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.

Roll with Me

My quads were tight and sore on Sunday, as I have mentioned this is unusual, so I needed to take care of them.

Saturday is leg day- I train legs twice a week and I may need to move to one, as I am not recovering fast enough. There are some who will say that if you are training right, meaning as hard as possible, you should not be able to train more than once a week.

I train hard, even in my own eyes I am a certified beast and have been told that by many men who are qualified to know a beast when they see one.

This workout could easily benefit a man or woman, just change the weights a bit. I would like to hear how you do like it and how you feel afterward.

Here was Saturday's training:

Reverse Crunch on an incline 3x10 bodyweight
/ superset with
Hanging Leg Raise from a power rack, tilting pelvis back 3x10 bodyweight
Deadlifts 5x10 155 pounds
Front Squats 3x10 125 pounds
Back Squats 3x10 135 pounds
Glute Ham Raise 4x10 10 pound weight
Reverse Hyper 4x10 with 2 pound ankle weights
(I am pretty tired now)
Seated Leg Curl 3x10 70 pounds
Standing Calve Raise 3x10 135 pounds / superset with
Seated Calve Raise 3x25 70 pounds

Then a short break and 30 minutes on the stairmill.

If you can train twice a day I would recommend doing the cardio in the afternoon or evening instead.  Studies have shown that sessions lasting longer than 1 & 1/4 hour really are more detrimental to muscle building, so try to keep it right about there. I will talk more on that at another time, but for now you may notice that those who seem most successful are not necessarily those who train the longest!

Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I will do my cardio after work. 20 minutes..that's it.

The deads and squats alone are enough to work over many people.

I don't usually do many machines such as the leg curl and extensions until I get close to a competition, as these are not considered "mass building" and are associated more with cuts and definition. I will do extensions and RDL's along with lunges on Tuesday.

Soon I will take the deadlifts out as these are  not really a "Figure" type of exercise...but they do your entire body good!

Rolling is important, it can help you stay healthy and recover faster. This picture was taken Sunday evening and rolling was so painful I felt nauseous doing it, I had to stop and come back several times. SC taught me to roll through the pain, until the pain stopped, then roll 30 more times. I couldn't, it hurt too much.