All week I’ve been looking forward to my Friday workout. It’s my day off and I can take the time I need to train my legs as hard as I can and have a couple days to recuperate before I have to work again. It also allows me to take a couple minutes between sets to allow my legs to rest before I hit the next set.
When I train heavy legs, just my leg press routine can take up to 45 minutes. It’s funny cause by the end of my sets, I have usually collected most of the plates around the gym. My goal is to be able to do 22 plates for 10 reps, like I used to be able to do. I haven’t trained my legs this heavy in years and I’m slowly but surely approaching my goal.
I start by doing a ten minute warmup on the bike to get the blood flowing to my muscles and to mentally prepare myself for the tough workout ahead. Then it’s off to the leg press. I start with an isolated set of 15 reps for each leg at 90 pounds. Then the real work begins.
15 reps @ 450 lbs (10 plates)
12 reps @ 540 lbs (12 plates)
12 reps @ 630 lbs (14 plates)
10 reps @ 720 lbs (16 plates)
8 reps @ 810 lbs (18 plates)
Finally I’ve been doing 900 lbs (20 plates) but only partial reps. I’m hoping that I’ll remind my legs that they used to be able to crank this much weight out. It’s a great feeling when I unload all of the plates and truly realize just how much weight I was pressing.
Between sets on most days I find some sort of aerobic exercise to do just to get my heart rate up and increase the calories I burn during a workout. Lately I’ve been doing either the speed bag or jump rope. Today was the speed bag. I do one set of 20-1. I start at 20 hits for each arm and work my way down to 1.
Lately I’ve seen some incredible strength gains in my leg routine and the biggest jump for me has been the Quadriceps Extension machine. I was doing 3 sets before at around the 150-170 range. Last week I had some great motivation when a friend at the gym came over and told me that I was gonna do the whole stack. I just gave him a look. Who the hell did he think I was??? He said ok go. I was a little apprehensive but sure enough, I knocked out 3 sets of 6. Felt amazing and made me rethink about how many other exercises I was mentally blocked on.
The rest of my workout looked something like this;
Seated Calf Raise 5 sets 90lbs x 20, 140lbs x 15, 180lbs x 12, 140lbs x 15, 90lbs x 20
Hamstring Curls 3 sets 130 lbs x 12, 150 lbs x 10, 170lbs x 8
Squats 3 sets 135lbs x 12, 185lbs x 10, 185 x 10
Lunges with dumbbells 3 sets 40lbs x 8
Farmer’s Walk 5 laps with 80lbs dumbbells
Needless to say, I was spent after this workout. But just when I thought my workout was over, I saw one of the trainers working out with the battle ropes. Battle ropes are becoming very popular especially with MMA training. It’s always been something I wanted to try so I went over to check them out. He showed me a few ways to use them and then put me through 3 sets of one intense workout. I didn’t think they would be that difficult. The intensity of it is off the scales. It really works out everything from your legs, arms, core and your cardiovascular system. I think I just found a new exercise to do between sets.
I’ll let you know how my legs are working tomorrow :P
Mike
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