Leg Pressing Overrated...
We’ve been hearing a lot about leg pressing in the news lately. Earlier this month Madeline Albright, former Secretary of State, made the news with the assertion that she can “leg press” 400 pounds.Today we are informed that TV Evangelist Pat Robertson has “leg pressed” 2000 pounds. Persons who have seen the image evidence of Robertson’s feat say the weight he is working with only adds up to 1000 pounds. ..so some are clearly working with different definitions.
I used to do leg presses as part of my fitness workout in the mid eighties. The most I ever did was 800 pounds, but that was doing 8 to 12 reps, 3 sets. I never actually tried to see what the max I could do was.
You see leg presses are done in a levered piece of equipment. You are not setting 400 pounds on your shoulders and doing knee bends like Olympic weightlifters.
You sit at between a 35 to 55 degree angle (it varies by machine) and support, then draw down and push away the weight which is on a greased track. There is a mechanical advantage involved here where you are able to push more weight for a short distance. The machine is designed to safely support the weight when you aren’t doing the reps and probably absorbs some of the weight in its structure.I see 110 lb women every day at the club I belong to leg pressing 400 - 600 pounds repeatedly.
It's not as difficult as it sounds!
posted by jipzeecab @ 6:05 PM
10 Comments
10 Comments:
it sure is not.
Apparently a couple of other reports have compared Robertson's claim with the FSU team record, set by former fullback Dan Kendra at 1600+ lbs. They say it took so much effort that the capillaries in Kendra's eyes burst. I guess Robertson could bust this record by 400 lbs without busting a capillary because God is on his side...
- The Redington Pirate
Doesn't she do enough heavy weight-lifting just walking around?
Good thing that the name "Robertson" was in that photo's URL, because otherwise I would have thought it was a picture of YOU.
Like Hawkman said back in the early 1940s, "The muscles in my legs are ten times as powerful as the muscles in my arms." Just as he was swooping down to kick an opponent in the jaw.
Ohligarch,
I deviated from my usual rule of trying to place the picture in the corresponding text to try to give the post some balance and I actually thought most would recognize him in the picture.
Hawkman is right about leg muscles especially the quads which are very powerful. Most can jump as high off a single leg as they can with both.
The obnoxiousness with which our culture seems to prize those who can lift, carry or bulk up their bodies through either natural or (as is more often the case) artifical means is as repugnant to the natural health industry as those who would rather sit pretty on their ever widening spuds in front of the television.
Being inclined to train with weights (without the use of stimulants)it disgusts me how much the steroid abusing mongrel on the beach is more readily valued simply because he's exploding veins and sinew from every conceivable angle. Here's a thought...it takes nothing to bulk up with help as opposed to tone up without anything behind you but total will power.
Cheating with drugs or machines that do a third of the work for you while you profess to lift 1600 lbs. through 'Herculean' strength is a bogus and vain claim to fame.
So your sixty-five and can kick like Shirley Maclaine in her prime - SO WHAT?!? And by the way - have you seen Albright or Robertson's thighs of late. They're nothing to write home about.
Great comments all!
.. and who is on the photo below?
Krishna,
That is the Reverend Mr. Pat Robertson with about 1000 lbs on a leg press apparatus..
I thought for a moment if it was you. But he looks happy and fit. keep well!
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