The leg press is one of my favourite machine exercises.

I always thought I knew how to leg press until I met Craig.

I realised that there was actually skill involved in this exercise and to get the most out of it and express my true strength there were a few key things I was doing wrong - a big one was I wasn't breathing and bracing correctly.

So why do we use breathing and bracing?

And how does this apply to the leg press?

Breathing and bracing is necessary in big movements (like the squat and the deadlift) for maximum stability.

If you aren’t breathing and bracing… you aren’t going to perform the movement as efficiently…

...and you aren’t going to be as strong as you need to be (which is necessary for increasing muscle mass so you can burn more calories at rest and eat more food).

These breathing and bracing techniques create good form and allow you to generate power from your legs and hips into the bar as you push yourself up from that bottom squat position.

It allows you to perform each movement well, increase your performance, and increase your repetitions, sets, and weight.

In turn, this helps you increase your strength over time.

In the leg press… the seat acts as a bracing mechanism for you.

This is why you can load up a shit ton of weight and just smash out a ton of reps.

But it’s not just about sitting in that seat.

You’ve got to lock yourself into the seat and unrack the weight… from there, you can pump it out until your legs fatigue.

This seat and locking in provides the stability element for you…

… which is great for leg muscle development.

You don’t need to think too much about it and you’re able to build strength relatively quickly.

From there, you can do quick top up breaths that go in line with how and when you’re pushing.

The leg press is also a fairly safe exercise because the bracing and stability element is basically done for you…

BUT you have to ensure you aren’t setting the weight down too far. When you do this, your hips rotate and tilt in an anterior position. This creates increased lumbar flexion which also increases your injury risk.

With the squat and the leg press, you want to make sure you break when you’re thighs are about parallel.

It’s like in the squat… you don’t want your ass to the grass.

This is not activating the maximum amount of muscle fibers and you aren’t getting the maximum amount of stimulus that these movements can provide.

Make sure you’re doing each one correctly BEFORE adding weight.

It’s about mastering one step at a time…

It’s the only way you’ll be able to create optimal strength and progress accordingly.

It will also ensure you don’t face setbacks like injuries that are entirely preventable.

exercises.