The following details my primary leg workout from this past Saturday morning at Kirkland Gold’s Gym. The workout was designed by my coach, John Meadows, and Christina joined me for the workout.
Christina and I woke up fasting so we could get our blood work done together, but the lab tech never showed up at 7am when the clinic opened. We waited until 7:30 and finally left for coffee and some banana bread before pounding our Plazma and headed into the gym. We’ll try fasting next weekend and attempt to get our labs done again. Here is the workout…
Seated Leg Curls
I used a unilateral, weight selectorized Life Fitness machine here. Weight listed is per each leg – FYI.
Set 1 x 15 reps with 40lbs (warm-up)
Set 2 x 12 reps with 50lbs (warm-up)
Set 3 x 10 reps with 60lbs (warm-up)
Set 4 x 8 reps with 90lbs
Set 5 x 8 reps with 90lbs
Set 6 x 8 reps with 90lbs -> drop to 60lbs x 8 reps -> drop to 40lbs x 8 reps + 30 second isohold
*After warming up do 3 working sets of 8 reps. The third set should be a double drop finished with a 30 second isohold. Focus on hold the contraction for a split second on each rep.
Leg Press
Set 1 x 20 reps with 3 plates/side
Set 2 x 20 reps with 4 plates/side
Set 3 x 15 reps with 5 plates/side
Set 4 x 12 reps with 6 plates/side
Set 5 – ascending set + drop set as follows:
5 plates/side x 5 reps
5 plates on one side and 6 plates on other x 5 reps
6 plates/side x 5 reps
6 plates on one side and 7 plates on other x 5 reps
7 plates/side x 5 reps
Drop to 4 plates/side x 20 reps
*The key here is the foot placement – heels close together and toes pointed slightly outward. Allow your knees to travel outside your body to hammer the quad sweep. Set 5 was my idea. The reps are pretty much non-stop as weight is added and then dropped. You’re doing essentially 45 reps total from start to finish on the final set. Hat tip to my bride for loading and unloading all those plates!
Cambered Bar Squats
I used this kind of bar: https://www.elitefts.com/rackable-cambered-squat-bar.html.
Set 1 x 10 reps with 135lbs
Set 2 x 10 reps with 135lbs
Set 3 x 10 reps with 135lbs
*As you know my lower back precludes me from squatting with a standard barbell; let alone much weight. Today I simply pumped out reps on all three sets while only taking 30 second rest breaks. Stick to the general theme here, but adjust weight as per your ability.
Frog Squat
If you don’t have the machine I used go with wide stance ground base or goblet squats – FYI.
Set 1 x 8 reps with 1 plate/side (feel set)
Set 2 x 8 reps with 2 plates/side
Set 3 x 8 reps with 2 plates/side
Set 4 x 8 reps with 2 plates/side -> drop one plate x 8 reps -> drop one plate x 8 reps
*The key is to utilize a wide stance and dropping in low while making legs travel outside your body.
Here is a video of my third set:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I8ORiiOue8]
Leg Extensions
Set 1 x 10 reps with 160lbs
Set 2 x 20 reps with 160lbs
Set 3 x 20 reps + 15 partials with 160lbs
*There must have been something about the exercise sequencing today because these really blew up my quads to a new level. On Set 1 you will hold the contract on each rep for a 2 second count. On Set 2 just pump out 20 reps with the same weight that you used for Set 1. On Set 3 pump out 20 reps again with the same weight and then finish with 15 partials. Pain!
That concluded this primary leg workout.
Train hard!
Mark