There’s no particular logic to it. It’s just fashion. Competitive bodybuilding favored certain styles of physique, and amateur bodybuilders developed a practice that pursued that style and adopted some folk beliefs/language that center around it.
Leg days are no “extreme effort” to dancers, cyclists, runners, gymnasts, etc
Strange. I hate bench press (much prefer dumbbell press) but I have never considered leg day extreme. Legs contain the largest muscles, the effort to make them bigger seems less.
It was my understanding that the reason most guys avoid leg day is because they're not "show" muscles. It's rare that you're not wearing pants so most guys who lift purely to increase odds of finding a mate focus on the muscles women do see.
I think the difference between dumbbell and barbell is just preference often based on the time you've put into each. My dumbbell press is pathetic due to a lack of training.
I think lifting for the looks is part of it. I've also read that most women prefer guys butts to other parts so it's probably a little silly that most guys do more upper body to get the girls.
When I was last going regularly to the gym I knew loads of other guys that worked out. It was near universal that leg day sucked. I was exhausted after doing squats and deadlifts. I'd recover quickly from most upper body stuff. Leg day was still fun but there was a mental battle to put in the effort required. I remember once not being able to drive home after week 6 of the training program Smolov JR with squatting. I pulled over and had to take an hour to recover. I've not had anything close with upper body lifts.
Everyone is different I guess and we are talking about preference.
>It was my understanding that the reason most guys avoid leg day is because they're not "show" muscles.
I think you are right. Many also may avoid legs because the recovery period can be more painful. Its easy to avoid further stressing certain sore muscle groups (arms, chest, abs, etc) post workout, but legs, not so much.
Most guys hate leg days. The effort is extreme, chest day is the easy day.