Here's a reason to avoid the leg press. It'll put too much pressure on the knee's.

Before I learned about squats and deadlifts, I would legpress pretty often. My leg press was 550 lbs 15-20 full reps(knee's would make at least a 90 degree angle) when I stopped. I was only 117lbs at the time also. My squat however is 155 lbs 5 rep. My deadlift is 250 5x4 (right now i weigh 125-130lbs).

So, the leg press probably puts a lot more pressure on the knee's that the squat and deadlift. With the squat and deadlift, you have to be a certain size in order to lift heavy. You can't get away with lifting heavy when you're still small.


Btw, it wasn't the leverage of the machiene or anything either. Average leg presser would do around 300 lbs (average person being 150-170 lbs). I was about 117 lbs when I stoped doing leg press. Also btw, I had to work up to that leg press. Started at 100 lbs body weight leg pressing around 200lbs (which is good for a 100lbs, but I did track and feild and x-country in highschool). Working dilligently, About 3 years later I got up to 117lbs body weight and 550x15 leg press.

I do miss the days of impressing everyone with my leg press though. I remember one day when I was doing around 500 lbs. This guy asks me if I could work in (he seems slightly athletic, around 170 lbs). I said 'sure, do you need to change the weight'. The guy say's, 'no, i think i'll be fine'. After I do my set of 15-20, they guy goes on, does 5 half reps, then says, 'uh, i think i'll take it easy,' and goes on to do something else.

could you stop posting these pointless threads with horribly wrong info?

I used to do leg presses and think it was safe... it was scrutinized by medical and fitness experts for decades... but I quit doing it when someone came on sosuave forums one day and told me that it "probably puts more strain on your knees".

mrRuckus said:

could you stop posting these pointless threads with horribly wrong info?

Click to expand...

You called me out on the knee scraping in my deadlift form thread. I reflected on what you said, and came to the conclusion that it might be unique for me since I have very long legs compared to my body, so they stick out more.

If any of my other threads have wrong info call me out.

As for this one. . . .I noticed that the leg press machine is at an angle, not straight up and up like a deadlift or squat. Therefore the force is reduced in leg press. By how much?
Say the angle between that the leg press sled makes with the floor is 45 degree's. That means you are only lifting sin(45)% of the verticle weight, or 70.7% of the verticle weight. If a leg press makes a 70 degree angle with the floor, the force pushed is 93.9% (sin(70)).

550*.707 = 388 which is still a lot higher than my squat or deadlift.


MrRuckus, if you would like to elaborate, it would be highly appreciated.

spesmilitis said:

You called me out on the knee scraping in my deadlift form thread. I reflected on what you said, and came to the conclusion that it might be unique for me since I have very long legs compared to my body, so they stick out more.

If any of my other threads have wrong info call me out.

As for this one. . . .I noticed that the leg press machine is at an angle, not straight up and up like a deadlift or squat. Therefore the force is reduced in leg press. By how much?
Say the angle between that the leg press sled makes with the floor is 45 degree's. That means you are only lifting sin(45)% of the verticle weight, or 70.7% of the verticle weight. If a leg press makes a 70 degree angle with the floor, the force pushed is 93.9% (sin(70)).

550*.707 = 388 which is still a lot higher than my squat or deadlift.


MrRuckus, if you would like to elaborate, it would be highly appreciated.

Click to expand...

The leg press is a good exercise, def not a replacement to any squat but nice for doing accesory work.

Spes seems like your over thinking a lot of this stuff. The people that do the best are the ones that show up when its time to lift, and show up when its time to eat and don't put much thought into it.

I just have a lot of time to think =/

I may be over thinking the danger to the knees, but im pretty confident that people can put a lot more weight on the leg press than they can on a squat or deadlift.

spes, put down the geometry set and eat something.

there's nothing wrong with the 45 degree leg press as a secondary or even as a main leg exercise if you can't or won't squat.

3 strikes form MrRuckus, EFFORT, and WBA.

Its time for me to shutup and do some eating.

So when (if) you start squatting 500lbs you'll quit that too because it puts "so much stress" on your legs? It's good to know you're squatting (you can big some killer legs from nothing but squats), but the argument against the leg press is pretty weak. That said, I don't do it because it's a pain getting all those plates on and then deloading.