The following details my main leg workout from Saturday morning at Kirkland Gold’s Gym. The workout was based on a John Meadows program with some of my own modifications thrown in. I trained with my bride and here is what we did…
Seated Leg Curls
I used a Life Fitness unilateral leg curl machine, meaning weight listed is per each leg – FYI.
Set 1 x 10 reps with 40lbs (warm-up)
Set 2 x 10 reps with 40lbs (warm-up)
Set 3 x 10 reps with 40lbs (warm-up)
Set 4 x 25 reps with 50lbs
Set 5 x 25 reps with 50lbs
Set 6 x 25 reps with 50lbs
*I did 3 warm-up sets where I held the contraction for a 1 second count to really get the blood flowing. The 3 working sets are to be performed non-stop meaning the pump and burn should be intense with that much time under tension.
Leg Press
Set 1 x 10 reps with 2 plates/side
Set 2 x 10 reps with 3 plates/side
Set 3 x 10 reps with 4 plates/side
Set 4 x 10 reps with 5 plates/side
Set 5 x 10 reps with 6 plates/side
Set 6 x 10 reps with 7 plates/side
Set 7 x 10 reps with 8 plates/side
Set 8 x 10 reps with 9 plates/side
Set 9 x 10 reps with 10 plates/side
Set 10 x 10 reps with 10 plates/side
*Work your way up adding plates and performing sets of 10 reps until you get to a weight in which you barely can get all 10. Use that weight to do one more set.
Reverse Hack Squat Ascending/Descending Set
I used these bands here: https://www.elitefts.com/pro-light-resistance-band.html. This was not part of John’s programming.
Set 1 x 10 reps with 2 plates/side (feeder set)
Set 2 x 8 reps with 3 plates/side (feeder set)
Ascending/Descending set performed as follows:
3 reps with 4 plates/side
3 reps with 4 plates on one side and 5 plates on the other
3 reps with 5 plates/side
3 reps with 5 plates on one side and 6 plates on the other
3 reps with 6 plates/side
3 reps with 5 plates/side
3 reps with 4 plates/side
*I did a couple feeder sets to warm up the movement. The ascending/descending set was performed non-stop with Christina adding a single plate every 3 reps until I had 6/side and then she dropped 2 plates at a time. 21 total reps. This is nasty – enjoy!
Superset: Modified Goblet Squat 1.5’s & Walking Lunges
This was also not part of John’s program, but served as an excellent quad finisher. Here is the chain I used: https://www.elitefts.com/eliteftstm-pair-of-5-8-chains.html.
Modified Goblet Squat 1.5’s x 10 reps with 55lb dumbbell + 20lb chain
Immediately followed by…
Walking Lunges x 12 strides/leg with chain
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HLrv18E_bY]
*The modification I’m referencing is performed by elevating your heels on the goblet squats to place the emphasis on the quads. Ramp up tension by doing 1.5 reps, meaning down, half way up, back down, and all the way up counts as 1 rep. Knock out 10 like this, drop the dumbbell and then perform walking lunges with just the chain. Take long strides and aim to gently touch your trailing knee on each step. Get 12 per leg. Yep, two rounds on this superset and it was lights out.
That concluded this leg workout.
Train hard!
Mark