TweetLight Leg ext/ air squat/ stretch warm up (forgot my roller)


Squats -----> you may notice my squat weights went down. The short of it is before I was using a rack that had fixed level safety bars. Because of my height I would tap the bar just shy of parallel. Now I have the ability to do them where I'm tapping it just below parallel. What a difference, but I'd rather do em right.

6 x warm ups

335 x 6

350 x 5


Leg press

3 x warm ups

8 pps x 8

9 pps x 7


Leg ext.

1 x warm up

225 x 8

247.5 x 6 with 5 sec hold last rep


Seated leg curls

2 x warm ups

140 x 7

140 x 7 with 5 sec hold last rep


Calf raises on hack squat

3 x warm ups

5 pps x 7

5 pps x 7


Seated calf raises

1 pps + 25s x 8

1 pps + 25s x 7


Incline sit ups x 60

Tweet1 pps + 25s , means a 45 + 25 plate x 8 reps. Am I right? I may be learning here.
~Trixie~

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Originally Posted by Trixie

1 pps + 25s , means a 45 + 25 plate x 8 reps. Am I right? I may be learning here.
~Trixie~

Yup!

Tweetgusto, i have a couple sessions where it is required to go to just a touch above or right at parallel. those kill my knees and back way more than going rock bottom. now stop fixating so much on the numbers and go off feeling the muscle stretch and contract lol. not saying dont worry about how much you are moving but if you arent feeling the actual muscle and hitting the right depth. you are working numbers and not muscle, if that makes any sense?

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Originally Posted by guns01

gusto, i have a couple sessions where it is required to go to just a touch above or right at parallel. those kill my knees and back way more than going rock bottom. now stop fixating so much on the numbers and go off feeling the muscle stretch and contract lol. not saying dont worry about how much you are moving but if you arent feeling the actual muscle and hitting the right depth. you are working numbers and not muscle, if that makes any sense?

No I totally get it brother and I understand, I do have a little bit of ego in me and I do love lifting the heavy weights. But I'm definitely not one of these guys in the gym who piles on all kinds of heavy weight on the benchpress and only does 25 to 50% range of motion. I can't stand that shit. Again I do love heavy lifting and I feel like I do respond very well to lifting heavyweights. It seems like the more weight I pile on the more I grow. Now as far as bottoming out on squats, well that's always been an issue for me. I'll be the first to admit I don't have the greatest mobility and once I get a few inches below parallel my Torso starts to shift forward a lot. Thoughts?

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Originally Posted by gusto77

No I totally get it brother and I understand, I do have a little bit of ego in me and I do love lifting the heavy weights. But I'm definitely not one of these guys in the gym who piles on all kinds of heavy weight on the benchpress and only does 25 to 50% range of motion. I can't stand that shit. Again I do love heavy lifting and I feel like I do respond very well to lifting heavyweights. It seems like the more weight I pile on the more I grow. Now as far as bottoming out on squats, well that's always been an issue for me. I'll be the first to admit I don't have the greatest mobility and once I get a few inches below parallel my Torso starts to shift forward a lot. Thoughts?

haha, you know i love busting your nuts about the heavy weights. heavy weight is a relative term for each individual. my biggest beef is rom when it comes to weights being used. if you can go to 1-2in below the bottom of say a bench press and bring it back to 3/4 lockout or just short of lockout and squeeze the shit out of it then it is a good movement. most individuals will use momentum to move x amount of weight or just plain nasty form. not saying you are guilty of this but that is the norm lol. if you are growing and feeling it then i say hammer the hell out of those weights. like i said i like busting your balls about it for fun.

for the squat and hitting depths. put 185-225 on the bar. now go just a touch wider than shoulder width and point the toes out. see if that keeps the torso from rolling forward on you. also make sure you are keeping a good arch, driving through your heals and instep. keep experimenting with foot placement and width to find the optimum position to allow you to take your back out of the movement. i have found that for my big ass it is just a hair outside of shoulder width toes out. that keeps my back in proper position to go rock bottom and my lower back sucks ass because if i get a little out of position it tightens up on me and kills.

