Leg training
Leg training - You've been killing it on legs this year, right? As the
months wind down and the weather gets cold, your body often feels older
than its years. Sure, you maintain a disciplined lifting regimen and
yes, you look terrific as a result. But your legs just seem to be
starting to feel the aches and pains that result from steady consistent
bombardments of training. You don't want to give them a complete rest,
but you know that your outright insane heavy lifting style has to take a
backseat for a few months.
Let's take a month to just scale back the leg training. You'll still be
spending 90 minutes per week hitting your legs, but you'll be cutting
back the weight and bumping up your repetitions. This will not only
limit the amount of pressure you're putting on the non-muscle portions
of your leg composition, but will also isolate and target those
slow-twitch muscle fibers which are typically ignored when using
standard set schemes of 8 to 12. Once you hit repetition number 21, 25,
28 and beyond, you'll discover a new level of muscle burning that you
may not have previously thought possible!
Pre-Exhaust is a method which works wonderfully with higher rep leg
training. You'll be unable to balance and control heavier sets of
weight, but that's okay! The initial high repetition method is terrific
when you isolate the legs with leg extensions for 18 repetitions, and
then throw 15 repetitions of lunges or barbell squats at them!
Hamstrings First? Referring back to the balance issue, without the
requirements of going extremely heavy, you can hit the hamstrings hard
and early for excellent isolation and eventually, results. Start your
workout with high repetition lying leg curls immediately following by
seated leg curl machine. Then finish off your day with stiff legged
deadlifts. Now, it's time to move on to hitting your thighs with that
same intensity and insanity.
Splitting up your Hamstring & Thighs works well with this higher
repetition training methodology. A Monday front thigh workout followed
with a Thursday hamstring & calf workout is the perfect way to give
yourself adequate rest and recovery from each tough workout, with the
ability to really isolate and give each muscle group a nice level of
dedication.
30, 40, 50 and beyond? Tom Platz used to start his leg extensions, and
spend literally a dozen minutes on a single set. He would complete the
20 reps until he reached failure, then he would reduce the weight by 10%
and complete another 5 repetitions slowly. He'd repeat this pattern
until he was down to 10 or 20% of his initial weight. Then he would move
form full to half to quarter repetitions.
Training in this matter allows your very tired and sore joints and
tendons to rest while delivering a new level of intensity and an
isolation and targeting of your various muscle fiber types. Happy
training!
