Losing Muscle

I am surprised to not see this question on here already given the nature of the sport.

I was wondering if anyone else had tried to reduce the amount of muscle on their legs to improve their strength to weight ratio. I used to squat full ROM and olympic lift twice a week and sometimes feel I am one lunge away from my legs exploding. I believe I am at the higher end of average size.

Has anyone had any experience with this or tried to reduce leg muscle mass?

I remember this post

Coach Sommer said:

Is it even necessary to incorporate the OLs into such a program as gymnastics training itself already includes a great deal of speed strength and plyometric work? Would our needs be better served simply focusing on a greatly restricted volume program of a heavy squat or deadlift variation? Once again, the answers vary widely. One Russian Olympic Champion was not even allowed to ride a bicycle by his coach for fear of excessive hip/leg hypertrophy let alone even glance at a squat rack. On the other hand, a good friend of mine is a former Chinese Olympic Champion who was required to perform full ROM squats (ATG) twice per week with double bodyweight. Still another Russian Olympic Champion was required to perform extremely heavy 1/4 squats with a bottom static hold of several seconds prior to exploding upward. All are some of the very finest Olympic gymnasts of all time and yet trained in completely different manners.

Excellent discussion and definitely food for thought.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

From this thread

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1325

I suppose you would just not use them. My friend is an amatuer cyclist with freakish calves, I remember his leg wasted to nothing when he broke it, and it got back to its original size remarkably quickly after he got back using it.

I think that "method for reducing muscle" is the least search on google ever

IHMO: change the way you train. And I don't think you need to loose something on your legs if you squat less than about 100kg.

Well yeah I stopped squatting and my legs turned into sticks.. Now my only leg work is 1x week dynamic and 1x week max strength

Felipe said:

I think that "method for reducing muscle" is the least search on google ever

IHMO: change the way you train. And I don't think you need to loose something on your legs if you squat less than about 100kg.

You would actually be suprised! Google "intentionally losing muscle mass" and see how many results you get. It was kind of surprising.

Razz said:

Well yeah I stopped squatting and my legs turned into sticks.. Now my only leg work is 1x week dynamic and 1x week max strength

Really? That sounds awesome! How long did that take? And what does your max strength day include?

Max strength (once I get into it lol) is natural leg curls and single leg squats like in the WOD

Sweet thanks! Mine is only bodyweight too. NCL, GHR, SLS, and Shrimps. I'm thinking low volume may help reduce the leg hypertrophy. How much did you lose?

Like 2 kgs of muscle in my lower body