Hamstrings

As I explained last week, I am training hamstrings twice a week and quads twice a week. Volume is my friend and this seems to be the only way I can add size to these legs. Don't get me wrong, they look tremendously better than they used to, but still not where I want them. In fact, I have noticed that my legs have gotten much bigger! Yahoo!


But...not big enough. So I keep on keepin' on!

It's funny how so many women say they like my legs. I think what they actually like is the fact that I don't have saddle bags or cellulite, so that's all they notice, they neglect to notice that they are too thin for my shoulders, they are not in proportion. 

Above is the kneeling leg curl. This is one of the machines I am using on my own hamstring day, when I am not training with Roy. When I train hams with him on Mondays, right now we are doing Glute Ham Raise (lots and lots) and then single leg deadlifts. That's it, it has ensured I am sore all week long.

So on the hamstring day on my own I am using all the machines. I am using the lying leg curl, the seated leg curl and the kneeling leg curl (above). This should target the areas of the hamstring that Roy and I are not targeting on Mondays.

I see a lot of people using all of these machines incorrectly. They use momentum to swing the weights up. You should never use momentum as it defeats the purpose of the exercise. Everything should be controlled and smooth. 

On the lying leg curl I am using a 2/1 method- both legs to lift the weight (concentric movement) and one leg to lower the weight (eccentric movement). Making sure I keep the foot and calf relaxed so the effort comes from the hamstring. It is important to keep the weight low enough so the hips don't shoot up, thus using the glutes to pull up the weight.

The seated leg curl, I am going heavy. So heavy I really can only do 8 reps, I can tell I am too noisy, all the folks lined up on the stairmills turn to look in my direction, it's the grunting I know. 

The kneeling leg curl (above): I have struggled with this, my left hamstring is significantly weaker than the right, so the same weight on the right leg is easy while on the left is quite difficult. I do an extra set on the left to help build it up. Again, it is important to concentrate on the hamstring area, it is quite easy to get sloppy and use the glute and calf to pull up the weight. I go heavy with low reps as in all the hamstring exercises.

Last, I end with my friend the Glute Ham Raise (below), the most wonderful machine on earth. In this picture, it is not set up for me. I lower the front rollers all the way as low as they go (here they are as high as they go), and the back is pushed forward more for my height.

I do as many sets of 10 as I can, but after the curls I did before, it is hard, really hard. I can usually get 4 sets in on a good day.

The hams are responding and so are the quads, but I am a very, very demanding person.

Kickboxing Day 2

Thursday Cooper came home from training with Jerome. They have been kickboxing together almost three years now, Cooper is good, really good.

"Mom! Jerome said he is gonna teach you to kick on Saturday." "Cooper," I said, "How can he teach me to kick when I don't even know how to punch yet?!"

"You do- he said you were really good, he said you are a natural athlete and caught on fast. You just need to loosen up, it's not precise like weight lifting, it's more like a dance."

I smiled, I have always considered myself an athlete, and outside of my competitions where they refer to all of us as "athletes", no one has ever called me that. I felt good, accomplished.

He then told me Jerome asked him to come to Friday's "Fighter's Nights", a coaches invite only of full contact boxing and kickboxing for aspiring fighters, Cooper is to start training on a more serious level.

My heart skips a beat, but I am the one who pushed him into this, so I cannot stop him now. Thank goodness he is into kickboxing and not boxing. Not as dangerous.

Saturday I woke up at 5:00 a.m. and got to the gym at 6:00 for legs. I felt good, strong and excited. There would be no need for cardio since I was taking Jerome's class at 10:00.

I trained hams and quads. I did kneeling leg curl, RDL's, squats (100), split squats and GHR. I was there 2 hours, longer than I had planned, but I did sit around quite a bit waiting for the GHR, seemed everyone wanted to use it today, although not one person used it right. One women even came up to me and said "I am so glad I saw you doing this, I have never known how to use it properly!" She asked me how to adjust it, I asked her height and then adjusted it and showed her what to do. I then sat and waited while she readjusted it and used it completely wrong, doing sit ups like most people do on the darn thing!

