If you want to grow the outer part of your thigh (vastus lateralis), leg presses might be more effective than leg extensions.

61

Pro

0

Against

Evidence from Studies

Supporting (1)

61

Community contributions welcome

61

Exercise Selection Differentially Influences Lower Body Regional Muscle Development

Randomized Controlled Trial

Human

This study found that doing leg presses (which use multiple joints) made the outer part of the thigh muscle grow more than doing leg extensions (which only bend the knee), just like the claim said.

Contradicting (0)

0

Community contributions welcome

No contradicting evidence found

Gold Standard Evidence Needed

According to GRADE and EBM methodology, here is what ideal scientific evidence would look like to definitively prove or disprove this specific claim, ordered from strongest to weakest evidence.

Source Study

Exercise Selection Differentially Influences Lower Body Regional Muscle Development

Score: 61

DOI: 10.1007/s42978-024-00299-4

Similar Assertions

If you want to grow the front part of your thigh muscle (rectus femoris), doing leg extensions might work better than doing leg presses.

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Pushing a heavy leg press machine makes the outer part of your thigh muscle grow more than doing leg extensions, because it puts more overall stress on that part of the muscle.

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Doing a lot more leg workouts—over 50 sets a week—doesn’t make your thigh muscles grow bigger than doing 20–40 sets a week, even if you train for 12 weeks.

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The type of leg exercise you do — whether it’s a leg press, leg extension, or calf raise — can change which part of your leg muscles grow bigger, and you can see the difference in just 8 weeks.

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Compound lower-body exercises performed through a full range of motion (e.g., squats) induce greater hypertrophy in the distal regions of mono-articular quadriceps muscles (e.g., vastus lateralis) compared to isolation exercises, likely due to training at longer muscle lengths.

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