Hypertrophy Evidence Notes
All topics

Skipping Leg Training

Skipping legs is a valid choice. If you add them, start with a minimal once-a-week, 6–10 set setup; being close to untrained, they grow fast.

211Last reviewed Verdicts

Bottom line

Whether to skip legs is your call. This page covers what you give up by skipping them, and the minimum setup for when you want to add them back.

  • Training legs is better for visual balance, bone density, and long-term health
  • If you add them, start with once a week, 6–10 sets. Your legs are close to untrained, so they grow fast even on low volume
  • You can maintain your upper body even if you cut its volume somewhat

What you give up

Legs make up about half of total skeletal muscle. Skipping them widens the visual gap between upper and lower body.

No study has looked at visual balance itself. This is a common-sense inference.

People who do resistance training have a 10–17% lower risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes. The risk reduction peaks at around 30–60 minutes per week.

Meta-analysis of 16 cohort studies (Momma 2022). These are observational studies, so they can’t show causation. They also don’t distinguish full-body from upper-body-only training. Two 60–75 minute upper-body sessions a week already exceed this amount, so the added benefit of training legs is unknown.

Bone only gets stronger where it is loaded. Upper-body training does not put axial load on the hip and spine, the sites that matter clinically.

  • Bone adapts at the sites that bear load (review by Hong & Kim 2018)
  • Progressive resistance training increased hip bone density: +2.77% at the femur and hip in older adults (O’Bryan 2022), and with heavy squats and deadlifts in postmenopausal women (Watson 2018, Kistler-Fischbacher 2021)
  • No RCT in young trained men was found. Applying these results here is an inference

Minimum setup if you add them

Young people maintained hypertrophy for 32 weeks after cutting training volume to 1/9 of the original (once a week).

A maintenance-phase study after 16 weeks of training (Bickel 2011). A review (Spiering 2021) also found that strength could be maintained for up to 32 weeks with one session a week and one set per exercise, as long as intensity was kept. So trimming some upper-body volume to make room for legs will almost certainly not cost you upper-body size.

An example if you add them (once a week, either at the end of the back and arms day or as a separate fifth day):

ExerciseSetsRepsRIR
Leg press or hack squat38–121–2
Romanian deadlift28–102
Seated leg curl310–150–1
Calf raise (brief pause at the bottom)310–150–1

References

  1. Momma H et al. 2022. Muscle-strengthening activities are associated with lower risk and mortality in major non-communicable diseases. Br J Sports Med. PMID 35228201
  2. Hong AR, Kim SW. 2018. Effects of Resistance Exercise on Bone Health. Endocrinol Metab. PMID 30513557
  3. O’Bryan SJ et al. 2022. Progressive Resistance Training for Concomitant Increases in Muscle Strength and Bone Mineral Density in Older Adults. Sports Med. PMID 35608815
  4. Watson SL et al. 2018. High-Intensity Resistance and Impact Training Improves Bone Mineral Density and Physical Function in Postmenopausal Women With Osteopenia and Osteoporosis: The LIFTMOR Randomized Controlled Trial. J Bone Miner Res. PMID 28975661
  5. Kistler-Fischbacher M et al. 2021. The effect of exercise intensity on bone in postmenopausal women (part 2): A meta-analysis. Bone. PMID 33357834
  6. Bickel CS et al. 2011. Exercise dosing to retain resistance training adaptations in young and older adults. Med Sci Sports Exerc. PMID 21131862
  7. Spiering BA et al. 2021. Maintaining Physical Performance: The Minimal Dose of Exercise Needed to Preserve Endurance and Strength Over Time. J Strength Cond Res. PMID 33629972