I got home and ate, 1 cup egg whites, 1 whole egg, 1 slice of my favorite spelt and rye bread from Acme, with peanut butter and jelly. Coffee, but not too much as I remember last week having to pee the whole time during kickboxing, not fun.

9:50 I arrive and take off my shoes, pad across the mat and say hi to Jerome. There are only about 6 guys there and then he tells us to "run!" so we start. Now I learn not to arrive early. 

The class started with me and 10 guys (no Cheddar) and then a few more guys and one wicked looking gal joined in later.

We go through a half hour of conditioning, it's not the same as last week although very similar. We do the same routine of running around the facility with four stops to perform an exercise, starting with one push up, run, one high knee jump, run, one jump sprawl, run, one squat. We do 2 of each, then 3, then 4, and on and on till we have done 10 of each.

It was much easier this week. Then jumping jacks, jumping jacks with one kick, with two kicks, mountain climbers in between, jogging in place and jabbing, jogging and cross, jogging and jab cross, jogging and drop sprawl, jogging and block kick, down on the ground and crunches, side crunches, frog crunches.

30 minutes later done! I survived.

Jerome shouted to everyone to get a partner and he gave instructions, I didn't understand what it was. He grabbed a guy  by the name of Jay and told him that he would be working with me on kicks. 

Crap! 

Last week I was in front of  a mirror practicing punches, this week I guess I am one of the guys. But I didn't have my gear, only my gloves, I wasn't expecting this. No wraps, no shin guards, no mouthpiece, no headgear. 

This too I shall survive.

Jerome told us what kicks to practice, demonstrated with Jay and then left us. Jay kicked me and I kicked him. I could tell immediately that I would have a very bruised left shin the next day.

Jerome would come watch and critique, then show us combos. Jab, cross, midkick, jab, block. High kick, cross, hook, low kick, block.

On and on for a half hour, Jay was good, he really helped me improve my hook.

11:00 and the class was done, I was dripping in sweat, my hair was plastered to my head and face, sweat everywhere, I felt high. Everyone shook Jerome's hand or got a slap on the back. I talked with a few of the guys, they are all very friendly. 

I left walking out in only my tank top, shorts and flip flops although it was probably 40 degrees out at most. With the top down and Citizen Cope blasting on the stereo, I drove home. My hands were shaking, my wrists hurt, my left shin was throbbing and I started crying. I wasn't crying from pain or sadness, it was just a wave of emotion that overcame me.

I have been wanting to do this for years, and last week I finally started, but last week was easy; it was play. This week was hard, I was the attacker, I was attacked. I learned to kick with all my body force, it was hard to do at first, I was afraid of hurting him. I learned my leg can kick up to someones chest, soon up to their head. I learned to block with my legs (my poor, poor unprotected legs), with my forearms.

If I was ever to be attacked, lord have mercy on the poor slob who makes that mistake.

Home, all I want is a long hot shower and a big glass of ice water. I take off my shirt, it was soaked, here it is.

I told Cooper about it, about my surprise at the difference between last week and this week. "Why are you surprised mom? You assimilated fast, just like I thought you would."

Nice.

Saturdays Training

I am back! I am really, honestly not a whiner, but I am sick so infrequently that it just blows me away to wake up feeling...well, sick! I usually bound out of bed like an obnoxious energizer bunny, and it was a week of no bounding, but believe me, I still got up and tried my best. 

There was no hop in this bunny's step.

Saturday I finally felt like my ol' self again. I hadn't missed any training, but the intensity just wasn't there before. I was at the gym at opening as usual.

Warm up by walking a few minutes then lots of stretching, I had all the time in the world and it was leg day, so I needed to warm up a lot. My adductors were still quite sore from Wednesdays quad workout with Roy. 

I hit the hams first, low reps, heavy weight. They need to be trained with as much weight as possible, which means that I cannot possibly do many reps each set. Charles Poliquin once said something like "Show me someone who has huge hams and their training consists of light weight with high reps and I will show you someone who is on steroids".

