Here is the leg routine that MisterA designed for me specifically for my current cycle (currently in week 9 of 12). You may notice that squats are missing. They had to be because this program was designed around and to accommodate a broken clavicle.
I was training legs 4 days out of every six - BRUTAL. I eventually had to go 4 out of seven- still BRUTAL. One of the purposes of the cycle was to experiment to see if leg development could still be properly accomplished with increased frequency and limited rest and recovery. This experiment is one of the toughest challenges that I have ever done in the gym. I can say with a strong degree of confidence that the experiment proved successful in my personal instance. I cannot say if the results are better or worse than a more traditional less frequent schedule but that was not the purpose.
I am providing it just as he delivered it to me so that you can see the rhyme and reasons behind each routine. I hope you get something out of it because I did. MisterA went above and beyond on my behalf. He made it so detailed he even reminds me to wear shoes because he knows I train barefoot.
Brackets = Rest Pause Sets
Parentheses = Drop Sets
Tempo = Eccentric-Pause-Concentric-Pause
Day 1: Hypertrophy.
Rest Intervals
Between Sets: 90 seconds
Between Exercises: 120 seconds
Session 1: Hamstrings. Glutes.
Warmup:
12 mins on Stairmaster. Low speed. Push through your heel on each step, contracting the glutes and hamstrings hard.
Seated Leg Curl (2-0-1-1): 30x10, 50x10, 70x8 [xfail, xfail, xfail] Purpose: To overload the hamstrings with blood. The focus is on the peak contraction position. Keep the knee joint at 120° and less. Avoid the stretch phase. Continue driving blood into the hams by maintaining contraction throughout the movement. Point your toes to develop the lower hams and to engage the calves. Turn your knees outward very slightly to engage more of the outer hams.
Vertical Leg Press (4-0-1-0): 95x8, 135x8, 185x8 (135x5, 95xfail) Purpose: Stretch position of the hamstrings, primarily. Glutes, secondarily. A power movement in essence, but using a slow eccentric to destroy as many muscle fibers as possible. No need to lock out at top or come anywhere near it; keep tension in the stretch and midway areas of the strength curve. If no access to a Vertical Leg Press Machine, a Smith Machine can be used. Lie flat on the floor and push the bar upwards with the center of your feet. Wear shoes. Be sure to set the safety pins. Bar should be positioned in line with your hips as much as possible to achieve the greatest stretch. If Smith Machine is angled, choose the side that angles away from you as you push up.
Walking DB Lunges (3-0-1-0): 30x30ft, 40x30ft, 50x30ft. Purpose: Glute Power Movement. To focus on the glutes, the hip-torso angle needs to be about 50 degrees. Basically, at the bottom of the movement your lead femur is parallel to the floor, your back knee is nearly touching the ground, your chest is almost above your front knee (with a flat back), and the DBs are a few inches behind your front shin. Load slowly to the bottom and explode upwards by contracting the glute. Do one rep at a time, the goal is not to finish quickly, but to contract the glutes as hard as possible with each rep.
Adductor Machine (2-0-1-1): 15x8, 30x8, 45x8 (30x5, 15x8) Purpose: Glute Peak Contraction. Avoid the bottom of the movement. Keep tension in the peak of the strength curve. Once you start to feel the contraction turn into a stretch, explode back into a full contraction. Drive as much blood onto the muscle. Finish with a double drop set. Go home.
Session 2: Calves. Quads.
Warmup:
12 mins on Elliptical. Medium speed. Shift weight to the balls of your feet. Lift heels up and focus on driving through the pedals using your quads.
Seated Calf Raise (4-0-2-0): 25x10, 50x10, 75x10, 100xfail (75xfail, 50xfail, 25xfail, 0xfail). Purpose: Daily Calf Exercise. One calf exercise per day to absolute failure. Even if they're still sore. Keep feet shoulder width apart and toes turned out slightly. The focus is on the inner half of the calf. Activation occurs through the inside half of the foot. At the bottom of the movement flex your tibialis hard to get as much stretch as the seated position allows. Prior to the concentric phase, put the focus into the calves and activate them. Then contract by pulling your heels toward your knees. At the very top of the movement shift focus into your big toes and push them through the platform. Final drop set is done with just the weight of the machine. Finish by thoroughly stretching the calves (while flexing tibialis again). Do not stretch between sets.
