Gave up doing leg press

[Centurion]

Like I said on the title, I'm giving up doing leg press, because I always feel so much stress on my knees, and I only do half of the movement with too much weight. For me, the main reason of putting too much weight on the rack is a sort of mental issue, because I always feel pressure on putting at least 4-5 plates on the each side with focusing how much weight I lift, rather than focusing on the stress on my muscles. When I put 2-3 plates I do a better job, but you guys can understand that putting more weight make me more confident even though I don't lift properly, or at least "how many sets do you have people" don't bother you. To cut a long story short, I feel better without doing leg press but still feel a kind of guilty at the same time. What do you guys recommend at this point?

[Hosehead]

Squat. Then squat more.

[Praetorian]

I would recommend learning the correct technique for what you goal is on the exercise as opposed to throwing it out altogether. Leg press for many guys is an ego lift...they pile on the weight and yet cannot move the sled more then a few inches...really useless and definitely leads to chronic knee issues. The leg press is a machine that should be used for high reps and to feel the quad whether it's low and somewhat narrow foot placing for VMO or higher wider stance for lateralis sweep. In either case however you should be using at most double the weight of your best squat and double the reps. So if you can squat say 315lbs for 8-10 you should use maximum 6 plates per side and going for sets of 20. Leg press is also great for doing drop sets after you have already done your squat workout.

P