Exercise Log 11.11.13 (Leg Day + Cardio)

No day is ever quite as satisfying as leg day. I was feeling a little under the weather today like I’m on the verge of getting sick, and I figure it’s a good time to link yet another video this time from Elliot Hulse on how to prevent sickness…

Don’t wanna get sick? Be a pussy!

So I want to just take things easy just to prevent any lingering ill feelings from being full blown under the weather. That said I wasn’t going to skip my leg workout my first thing was just giving myself a little more time and take it a little easier between sets.

So after warmups I did 4 sets of split squat deadlifts, instead of doing my regular dread march series of heavy dumbbell lunges. This was actually pretty nice as a change of pace. Then after that I hit up back squatting while still near the rack. This rack was the open squat rack without adjustable side bars so my squatting was not quite “ass to the ground” like usual, but for back squatting I felt it was sufficiently low. I started kind of heavy for 3 sets and I realized my core and back work and my practice on grip and various squats throughout the week were paying off because I felt good about where I was at. So I went for 170lbs, squatted it twice and wasn’t 100% on the form so I racked it for a second then gave it a third squat, and felt like I did good. I could’ve gone for more maximum exertion, but as the video above says taking a step back sometimes is better, so I did my burn set next and called it a day on back squatting.

Next I decided I could use a sit down somewhere, and decided to hit up the vertical leg press, and thankfully the big rack vertical leg press machine was open.

Unracking this thing is starting to become a chore

So I worked my way up from a moderate weight to a heavy weight over 3 sets, supersetting of course with calve raises. Then on my fourth set I decided to go gung ho and rack 8 plates on each side – 720lbs – plus the sled weight. I won’t say I pressed this much weight with the best from or deepest angles… I admit at some point I felt like I had to resist using my arms to support my legs… but I did 5 reps that satisfied me at that heaviest weight then did 5 reps of calve raises to boot.

I wanted to vary up leg day a little bit do some more calm leg exercises so I decided to work in some romanian or stiff-legged style deadlift, particularly very hamstring-isolating like this type demonstrated below by Scooby…

Good morning!

So I grabbed a 90lb curl bar and went to it for four sets, taking my time between sets. Felt very good at this point in the workout but the weight floor was a little busy so I wound up doing some leg adductors/abductors (3 sets, moderate weight in each machine) and then I did heavy glute hip extensions on the hip extension machine. One problem with the hip extension machine at my gym is the rubber pad at the bottom of the weight stack has a little bit of suction which is frustrating to press when you’re pressing through the weight plus that extra vacuum. So I went down one plate and upped the rep count to 3 reps each leg, and did 5 reps of 3 back and forth, 3 sets total (so each leg pressed the weight stack 45 times).

Felt pretty good there but really wanted to do a few front squats. Since I set a personal best with the vertical press and the back squat, and I definitely needed to still take it easy, I did not push myself too hard on front squatting but I did focus a lot on form and I felt really good about my form. I did the same as usual 5 sets of 5, one with straps as my primary way to grip the bar, one with a clean grip, up the weight and then repeat two sets one with straps one without, then final set being with a clean grip at a heavier weight. Then a drop set to wrap up.

Again I feel like I forgot something and I probably did but I felt pretty good… taking it easy today meant making this hour or so workout into a 2 1/2 hour workout but so be it, I had fun. Then afterwards I went ahead and did a half hour brisk walking pace on the treadmill, I don’t like to run on leg day don’t want to put too much strain on the legs after the workout. This was nice and relaxing as well.

I did my first yoga class tonight but I’ll break that into a separate update.