically advantageous, mainly for overweight and obese adults who need to lose weight. With all other things being equal, more protein is better for generating greater fat loss and for lean body mass retention.
You may want to add supplementation to get the results you want. Using special supplements can work really well when you combine them with proper weightlifting techniques and a personal trainer. A good supplement stack to try is the THE ULTIMATE PUMP STACK.
