When it comes to choosing the "best" exercise for building strong leg muscles one of the first exercises brought up is the leg press. Yet when you analyze this movement closely and actually see what it does to your body, you will find it close to last on your list of leg exercises, along with a few of it's buddies the leg extension and leg curl. True strength is more than just muscle size and it is definitely never created from training with machines. When it comes to rehabilitation after a knee injury it seems logical to find a safe way to train and get your muscles back by using machines like the leg press. Most people would regard rebuilding strength and muscles as the number one priority, and completed at the expense of balance, stability, coordination and even how you move! Even the sports world who rely on skills are corrupted with this logic. I cannot tell you how many times I have started training with a new client who tells me how strong their legs are and that they can push 300--400kg on a leg press, yet when I test them for functional movements such as Squats, Lunges or a single leg stance they can barely lift their own bodyweight! This article we are going to look closely at the leg press and show you why squats are superior to this exercise in so many ways.

Anyone who has had a severe or chronic leg injury, will know just how difficult it can be to do the simplest of movements or activities such as walking up stairs or getting in and out of cars. Even just regular walking itself can be hard! I should know, I have had more than my share of injuries. Most of my injuries have been on my left leg, and many of them could have been easily prevented if I had adopted the methods and exercise techniques I am going to share with you in this article. For these injuries were not bad luck, they were all postural and movement related. Plus the fact I did not rehabilitate them correctly and went straight back to playing sports, led to compensation and dysfunction, that created a new injury. Each time this happened I became much less stable, stiff at various joints and much weaker. It was only later in life taking on my current role, researching and learning from my mistakes, did I find the answer. And possibly the greatest answer has been the power of learning how to do a Single Leg Squat. In this article. I will show why we regard this so highly in both rehabilitation and injury prevention.

In the past 10 years the role that strength training plays in the Health industry has taken some giant leaps forward. No longer is this just limited to the guys who want to look like Arnie. Better education and a more open minded approach by many health organizations and practitioners who now see how important adding muscle is for prevention of disease such as Cancer, Diabetes and prevention of many injuries. The community looks up to these authorities to guide them on what to do, and as a result things have started to change in gyms as people are sold on the idea that strength training is important for health. However, it is at this point that things begin to go backwards. The methods that people follow with strength training are still based on the guys doing "Arnie curls" and even worse machine training. And I don't just mean Personal Trainers, but most of the rehabilitation field and methods used for older adults also use this style of training. Why? Well there is many reasons for this which I will explain in this article, but by far the biggest problem is that their is still a real lack of education about how we are designed to move, how we efficiently create and improve our strength, and how strength relates to health. So while we have come far in terms of recognizing we need resistance training, our method on doing this has a long way to go.