Seems I've been having trouble with leg presses lately.

1.  About a week ago I was doing a leg workout, which I hadn't done for a while.  I was doing leg presses where you lay down on the little "astronaut's chair" and push against the steel plate to raise it up.  I think I was pushing 210 lbs. on each side for a total of about 420#.  I usually try to do 3 sets of 10.

Anyways, when I finished I noticed a pain in my belly, a bit below my navel and off to the side a couple inches.  What sort of pain?  I thought maybe some of my skin folded over and was being crushed by my upper thighs or something like that.  Imagine taking a pair of pliers and pinching a fold of skin pretty hard.  Even after you take the pliers off it still hurts a bit.  It felt sort of like that.  Or maybe I was courting a hernia.  Isn't a hernia when your guts pop out of that membrane (forget what it's called)?  Maybe I'm just worrying for no good reason.  The pain went away after a few minutes.

2.  After that one, I said to hell with that leg press machine next time I used the squat machine where you load up weights on the machine and you stand up there are 2 pads on your shoulders that lift the weight.  This is tonight, about 8 days after the last leg workout.  I was doing 180# on a side, which I was doing a month ago no problem.

Anyways, for some reason my legs stay sore much longer than my other muscles (chest, back, arms) after a workout.  I figure it's because the legs are pushing so much damn weight it takes longer for them to heal.

So I did a couple warm-up sets and my hamstring (?--in my anatomy books it looks like the "biceps femoris") felt sort of tight.  This morning was the first day I woke up without leg pain.  OK fine so I stretched my legs out real well and went to do the squats.  I should note that I am pretty flexible to begin with.  I'm not a gymnast, but in my martial arts classes of about a dozen students, I am usually the most flexible guy there when we are doing leg stretches and what not.  So I start squatting and I got about four done and the same muscle that had been feeling tight was hurting like hell, almost like it was tearing, but the pain stopped as soon as I stopped the exercise.  I am not saying that it WAS tearing, just felt that way.

What could be causing this?  Do I need even MORE recovery time?  I gave it a damn week.  I will say my legs were friggin sore as hell and I haven't been at the gym as often as I'd like lately.  Last leg workout was probably a month ago.  I find that when I am first starting, I get more sore, and after 2 or 3 workouts, the soreness is not nearly as bad.

Ideas?

Ideas:

Increase your frequency, and decrease the weight.  See if that helps.

Quoted: Seems I've been having trouble with leg presses lately. 1.  About a week ago I was doing a leg workout, which I hadn't done for a while.  I was doing leg presses where you lay down on the little "astronaut's chair" and push against the steel plate to raise it up.  I think I was pushing 210 lbs. on each side for a total of about 420#.  I usually try to do 3 sets of 10. Anyways, when I finished I noticed a pain in my belly, a bit below my navel and off to the side a couple inches.  What sort of pain?  I thought maybe some of my skin folded over and was being crushed by my upper thighs or something like that.  Imagine taking a pair of pliers and pinching a fold of skin pretty hard.  Even after you take the pliers off it still hurts a bit.  It felt sort of like that.  Or maybe I was courting a hernia.  Isn't a hernia when your guts pop out of that membrane (forget what it's called)?  Maybe I'm just worrying for no good reason.  The pain went away after a few minutes. 2.  After that one, I said to hell with that leg press machine next time I used the squat machine where you load up weights on the machine and you stand up there are 2 pads on your shoulders that lift the weight.  This is tonight, about 8 days after the last leg workout.  I was doing 180# on a side, which I was doing a month ago no problem. Anyways, for some reason my legs stay sore much longer than my other muscles (chest, back, arms) after a workout.  I figure it's because the legs are pushing so much damn weight it takes longer for them to heal. So I did a couple warm-up sets and my hamstring (?--in my anatomy books it looks like the "biceps femoris") felt sort of tight.  This morning was the first day I woke up without leg pain.  OK fine so I stretched my legs out real well and went to do the squats.  I should note that I am pretty flexible to begin with.  I'm not a gymnast, but in my martial arts classes of about a dozen students, I am usually the most flexible guy there when we are doing leg stretches and what not.  So I start squatting and I got about four done and the same muscle that had been feeling tight was hurting like hell, almost like it was tearing, but the pain stopped as soon as I stopped the exercise.  I am not saying that it WAS tearing, just felt that way. What could be causing this?  Do I need even MORE recovery time?  I gave it a damn week.  I will say my legs were friggin sore as hell and I haven't been at the gym as often as I'd like lately.  Last leg workout was probably a month ago.  I find that when I am first starting, I get more sore, and after 2 or 3 workouts, the soreness is not nearly as bad. Ideas?

You tore it up but not to the point of severe injury.  Two weeks off.  Then ease back in at 50-70% of max gauging as you go the pain, if any.  If you experience the same type of pain.  You're injured for real and needs a sports doc.  If there is any swelling associated...go sooner.  I know, I did this once and time off is the only thing works and then gradually working back up to where you were.

What do you do for hamstring work?  The primary cause of injured hammies is lack of strength in the area and an imbalance with the quads in size and strength.

Quoted: What do you do for hamstring work?  The primary cause of injured hammies is lack of strength in the area and an imbalance with the quads in size and strength.

Really there doesn't seem many options as far as hamstrings.  I used to do leg curls laying on the bench, but got tired of those.

Lately I've been doing leg presses/squat machine followed by dumbbell lunges.

Last week I tried a cable exercise where you put this velcro cuff around your ankle and basically curl you leg back in a "kick yourself in the ass" sort of way.  This is done while standing.  I'm not sure if I will keep this exercise while I like it, it seems there's only resistance during the first part of the cable exercise.  After that because of the changing angle between myself and the cable, it feels as if all the weight comes off the cable.  Have you got any better ideas?