Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Kiel DiGiovanni, Co-founder
FACT CHECKED
The leg press may be the single most effective machine in the gym. It's also one of the most versatile, meaning you have many options, with one variable being the number of reps you use. The leg press is an awesome lower-body exercise, so you'll benefit regardless of what reps you use. However, some rep schemes work well with the leg press, while others don't. If you've ever wondered how many reps to use with the leg press, check this guide out.
The Leg Press
The leg press machines are used to simulate a squatting movement.
It consists of a sled that runs on a track that ends in a seat. Usually, the track is set at 45 degrees, and the weight is plate-loaded. However, there's a wide variety of designs but they all serve the same purpose: loading the legs in a squatting movement pattern while supporting the back.
It's performed with a lifter sitting in the seat with their feet placed on the sled. This setup provides the lifter with a ton of support and stability. In addition, the back is removed from the movement, meaning you only need to concentrate on pressing with the legs.
Together, this allows lifters to press significantly more weight than on the back squat.
In addition, it's highly versatile by allowing you to use different leg press foot placements to target different muscles.
The Best Way To Use The Leg Press
Before discussing which reps to use for the leg press, let's discuss the best way. When we look at different exercises, we find that specific exercises are better suited for certain jobs.
For example, there's a difference between exercises better suited for high reps and those better suited with fewer reps. There are also exercises better suited for strength and those better suited for muscle growth.
Of course, there's plenty of overlap, and none of these descriptions are absolute, but you get the idea. With that in mind, we believe the leg press is best suited here.
The Leg Press Is An Accessory Movement
When we divide the exercises in a session, we can divide them into general subgroups of:
- Primary
- Accessory
- Isolation
In most cases, the leg press is classified as an accessory movement. This basically means it's best used to support one of your primary exercises, which is generally the back squat.
This means the leg press is best used to improve the back squat or train the legs differently. It can also address weaknesses that are missed with the back squat.
Generally, when speaking about leg press vs back squat, the latter is used to place more volume on the legs while protecting the back due to its support. Usually, the back squat is performed with heavier reps while the leg press is used with higher reps.
As mentioned, the leg press can be used to continue training the legs while resting your back after you finish the back squat.
The leg press is also unique as you can use different foot positions to target different areas, but the primary function remains. For example:
- High foot placement for hamstrings
- Low foot placement for quadriceps
- Wider foot placement for glutes
An Alternative Exercise For Those With Injuries Or Mobility Issues
While the back squat is the ultimate lower body exercise, it's not appropriate for everyone. It's a bit technical and requires high levels of mobility to perform safely, and not everyone can do it.
This is where the leg press comes in. The leg press is one of the best squat alternatives because it offers back support, it's much safer to use, especially with heavier loads. This makes it optimal for lifters with mobility issues or past injuries.
Sometimes, when a new lifter starts training, you can teach them the back squat with very light loads to improve form. Then, you move them to the leg press to load the leg muscles with higher loads.
Increase Volume
When we use the leg press, we personally like to use either:
- High sets
- High reps
- Both
Basically, this means we're either doing:
- 3+ sets of 15+ reps
- 5+ sets of 6-10 reps
Now, there's plenty of nuance here, and different people have different needs, but this is on average. We do this for several reasons:
- Due to the high loads, it can take time and multiple warm-up sets just to reach your working sets. Loading and unloading 10 plates takes time.
- There's minimal stress on the back and core, allowing more volume while mitigating fatigue. We like to take advantage of this.
- It creates a low level of fatigue in your CNS (central nervous system), which makes it unique compared to other compound lower body exercises.
How Many Reps Should You Use On The Leg Press?
So now that you have the leg press in your training program, how many reps should you use? Well, the good thing about the leg press is its versatility. You can realistically use the entire rep scheme depending on your goals.
We'll first discuss the rep schemes you should use based on your goals. Then, we'll discuss some unique rep schemes to try further below.
Strength (4-6 Reps)
When training heavily for strength on the leg press, we'll stick to the 4-6 rep range. This is optimal as it's a heavy load, but it is easier to maintain good form.
It's easy to use poor form on the leg press when training with very high loads, such as your butt coming off the seat. So, while you could probably get the weight up, your form will suffer and increase the risk of injury.
Muscle Growth (8-15 Reps)
When it comes to muscle growth, your primary goal is to increase the volume placed on the muscles. This is the number one variable that drives muscle growth: more volume = more growth.
The easiest way to do this is to use this moderate rep range. Now, 15 reps is a tad higher than what's usually considered moderate, but the legs tend to respond well to these higher rep ranges.
Many studies suggest 6-12 reps, which is good, too, but the main idea is that you're in this moderate rep range.¹
Ultra-High (20+ Reps)
If you've never done ultra-high reps, you're in for a surprise. Performing sets of 20+ reps can be a nice little shock to the system and humble any lifter.
The issue with using 20+ reps with other exercises is fatigue. Performing these ultra-high reps will fatigue your body, which could lead to a break in form. Therefore, if we ever use this rep scheme, the leg press is our number 1 choice for leg exercises.
Keep in mind that using 20+ reps is intense. Therefore, you should use these sparingly.
What's The Best Rep Range For The Leg Press?
Above, we reviewed the different rep ranges you can use on the leg press, depending on your goals. However, which is the best?
In our opinion, the leg press is best used in the 10-20 rep range. That's obviously a large rep range, but this is how we use it. In fact, here's a breakdown of how we use it in our programs.