Leg Extensions (3-0-1-1): 30x10, 40x10, 50x10, 60x10, 70x10 [xfail, xfail, xfail]. Purpose: Quad Peak Contraction. Goal is to lubricate the knee joint and flood the quads with blood. Set machine so that the angle of the knee joint stops at 90°. The bottom half of this movement is dangerous and unnecessary for its purpose here. First first sets are to warm up. The last set and subsequent Rest-Pause sets are to break down tissue.
Leg Press (3-0-1-0): 270x10, 360x10, 450x10, 540x10 (360x10, 270xfail [xfail, xfail]). Purpose: Quad Destruction. Foot position should be shoulder width and as low on the foot pad as possible. Situate your lower back as deep into the seat as possible. Never sacrifice your seat position to create more stretch. Only lower the weight as low as your hips allow naturally. To press the weight back up, apply focus to the outer half of your feet, evenly from top to bottom, and instead of pushing the weight away from you, focus should be on pushing your back into the pad. Final set has two drop sets followed by two rest pause sets.
Day 2: Endurance
Rest Intervals:
Between Sets: 60 Seconds
Between Exercises: 60 Seconds
Warmup:
15 mins on Stairmaster. Push through heels.
Giant Set:
Standing Calf Raises (4-0-4-0): 50x10, 80xFail
Glute/Ham Raises (4-0-1-0): 0x12, 0xFail
Leg Extensions (4-0-1-0): 40x12, 60xFail
Superset:
Walking DB Lunges (2-0-1-0): 40x1:00, 40xFail
Leg Press (4-0-1-0): 180x12, 270xFail
All exercise purpose and execution is the same on previous day except for Lunges and Glute/Ham Raises. For Lunges, the execution changes to a vertical spine (perpendicular to the floor) and the DBs moved back and kept in line with your torso to overload the quads. This time the exercise is done for time as opposed to reps or steps. The Glute/Ham raise purpose is to focus specifically on these muscles through the most time under tension possible. Knee extension exercises feature too much possibility for tension loss. Keeping the knee fixed creates the opportunity for extreme and constant tension. The movement is thus shorter than it can be - maintaining tension trumps a full range of motion in this case. The top of the movement should create a straight line with your upper and lower bodies. The bottom of the movement is about a 60° hip angle depending on the type of equipment used. Angle toes outward slightly. Every exercise in this day is performed for a minimum of 1 minute to burn down the slow twitch muscle fibers. There is no rest during the giant and super sets, but 60 seconds between rounds and another 60 seconds when moving from the giant set to the super set.
Day 3: Power
Session 1: Strength
Warmup:
12 mins on Stairmaster. Pushing through your heels and contracting glutes and hamstrings with each step.
Lying Leg Curls (1-0-1-1): 30x15, 45x15. Purpose: Mainly to warm up the knee joint. Secondarily, to drive blood into the hamstrings. Important to hold the squeeze at the top of the rep to get the most out of the low amount of volume.
Sumo Deadlifts (1-2-1-0): 135x6, 225x6, 315x5, 365x4. Purpose: Raw Strength. Reset after each rep. We'll discuss programming of the weights used week by week. Establish goals. It'll be your sole powerlifting movement and will assist all other movements.
Session 2: Speed
Warmup:
Walk 1/4 Mile, Lightly Jog 1/4 Mile.
Sprints:
40 Yards @ 80%
Walk Back
40 Yards @ 90%
Walk Back
40 Yards @ 95%
Walk Back
30 Yards @ 100%
Jog Back
20 Yards @ 100%
Jog Back
20 Yards @ 100%
Cool Down:
Walk 1/4 Mile, Stretch.
Day 4: Plyo
Warmup:
12 mins Light Jog
Rest Intervals:
Between Sets: 60 Seconds
Between Exercises: 120 Seconds
Floor To Ceiling High Jumps:
5x5
Begin in a push-up position. Explode into a squat stance with feet shoulder width apart. Explode into a high jump, reaching upwards with both hands. Hang target overhead, adjust higher with each set. Movement should be fluid and performed as quickly as possible.
Box Jumps:
5x3
From an athletic position, jump onto a platform. Change heights for all 5 sets. More challenging each time. Do no count failed attempts as reps.
Start and Stop:
5 Reps With Each Leg
Start in a sprinter's stance, one leg behind the other. Explode out of the stance. Take one step. Plant the back leg and explode upwards as high as you can. Repeat with opposite leg.
SEMPER FI
