The following details my primary leg workout from this past Saturday morning at Kirkland Gold’s Gym. I trained with my bride and loosely followed some programming by John Meadows. Here is the workout…
Superset: Leg Extensions & Lying Leg Curls
I performed about 3 rounds of warm-up sets before doing the following work sets – FYI.
Work Set #1
Leg Extensions x 8 reps with 220lbs
Immediately followed by…
Lying Leg Curls x 8 reps with 110lbs
Work Set #2
Leg Extensions x 8 reps with 220lbs
Immediately followed by…
Lying Leg Curls x 8 reps with 110lbs
Work Set #3
Leg Extensions x 6 reps with 250lbs -> drop to 170lbs x 8 reps -> drop to 100lbs x 10 reps
Immediately followed by…
Lying Leg Curls x 6 reps with 140lbs -> drop to 95lbs x 8 reps -> drop to 50lbs x 10 reps
*I wanted to get my legs fully pumped quickly so I opted for a superset. As noted previously, be sure to do plenty of warm-ups before performing the working sets. Your third working set will be a double drop set on each exercise – be prepared!
Glute Bridge/Hip Thrusters
Set 1 x 15 reps with 135lbs
Set 2 x 15 reps with 135lbs
Set 3 x 15 reps with 135lbs
*The key here is to hold and flex at the top (contracted position) for a 2 second count on each of the first 10 reps and then pump out the remaining 5 reps.
Ground Base Squats
I used a landmine such as this here: https://www.elitefts.com/core-blaster-1-1.html.
Set 1 x 10 reps with 45lbs
Set 2 x 10 reps with 90lbs
Set 3 x 10 reps with 90lbs
Set 4 x 10 reps with 90lbs
*I did these because they feel pretty good on my lower back. Sink deep into your hips with a very controlled tempo. The slower you go the more difficult this exercise becomes. No bouncing out of the bottom. I counted this as 3 working sets.
Ascending/Descending Leg Press
Set 1 x 10 reps with 4 plates/side
Set 2 x 10 reps with 5 plates/side
Set 3 x 10 reps with 6 plates/side
Set 4 (ascending set) as follows…
6 plates/side x 5 reps
6 and 7 plates/side respectively x 5 reps
7 plates/side x 5 reps
7 and 8 plates/side respectively x 5 reps
8 plates/side x 5 reps
Set 5 (descending set) as follows…
8 plates/side x 5 reps
7 and 8 plates/side respectively x 5 reps
7 plates/side x 5 reps
6 and 7 plates/side respectively x 5 reps
6 plates/side x 5 reps
*I worked my way up in weight doing sets of 10 reps until I got to 6 plates/side…then the fun began. Essentially set 4 was an ascending set of 5 rep bouts. Every 5 reps, Christina added 1 plate on one side until I reached 8 plates/side for a final 5 reps. Total reps if you added them all up were 25. On Set 5 I simply reverse things and stripped 1 plate every 5 reps until I got back down to 6 plates/side. The descending set was actually much more painful than the ascending. Enjoy!
Walking Lunges
Set 1 x 12 strides/leg with bodyweight only
Set 2 x 12 strides/leg with bodyweight only
Set 3 x 12 strides/leg with bodyweight only
*I finished off with my favorite exercise for opening up the hips while adding to a massive quad pump – walking lunges. As always take long strides and pause briefly while gently touching your trailing knee to the ground on each step.
I stretched my quads and hamstrings hard after the walking lunges before heading to my cryotherapy session. Cryotherapy has a number of benefits which I plan to discuss in a future article.
That concluded this primary leg workout.
Train hard!
Mark
