It’s easy to fall
into the trap of thinking more weight automatically means more muscle gain/hypertrophy, or even more strength. That’s not always the case.
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If you are
performing a leg extension, your goal is to find a way that you can maximise the tension on the target muscle(s), regardless of whether your goal is hypertrophy or strength. But, this does not necessarily mean more weight, more reps or more sets. They are likely what you want over time, but only once you have standardised your technique.
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Take the following examples:
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Person 1 - Adds weight to the machine each week for 12 weeks, but progressively increases the cadence of each rep, swinging a bit more, losing control at the top, and allowing the hips to rise up.
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Person 2 - Makes just one jump in load during the 12 weeks, but maintains control of each repetition, at a standardised cadence, with no other joint other than the knee moving.
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At first glance, it would seem that person 1 is going to make more progress. But, how do you know? Unless you can measure the contribution of their body language to the movement of the load, then we don’t really know where we stand.
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Therefore, adopting the approach of person 2 is likely a good idea to at least standardise your training, and give yourself a more accurate representation of the strength of the
muscles producing force at that joint.
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This doesn’t mean you should devalue load progression, not at all. Load progression over time is very important,
but you should aim to do so with the confidence that the progression in load is the result of prior muscular adaptations, as opposed to changes in your technique (assuming you have an internal goal, as is generally the case on a leg extension, versus a squat or deadlift, where lots of trainees have external goals).
Not everything can be standardised -- do what you can.
Kind Regards,
Gary & Paddy
Triage Method