Hamstrings don't respond with lots of high reps, they need heavy weights.

Seated leg curls

Kneeling leg curls ( I do more reps and sets on the left)

Romanian Deadlifts

I get very excited near the end of the kneeling leg curls, my left is incredibly weaker than the right. So much that it is almost laughable. But I do 8 reps on the left and 6 on the right to help catch it up. The 4th set my left all of a sudden has strength! It is not a struggle! Could it have all of a sudden wised up? I cannot wait until Monday to test it with Roy.

Then the Quads, high reps, lighter weight. (Quads, on the other hand, require high reps).

Back squats (lots of them, I mean like 60)

Front foot elevated split squats

Tom walks in and says "I see you are killin' it as usual!", yes I am back in the game! We chat a bit and he is telling me about a Saturday Night Live repeat episode he and his wife saw the night before, I need to Google it. Something about "a box" (I did, and it was hilarious). I told Cooper, David and Lauren about it at lunch and Cooper almost spit his food out, he had already seen it. 


If you want to see it, feel free to take a look at this link. It's potty humor, I must warn you, but pretty darn funny! How did we get there talking by the squat rack? I have no idea....


I finished with 3 sets of 10 on the Glute Ham Raise. I have to do this at the end, it is just too brutal to do any other time. But I LOVE it!

20 minutes on the stairmill

Boxing in the gym. I walk in and there are many men playing basketball, and several sitting on the bleachers. I count, there are 21 men. 6 have no shirt on, and I can periodically see the bodies of those with shirts on too. Oh I am off topic.

I will go 5 rounds of boxing, 2 minutes on and 1 off. I am practicing more with my left as this is my weaker side, I need to develop the strength. I am sweating, and although I have a headband on to keep my hair out of my face, it's useless, I am a mess. I am wailing on that bag like my life depended on it.

One of the guys stops by as he walks to the water fountain "Good workout huh?" "Yes" I respond, "It's a great workout!"

5 is enough, that is a total of 10 minutes, I will go one more round on Sunday, soon I will be able to go a half hour. 

Saturday's Leg Workout

Some days when I get to the gym I feel so alive it's really hard to contain myself. This past Saturday was one of those mornings. I had slept well, I was awake before the alarm sounded.

I watch people in the gym, and I know most of them are not lifting right. They may be swinging their weights around, using weights that are too light or too heavy, not performing the move correctly, you name it. Most people just go through the motions to get it over with. It is supposed to be difficult you know!


I am making an effort to time my sets, it's easy when I train with Roy because he can stand there with the stopwatch, it's harder by myself, but I did a good job this Saturday.


Roy said for hypertrophy I need to aim for sets with a time under tension of 40 to 70 seconds, and to do that I need to lift explosively and lower very, very slowly. It's exactly opposite of what most people do.


Try it. Take whatever exercise you are doing and do 8 to 10 reps, but make each set last a minimum of 40 seconds. It's freaking hard!


You do that with squats, with bench press, with military press, you name it. You may find that you have to lower the weight you are using. My weights went down when I started training with Roy, but I look a hell of a lot better!


Here's my morning:


Stretching
Seated leg Curl 5 sets of 8 @ 100 pounds (time under tension ~36 (I was trying) (60 second rest in between sets)
Unilateral Kneeling Leg Curl 5 sets of 8 @ 20 pounds (time under tension ~32) (60 second rest)
RDL's 4 sets of 6 @ 195 pounds (time under tension 32, 31, 32, 32) (90 second rest)
Front Squats 5 sets of 8 @ 95 pounds (time under tension 48,47,48,51,51) YAHOO! (90 second rest)
Walking Lunges with 20 pound dumbbells 3 sets on each leg (10 per leg) (30 second rest)
Glute Ham Raise 4 sets of 10 body weight (60 second rest)
20 minutes on the stairmill


Protein and carb shake afterward and coffee, coffee, coffee.