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Originally Posted by guns01

haha, you know i love busting your nuts about the heavy weights. heavy weight is a relative term for each individual. my biggest beef is rom when it comes to weights being used. if you can go to 1-2in below the bottom of say a bench press and bring it back to 3/4 lockout or just short of lockout and squeeze the shit out of it then it is a good movement. most individuals will use momentum to move x amount of weight or just plain nasty form. not saying you are guilty of this but that is the norm lol. if you are growing and feeling it then i say hammer the hell out of those weights. like i said i like busting your balls about it for fun.

for the squat and hitting depths. put 185-225 on the bar. now go just a touch wider than shoulder width and point the toes out. see if that keeps the torso from rolling forward on you. also make sure you are keeping a good arch, driving through your heals and instep. keep experimenting with foot placement and width to find the optimum position to allow you to take your back out of the movement. i have found that for my big ass it is just a hair outside of shoulder width toes out. that keeps my back in proper position to go rock bottom and my lower back sucks ass because if i get a little out of position it tightens up on me and kills.

Killer advice brother. Will hit next leg session.

TweetTraveling for work so I'll be hitting sun- wed this week probably. Below is what I'm talking about with these low volume heavy workouts. I'm not saying they work forever or for everyone but they're great for me when I hit a sticking point or come off cycle. Improvements almost every workout.


Bench press

4 x warm ups

325 x 7

335 x 5


Incline barbell press

255 x 8 (slightly too light)

265 x 7

275 x 5 :p


Dumbbell fly (very slight incline)

1 x warm up

85s x 7 + presses x 3

85s x 6 + presses x 2


Standing alternating dumbbell curl

3 x warm ups

60s x 8

60s x 6


Single arm dumbbell preachers

1 x warm up

50 x 7 (felt way too heavy on left arm)

45 x 8


Incline sit ups x 65


20 min cardio

TweetDeadlifts

315 x 4

365 x 4

415 x 4


Hammer strength high rows

2 x warm up

3 pps x 8 (too light)

3 pps + 25s x 8

3 pps + 35s x 7


Bent barbell rows (45 degree angle)

1 x warm up

225 x 8 (too light)

250 x 8

265 x 8


Wide grip Seated cable rows (reverse grip)

150 x 8 (too light)

200 x 7

200 x 7


Wide grip pull ups

BW x 7 (pull up bar sucked at this gym.... Smooth metal and didn't feel like I could get a good squeeze at top because my grip kept slipping)


Wide grip pull downs

200 x 8

220 x 6


20 min cardio

Tweetgusto i know you love the heavy stuff man but let me toss something out at you. keep hammering all that heavy weight but move the big compound stuff to the back end of you sessions. that way you know for 100% sure that you are completely warmed up and at a less likely chance of getting injured. also you dont take away from the other movements. say go super heavy on deads in the begining one week and move squats to the end of legs and then reverse the order the following week. that way you dont double hammer the low back and you can still get them in.

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Originally Posted by guns01

gusto i know you love the heavy stuff man but let me toss something out at you. keep hammering all that heavy weight but move the big compound stuff to the back end of you sessions. that way you know for 100% sure that you are completely warmed up and at a less likely chance of getting injured. also you dont take away from the other movements. say go super heavy on deads in the begining one week and move squats to the end of legs and then reverse the order the following week. that way you dont double hammer the low back and you can still get them in.

I've been alternating squat and deadlift weeks but I will say my low back didn't quite feel quite recovered from last weeks squats. Just FYI I did do foam roll, air squats, stretch, and 4 warm up sets of deadlifts before I put 315 on there.... I forgot to log the warm up. Also keep in mind I'm only continuing these low volume Heavy workouts til the end of this month.... Then I'm switching back and this guy who supposedly knows what he's doing is helping me out lol. So since I'm alternating squat and weeks would you suggest:

Week a:

Squats front end

Week b:

DL back end


Week c:

Squats back end


Week d:

DL front end


Etc.

Tweetthat's exactly it my man. you can hammer the crap out of one and not have to take the other out of the rotation. now if you want to get super silly and you arent recovering fully then you can squat heavy one week and drop deads for hypers and vice versa. that's another way to skin the cat on working around a fatigued lower back

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Originally Posted by guns01

that's exactly it my man. you can hammer the crap out of one and not have to take the other out of the rotation. now if you want to get super silly and you arent recovering fully then you can squat heavy one week and drop deads for hypers and vice versa. that's another way to skin the cat on working around a fatigued lower back

Dude I took a quick post workout nap and I saw this and then I got up to go to the bathroom and it feels like a fucking freight train hit me LOL need some Aleve. Guess I'm getting old