- 4-6 10-20%
- 6-10 Reps 20-30%
- 10-20 50-60%
- 20+ 10%
As you see, we primarily do higher reps with the leg press to increase volume while occasionally dipping into heavier loads with fewer reps.
Remember that under normal circumstances, you'd use the squat for heavier lifting and the leg press to support it.
Can You Perform 1RM On Leg Press?
Some exercises work better, performing a true 1RM max effort. Some just don't make sense.
In our opinion, the leg press isn't one that doesn't make sense. This is for a couple of reasons:
- The leg press isn't a primary exercise
- Leg press machines aren't standard, so a single number is meaningless
- It's too easy to use crap form to get the load up
While performing strength training with a heavy load is fine, attempting to press out a 100% max effort serves little purpose. To put it bluntly, no one cares about your 1RM leg press.
For one, it doesn't mean anything due to the machine variation. Further, as you're going for maximum effort, getting out of position is too easy as you're trying to force the load up.
So, while you can perform the leg press with low reps and heavy loads, avoid attempting a true 1RM.
Best Rep Schemes To Use On Leg Press
Now that we have a better idea of how rep schemes influence different muscular adaptations, we want to discuss some effective rep schemes you can use.
Leg press rep schemes are generally more straightforward than squat or bench press rep schemes. This just means that there are more straight sets when every set contains the same load and reps.
This isn't always true, but it leans towards that direction. Remember that putting work on the legs and building volume is ultimately the primary goal.
Now, you can obviously use any straight set that meets your needs, such as:
- 4 Sets x 8 Reps
- 5 Sets x 5 Reps
- 3 Sets x 15 Reps
Therefore, we won't list these below. Instead, we'll list some schemes that stand out a bit.
12/10/8/6/4 Ramp Up Sets
This is a classic ramp up set scheme. It utilizes five sets, with each set progressively lifting heavier loads. We really like this simple scheme because it works across the entire load.
As we mentioned, it can sometimes take quite a few warm-up sets to progress to a heavy working set on the leg press, as the load can sometimes be very high. This rep scheme takes advantage of that and uses the lighter sets as actual working sets.
This would differ from performing warm-up sets in that each of the 5 sets is trained until failure, whereas a warm-up set may only work up to RPE6-7. So, you're just doing all of your ramped-up sets close to failure.
Remember that these are estimates when you're supposed to do 12 or 6 reps. It can be hard to judge the correct weight for each set accurately. Therefore, if you choose to do 8 reps with a weight but find you could easily do more, do them and make notes.
An easy way to think of this is 5 ramped sets of increasing weight, which you perform until you reach an RPE8-9.
German Volume Training (GVT)
EMOM (Every Minute On The Minute) is a great scheme for improving anaerobic conditioning and consuming a lot of volume. To perform an EMOM, start a clock and then perform the prescribed reps. You then rest for however much more time you have until the next minute when you perform the next set.
Now, German Volume Training (GVT) uses this protocol to perform 10 sets with 10 reps. This means the total training will take 10 minutes, and you'll perform 100 reps. This is how it might look:
- Minute 1 (0:00-0:59): You perform 10 reps, which takes 25. Therefore, you rest for 35s.
- Minute 2 (1:00-1:59): You begin your 2nd set of 10. It takes 28s, which gives you 32s of rest.
- Minute 3 (2:00-2:59): You begin your 3rd set of 10. It takes 30s, giving you 30s of rest.
- Continue for 10 minutes
GVT is a very effective rep scheme for gaining a lot of volume. It works really well with the leg press. It's the easiest way to get a ton of volume fast.
5 Sets X 10 Reps EMOM
5 Sets x 10 Reps is a scaled version of German Volume Training (GVT) in which you perform 5 sets of 10 reps. The good thing about using a 5X10 rep scheme on leg press is you could perform this more frequently.
50 reps is a quick and easy way to inject a ton of volume into your leg training.
3 Sets X 20 Reps
3 Sets x 20 Reps is an ultra-high rep scheme for shocking your legs. The first time you try this, use very light weight, no heavier than 50% of your 1RM. Further, you might want to just use 2 sets your first go.
Similar to GVT, you can technically use this with anything, and some advanced lifters use it with the back squat. However, it's highly fatiguing, and performing barbell back squats can be challenging.
The leg press offers support and stabilization, making it safer and easier to push out when your legs are on fire.
Get The Leg Press Program In Your Rotation
This article should have given you some ideas on the best ways to utilize the leg press with different rep schemes. At the end of the day, all rep schemes can be effective and will provide you with awesome benefits.
More importantly, the leg press will help to support all of your other lower body lifts.
Progressive overload is the number one common variable you must keep in mind when performing any leg press reps. Utilizing progressive overload to add weight or more reps will always play a crucial role in your progress. Reppin 8 or 20 reps; as long as you're doing more week after week, you'll see your legs blow up!
Check out more resources on everything related to reps:
- How Many Reps For Overhead Press?
- How Many Reps For Bench Press?
- How Many Reps For Back Squat?
- Rep Ranges For Strength & Hypertrophy
- High Reps vs Low Reps
- Partial Reps For Muscle Growth
References
- Schoenfeld, Brad J. “The Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and Their Application to Resistance Training.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, vol. 24, no. 10, Oct. 2010, pp. 2857–72, journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/fulltext/2010/10000/The_Mechanisms_of_Muscle_Hypertrophy_and_Their.40.aspxLike.
Garett Reid
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