Nothing separates the men from the boys (or the women from the girls) more than when it’s time to work the legs.

Legs are tough. In general, they require a lot of work in order to grow. The legs usually need to be stressed with plenty of weight as well. When the legs are pumped, they drain blood from the rest of the body causing that dreaded queasy feeling in the stomach.

By far, the best overall leg exercise is the squat, but it’s amazing how many excuses people can think of to avoid squatting. If you can’t use heavy weights while squatting (and you have a good reason why not) or if you’d like to try a different approach to working your legs, you may be a perfect candidate for 20-rep sets.

Twenty-rep squat sets are as brutal as they sound. Naturally, you’ll need to cut back on the weight. Approximately 75 percent of the weight you use for a normal 10-rep range ought to do the trick.

Begin the set as you would a standard squat. Stand upright with the bar across your shoulders, your feet shoulder width apart, toes pointed slightly outward.
Bend the knees, keeping the back as straight as possible. Use a full motion and bend as deeply as you can without discomfort (aching quads don’t count!).
Stay conscious of keeping the back straight when lifting up and don’t lock the knees at the top of the motion.
Breath deeply! You’ll start gasping for air after the twelfth rep or so.
Keep going!

Once your breathing returns to normal, begin the next set. Start with 4 sets. Add a set each time you work legs in this manner until you can do 10 sets. If you choose to continue the 20-rep squat routine, begin adding weight to the bar. Before long, you’ll be able to handle 20 reps of the same weight you used for 10. And as a pleasant little side effect, you’ll probably have added an inch to each quadricep.

Twenty-rep squat sets work the entire leg and they’re the very best “glute firmer” I can think of. Try them out the next time leg day comes around. The day after this workout, you may have a little difficulty sitting down! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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