Exercise Log 2.18.14 (Leg Day + Cardio)

Alright continuing light week, leg day! I’ve been looking forward to this since I got the idea for light week, and it was surprisingly hard in practice it was very intense and I felt it really hard afterwards. Which is great!

Front Squat: I thought I could do more with a lighter weight, but front squats STILL even with light weight or next to no weight, are a very neurologically intense workout and doing high volume just is f’n hard. Anyways, I felt good after! 4 sets of 12 reps @ 125lbs. The last couple sets definitely had early pauses to get going.

Angled Leg Press Machine w/ Calf Raises: 4 sets of 16 reps each (presses & calf raises) @ 270lbs. Very slow tempo, something like 2-1-5 and even slower on the last set. This gave a great burn.

Hamstring Curl Machine: 4 sets of 16 reps @ 65lbs. I did another slow tempo workout with slow eccentric movemention (again like 2-1-5 and again even slower on final sets) and I felt like I wanted to cry on these. These were damn hard. My right hamstring is still deformed from pulling it two years ago, so I’m very cautious when I work hamstrings, but I was able to do this exercise and felt no uneven distribution of stress or tension it burned out both hamstrings so I’m really hoping that plus my lack of any mobility issues means we’re good back there despite the deformity. We’ll see, but man, you want worked out hams? Do slow slow slow hamstring curls with light enough weight to go slow like this, and you’ll feel the burn all over.

Standing Lunges: 4 sets of 16 reps @ 30lbs dumbbell pair.

I got my cardio in, the only real cardio this week, at 3.25 miles. It was slow due to all the leg work, but I wasn’t quite done with my leg exercises with just this.

Hip Abductor/Adductors: 3 sets each machine of 16 reps @ 130lbs. Very slow tempo again, and very big burn.

Quad Isolation Extension Machine: I don’t normally do these isolation machines but they’re great for isolating the muscle and doing the lower weight, high volume, slow tempo stuff. 3 sets of 12 reps @ 60lbs (each leg, this was the crappy machine where each leg is independent, I hate this one)

Stiff Legged Deadlifts w/Dumbbells: Normally would use a curl bar for these but the weight levels I wanted were all snatched up. So instead I did 3 sets of 12 reps @ 25lbs dumbbell pair. Got myself nice and slow, and kept focused on slow tempo (again) with stopping when I felt my low back begin to go into flexion. Great way to finish off my legs this evening!

Fantastic workout and definitely felt sore after. Light week is shaping up to be a good change of pace!