Squats and Leg Work

This morning was Leg day. The day many people dread and others love to hate. I always have mixed feelings about leg day because to tell you the truth it scares me a bit. But as Kris Gethin says "Do what you Fear!" My fear of leg day comes from letting my Squat form get loose and sloppy in the past and tweaking my back. Recently I started pushing myself on Squats to focus more on form and function. I now focus much more on increasing abdominal pressure to ensure my body is tight and protecting the spine. Keeping with my have fun with it theme, this morning I started with squats and keeping it heavy at 70% of my 1RM (rep max) for 4 Reps. Rest time for heavy squats is whatever it takes to recover. This is normally 2-5 minutes because you want you CNS (central nervous system) to recover. I followed up the squats with bodybuilding style accessory exercises keeping the rest periods down to a minimum I try and aim for 40 secs but make sure to keep it under 1 minute. This keeps the lactic acid and the blood pump in the muscle which ignites the growth response. Workout logs below

Squats
Warmup sets
135lbs X 3reps sitting and stretching pause reps to loosen up the hips and muscles.
2 sets 135lbs X 10 reps get blood flowing
1 set 225lbs X 8 reps
Working sets
6 sets 355lbs X 4 reps

Leg Extensions
2 sets 250lbs X 12 reps
2 sets 250lbs X 10 reps
1 set 250lbs X 8 reps

Narrow Stance Leg Press
3 sets 400lbs X 12 reps

Wide Stance Leg Press
3 sets 400lbs X 13 reps

Kneeling Leg Curls
4 sets 75lbs X 12 reps
1 set 75lbs X 10 reps

All my secondary work is reps to failure which is why there are different sets with the same weight for less reps. The more you push the more fatigued the muscles become and the less reps you can do unless you increase your rest periods.

As always if you have any questions feel free to ask.

God bless
Travis

Have fun with it!

Hey all,
Can't believe it has been this long since I posted. I guess that is what happens you're having fun. Real been busy this year with the kids Taekwondo. I started off the year after my powerlifting meet with a new program from Jim Stoppani called Down and Up Mass. I really enjoyed this program and saw great gains especially in my legs. I followed that program up with another one from Jim called 6 Weeks to Sick Arms which focuses on the arms. I saw great muscle definition increase as well as some thinning out of the fat in my arms. I then did the first 3 weeks of Jim's Superman program. This program focuses on supersets to decrease workout length and keeping similarly volumes per muscle group. This program I saw an increase on upper pec development.

This week I started my own thing and decided that I am going to do what feels like needs to be done for me in my body and my fitness goals. I enjoy following the programs that Jim puts out but I am having so much fun in the gym right now. This week I have been working on going heavy in the 3 main moves and then following it up with Bodybuilding accessory exercises. I am also adding what is called feeder exercises to each day for a specific body part. This week it is arms. This is just to get a pump and get that blood flow into the muscle. Light weight for 20-50 reps. The following is what I have done this week.

Tuesday
Biceps and Triceps
Don't remember exact workout
Wednesday
Chest
Bench Press
Warmup
2 sets 135 lbs X 20reps
1 set 225 lbs X 8 reps
6 sets 245 lbs X 4 reps
2 sets 155 lbs X 8 pause reps
2 sets 135 lbs X 10 reps super wide grips

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
5 sets 65lbs X 8 reps

Cable Biceps Curls
Superset
Cable Incline Triceps Extension
3 sets of 30 reps

Today
2" deficit Deadlift
Warmup
2 sets 135lbs X 8 reps
1 set 225 X 8 reps
1 set 315 X 6 reps
6 Sets 355 X 4 reps

T-Bar Rows
1 set 45 X 15 reps
1 set 90 X 11 reps
3 sets 115 X 11 reps
1 set 140 X 8 reps

Wide grip Lat Pulldowns
3 sets 200lbs X 10 reps
1 set 200lbs X 8 reps

Barbell Curls
Superset
Standing barbell Triceps extentions
3 sets 40 lbs 20 curl and 30 ext reps

So that is it for this week so far.  Tomorrow will be Squats and Legs. I haven't decided exactly what I am doing yet but plan on keeping a log of my workouts.

I also have started Taekwondo with the kids and now have moved into the adult classes. So I am doing it 3 nights a week which is really good because it makes me stretch which is something that has been lacking in my training.

If you all have any questions feel free to ask.

God bless
Travis