Bike rides. I hate indoor bicycling, but outdoors biking feels so amazing. Weights may grow larger muscle but you’ll get plenty strong by bike.

Or stairs. I live in a 10-story building and often use our stairs for exercise.

Barre

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try yoga or ballet instead of weightlifting.

That’s not going to build muscle in their legs

Joe Rogan spoke about this - Yoga will reveal any weakness very early. Sure size comes from lifting but the minor muscles, flexibility, and overall balance will not be tested by lifting.

I don't think lifting only is the answer - I think you can rotate to make it functional. I see guys with huge quads on the stair climber they are hunched down with really bad form. Take the pain and humility and practice upright stairs. I think all together work with yoga work really well.

I live in a flat part of San Francisco but recently housesat in a hilly part. I went for a walk at least twice a day, and have leg muscles in places I didn't even know could develop them. If you don't have hills, I guess a stairclimber at a gym would mimic that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try yoga or ballet instead of weightlifting.

That’s not going to build muscle in their legs

Yoga and reformer pilates built a ton of muscle in my legs.

bike

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Try yoga or ballet instead of weightlifting.

That’s not going to build muscle in their legs

NP. No, but each builds strength in completely different ways than lifting.

Stairs

Anonymous wrote:Try yoga or ballet instead of weightlifting.

That’s not going to build muscle in their legs

Try yoga or ballet instead of weightlifting.

Can you do them with dumbbells suitcase style to reduce the pressure on your spine? Other good suggestions above for lunges, hip thrusts etc.

Anonymous wrote:Did your doctor recommend for you to avoid back exercise? My doctor told me to actually start doing more deadlifts and squats so I can build up my back muscles to make up for my weak spine (DDD).

If they did recommend for you to stop squats/deadlifts, you can do leg press for quads, leg curls for hamstrings, and hip thrusts for glutes. Hope this helps.

Yes. I've had multiple disc herniations over the years. I am just completely done with any form of barbell squat or deadlift because of the tremendous pressure it places in your spine even with good form. It's basic biophysics, no matter how good of form you can use, you are still placing a load on your back that will be felt in your spine. Even front squats place load on the lower spine.

Doc said quit it already or play roulette with more pain.

Nobody needs to be doing barbell squats. You can do sumo squats with large dumbbells you hold vertically between your legs . Adjust your tempo for time under tension (3 seconds to lower, pulsing at the bottom, etc) or the leg press machine. Should still be able to do dumbbell Romanian deadlifts - try different stances - stiff leg, sumo, etc. Again, play with the tempo. Curtsy lunges, reverse lunges, walking lunges, all help build definition in the hamstrings and quads. The hamstring curl machine is also doable.

Did your doctor recommend for you to avoid back exercise? My doctor told me to actually start doing more deadlifts and squats so I can build up my back muscles to make up for my weak spine (DDD).

If they did recommend for you to stop squats/deadlifts, you can do leg press for quads, leg curls for hamstrings, and hip thrusts for glutes. Hope this helps.

My spine is terrible and I am completely retiring barbell deadlifts and any form of barbell squats from my routine. It is just far too much injury risk for me at this age. What other exercises should I be doing to build strong legs? I do the sled machine, but it seems too easy. I do Bulgarian split squats. Anything else I can do to help replace deadlifts and squats?