How intense should my leg workout be?

[mewletter]

Since my new job requires long hours standing and walking, I wanted to trained my legs during my workout not too intense I felt very sore the next following days like I used. Can anyone recommend how heavy I should train so that my legs still develop yet would cause the unnecessary hindrance to my work the next day?


Currently I had 4-5 leg exercises, 3 sets of no more 12 reps (except calf raises up to 16) with intensity ranging around 50% to 80% of 1RM. Any feedback will be appreciated.

[inflated]

Keep leg workouts intense because no matter what leg workouts often result in soreness regardless of the intensity. Its not the amount of exercises but the intensity--use good form because leg workouts are one of the easier ways to get injured if your form is not impeccable.

[chocomus]

what they said, tiredness and soreness means not being used to the exercise or having started recently. Keep up and soon it will get better.

But don't get hurt in the process

[WhoDunIt]

Originally Posted by drew

Leg workouts should be as intense as possible...always!

Plus divide legs up over multiple days. This idea that you can satisfy the workout needs of an entire half of your body in one day is silly.

If you want to prevent a lot of soreness, go for a bikeride immediately following a hard leg workout. It will prevent the majority of soreness.

Oddly enough, that's what I've been doing with my leg work, with the exception of some cycling (need to do that though) and I work retail and can work anywere from 5-8+ hours a day and usually only sit down to use the john and sometimes for lunch. If I'm doing leg presses, I definatly will sit down and eat during lunch, otherwise I've been walking on my lunch the past few weeks and eat a small sandwich or protien/meal replacement bar.

[mewletter]

Here is my current weekly workout schedule.

Tuesday: Chest and arms
Thursday: Back and shoulders
Saturday: Abs and legs

Since Drew recommend to do more leg workout, how frequent should I do each week? I want to make sure there's at least a day break between workouts since I recover quite slow.

And since I'm living about 20 minutes walk away from the gym, can I replace that bike ride for that?