The following details my leg workout from this past Saturday at Kirkland Gold’s Gym. I had an early soccer game for my youngest daughter Julia so we didn’t make it to the gym until about noon. I train with Christina and my middle daughter Lauren who has an affection for leg training, lol. The workout was designed by my coach, John Meadows, although I modified a few things. Here is the workout…
Standing Leg Curl
We used a cable pulley with an attachment similar to this: https://www.elitefts.com/spud-inc-hamstring-curl-strap.html. This is a very economical piece of equipment if your gym doesn’t have a standing leg curl machine.
Set 1 x 10 reps with 40lbs (warm-up)
Set 2 x 10 reps with 50lbs (warm-up)
Set 3 x 10 reps with 60lbs (warm-up)
Set 4 x 20 reps with 60lbs
Set 5 x 20 reps with 60lbs
Set 6 x 20 reps + 10 forced reps with 60lbs
*After a few warm-ups do working sets of 20 reps for each leg whereby you stop just short of failure. On your third set perform 20 reps and then have your training partner assist you with another 10 forced reps. This is brutal if done correctly and you’ll be rewarded with massively pumped hamstrings.
Here is a video of one side of my final set:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyD17H0dq2M]
Glute Bridges Superset w/Dumbbell Stiff Legged Deads
This was a deviation from John’s program – FYI.
Glute Bridge x 14 reps with 190lbs
Immediately followed by…
Dumbbell Stiff Legs x 6 reps with 65’s
*On the glute bridges hold the contraction at the top for a 1 second count on each rep. Immediately follow it up with dumbbell stiff legs whereby you really work the stretch at the bottom and flex the glutes hard coming all the way up at the top. Perform the superset for 4 rounds.
Leg Press
Set 1 x 10 reps with 3 plates/side
Set 2 x 10 reps with 4 plates/side
Set 3 x 10 reps with 5 plates/side
Set 4 x 10 reps with 6 plates/side
Set 5 x 10 reps with 7 plates/side
Set 6 x 10 reps with 8 plates/side
Set 7 x 10 reps with 9 plates/side
*Place your feet where you are strongest and do sets of 10 reps working your way up in weight until you can barely get 10 reps.
Reverse Banded Hacks
These are the bands I used: https://www.elitefts.com/shop/bars-weights/bands/pro-average-resistance-band.html. I’m also continuing to use this for greater glute minimus activation: https://www.elitefts.com/sling-shot-hip-circle.html.
Set 1 x 12 reps with 3 plates/side (feeder set)
Set 2 x 12 reps with 4 plates/side
Set 3 x 12 reps with 4 plates/side
Set 4 x 12 reps with 4 plates/side
Set 5 x 12 reps, pause 5 seconds -> 2 reps, pause 5 seconds -> 2 reps, pause 5 seconds -> 2 reps with 4 plates/side
*The key here is to go all the way down and then come up about ¾ of the way and go right back down to maintain continuous tension on the quads. At 12 reps I paused on my final set for 5 seconds and then grinded out 2 more reps until I hit 18 reps.
Leg Extensions
Set 1 x 10 reps + 15 partials with 190lbs
Set 2 x 10 reps + 15 partials with 190lbs
Set 3 x 10 reps + 15 partials with 190lbs
*On all your sets flex hard at the top and then once you hit your 10th reps do an additional 15 partial reps out of the bottom. The partials were brutal. I stretched each quad hard for 30 seconds between each set.
That concluded this leg workout.
Train hard!
Mark