The first thing I have to say is great website! What a wonderful concept. I am a 31-year old woman who started training in my early teens and am now a certified fitness instructor and a certified strength trainer. I worked in a weight room designing personal programs for the past 6 years, but the one thing I am really bored with is my own program. I am so sick of designing my own programs. I absolutely love your website, particularly because some of the exercises chosen for me are exercises I would not regularly perform. We all know we always choose the ones we like the best!

My question pertains to how I should handle a particular exercise. I am very strong on my compound leg exercises (leg press 360 lbs for 10 to 12 reps), but I have a serious imbalance between my quadriceps and hamstrings. This has caused many problems for me over the years, particularly with my knees. I recognize that quads are supposed to be about 20 to 30% stronger than hams, but I am the opposite.

I'm on a Get Lean Program and am unable to perform the 20 repetitions at the suggested weight but can easily perform the hamstring repetitions. Should I choose a weight whereby I can perform 20 reps and leave the hams as they are or should I stay at the recommended weight for the quads and just push for as many reps as I can manage?

Also, do you have any suggestions on how I can strengthen my quads? I've gone on serious quad strengthening programs before but for some reason, have been unable to gain strength in my quads. I've done unilateral and bilateral training, changed my foot position on some exercises to put more stress on my quads, low-rep training, negatives, etc. I feel I have exhausted most options but wonder if you might have some further suggestions. Any help you can offer would be appreciated.

Again, thanks for the great website. You have renewed my motivation for weight training. I find the high reps extremely challenging but recognize that working outside of my comfort zone is probably what I need to do in order to see results.

You have an interesting body. I would say that your quadriceps muscles are strong it's just that your hamstrings and really, really strong! Leg Pressing 360 pounds for 10-12 reps would be impossible to do unless you had strong quads.

To answer your question about what to do with your quadriceps exercises. You should lower the weight so that you can perform the required 20 repetitions. Then, just leave your hamstring exercise weight as it is even if it is easy for you.

Some techniques, which you have probably already done, which can help focus more work to your quads is to leg press with your feet about 8 inches apart and placed lower on the force platform. This will effectively shut down your hamstring involvement as much as possible. However, with any other exercise like lunges or step-ups those hamstrings will chime right in and take up a large portion of the work. You could also try a few extra sets of leg extension exercises. While I normally don't do a lot of open-kinetic chain exercises, in your case it may be justified to isolate those quads a little more.