Pile on the plates and grow your legs with zero balance needed.
Don't lock your knees out hard at the top and never let your lower back round off the pad.
The leg press lets your quads handle serious load without asking your balance or lower back to keep up. With your torso locked against the pad and the machine guiding the path, every rep of knee bend and drive goes straight into the front of your thighs, while your glutes kick in to help push the platform away from the bottom. That makes it the go-to for piling on quad volume after squats, or for building leg size when free-weight squatting isn't on the menu.
For pure quad growth it's right up there, because you can push closer to failure without a bar on your back. It won't train your balance or core the way squats do, so most lifters run both.
Shoulder width and around the middle of the platform is the default. Lower and narrower shifts more work to the quads, higher on the platform brings the glutes in more.
Almost always it's your hips curling off the pad at the bottom of the rep. Shorten the depth so your lower back stays pinned, and check your seat angle before adding more plates.
