Primary Legs

The following details my leg workout from this past Saturday.  I trained with my friend Bret Dodson.  For those who followed my career and purchased any of my DVD’s, you might recall me helping Bret with his posing as he prepped for his first bodybuilding contest about 7-8 years ago.  We trained early (7am) at Kirkland Gold’s Gym because my youngest daughter had a soccer game at 9am.  I’m not following any particular program, but still considered this a primary leg day.  Here is the workout…

Hammer Strength Leg Curl

We used the semi-prone, plate loaded, single leg curl machine for this exercise – FYI.

Set 1 x 16 reps with 25lbs (warm-up)

Set 2 x 14 reps with 50lbs (warm-up)

Set 3 x 8 reps with 75lbs

Set 4 x 8 reps with 75lbs

Set 5 x 8 reps with 75lbs

Set 6 x 8 reps with 75lbs

*The goal was to increase weight via a couple warm-up sets before performing 4 working sets of 8 reps with perfect form.

Leg Press

Set 1 x 20 reps with 2 plates/side

Set 2 x 20 reps with 3 plates/side

Set 3 x 20 reps with 4 plates/side

Set 4 x 20 reps with 5 plates/side

Set 5 x 15 reps with 6 plates/side

Set 6 x 15 reps with 7 plates/side

Set 7 x 12 reps with 8 plates/side

Set 8 x 10 reps with 9 plates/side

*I aimed for 20 reps going up in weight until I was forced to lower the reps to avoid hitting failure.  Keep going until you get to a really tough set of 10 reps before moving on to the next exercise.

Reverse Banded Hack Squat

I used these bands: https://www.elitefts.com/pro-light-resistance-band.html.

Set 1 x 10 reps with 2 plate/side

Set 2 x 10 reps with 3 plates/side

Set 3 x 10 reps with 3 plates on one side and 4 on the other

Set 4 x 10 reps with 4 plates/side

Set 5 x 10 reps with 4 plates on one side and 5 on the other

Set 6 x 10 reps with 5 plates/side

*The key here is to simply do sets of 10 reps going up in weight until you hit a tough set of 10.  I purposely did not take big jumps in weight to ensure I got in several sets.

Superset: Occluded Leg Extensions & Lying Leg Curls

I used these wraps to restrict blood flow: https://www.elitefts.com/elitefts-normal-knee-wrap.html.  Wrap your upper thigh, but not as tight as you would when wrapping your knees for squats, etc – FYI.

Leg Extensions x 15 reps with 115lbs

Immediately followed by…

Lying Leg Curls x 15 reps with 50lbs

*Occluded body part training is typically programmed as 15 reps with 30 second rest breaks for 4 rounds.  Today Bret and I alternated – he did leg curls while I did extensions, then we switched, etc.  So you will do 15 reps on each exercise, alternating, and no rest for a total of 3 rounds.  This will put some serious blood into your quads and hamstrings!

Cable Pull Throughs

Set 1 x 10 reps with 160lbs

Set 2 x 10 reps with 160lbs

Set 3 x 10 reps with 160lbs

*Stand facing away from the weight stack, grab a single handle between your legs from the low pulley, step out a few feet and hinge at your waist while allowing your butt/hips to drop backwards.  I keep my knees locked to really stretch my hamstrings on the bottom.

That concluded this leg workout.

Train hard!

Mark