To get pro-sized legs you need to take advice from a pro. Jon De La Rosa stepped up the press to give us his secret scoop on how to get the sweeping muscle running through your thighs.
He’s a man who has been in the lifting game for decades and discovered certain techniques are better for gaining size.
“It starts with a mental attitude because I have a very deep desire to just be my absolute best in this,” he says. “The hard part is that I never seem to be satisfied. Even in victory. It’s important to keep chasing your dreams and never ever stop or be satisfied. You can always do and be better. Once that’s settled, progressive loads have always been my go to. What this means is we progressively add more weight as the weeks go on and strength builds. This is a slow and tedious process but yields the best results. You also need to make sure you are eating plenty of calories to facilitate muscular hypertrophy. Without these excess calories coming in, you are only damaging the tissue and not giving it the nutrients needed to repair and create new tissue. I would even say that there is more of a direct correlation between eating and growing than there is between lifting and growing. How a person moves 30lbs from point A to point B can be achieved very differently. Where one person may not feel 30lbs as a heavy weight, the next may know how to utilize those 30lbs more effectively!”
Dietary tweaks
Fresh from several wins this year, we asked Jon how he changed his diet to create new successes. “My coach Neil Hill really looked at what I was eating daily and made some adjustments but nothing that I wasn’t already eating,” he says. “The biggest thing he looked at was what foods would help with digesting the large amounts of food I would need to eat more e!ectively. We ended up eating plenty of fresh pineapple and blueberry.”
Extreme mass leg routine:
Leg extensions (4 X 20 reps)
A) Sit at a leg extension machine with your ankles tucked under the footpads, back and buttocks flush against the seat.
B) Slowly extend your legs up and forward until they are straight in front of you, but keep your knees unlocked. Pause, then slowly bend your knees until your legs are lowered back down.
Stiff leg deadlifts (4 x 15-20 reps)
A) Place a barbell in front of you and grab it with an overhand grip. Don’t sacrifice form by rounding your shoulders forward. Keep your knees straight but not entirely locked.
B) Straighten your back to pick the barbell up while keeping it as close to yourself as possible. Take 2-3 seconds to lower it to the start.
Leg press (5-7 x 10 reps)
A) Sit at a leg-press machine with your back and glutes flat against the back pad and feet hip-width apart.
B) Press the weight up until your legs are straight, but keep knees unlocked. Release the support bar and slowly lower the weight until your legs are bent at 90º. Push the weight back up until your legs are straight, knees unlocked.
Single leg curls (4 x 15-20 reps)
A) Lie on the hamstring machine with only one of your ankles under the pad.
B) Bend your leg to curl the pad up until it touches your glutes. Take 3-4 seconds to lower the pad to the start. Repeat on the other leg.
Lying leg curls (4 x 15-20)
A) Lie on the hamstring machine with your ankles under the pads and your torso pressed flat on the platform.
B) Bend your legs to curl the pad up until it touches your glutes. Take 3-4 seconds to lower the pad to the start.
