Saturday morning. Time for the new leg workout. Will it be good? It is a bit more intense than the old one. Some exercises will see heavier amounts. Some exercises have been removed altogether.
Arrived at the gym a bit later than planned, but still got to it. Warm up. Stretch. Warm up some more. Time for leg extensions.
About 15 years ago, I started pre-exhausting my legs with extensions. I went nuts back then, lifting the whole rack and then some at the YMCA in Marion, Ohio. The soccer moms thought I was absolutely nuts. I’d cinch the seat belt in the Nautilus unit all the way to keep me from arching my back and cheating. Yes, it build great quads, but at the price of my knees.
Today, however, the pre-exhaust method is to use TORQ and move the weight at 3-4 seconds a rep. Coupled to that is 30 reps, so these days the weights are much smaller and less taxing on the knees. The burn is more intense too. Awesome.
Previous leg press routines at Stay Fit 24 had seen the use of the machine leg press that allows the user to push horizontally. It is time now to step back up to the Bigs with the inclined leg press. Hello old friend, it has been a long time. Three set later, it was enjoying the old feelings.
Just over half-way through this routine and I started to really keep my heart rate up. Heck the Smith Machine negatives, I kept sweating. By the end, I was out of breath and sweating. Awesome! I’ve not had this indoors in a long time.
Overall, I liked the results from my Leg workout. I spent less time at the gym, but taxed my legs more. I was able to hit just over 50% body weight on the fifth set of squats, though only hitting 4 reps out of 5. One more session should take care of that and see weights increasing. The pyraminding with the squats started with 10 pounds each side and adding 5 to each after the set. That fifth set saw 105 pounds being pushed from the floor all the way up. Being 6 feet, 5 inches, that quite a long way for a full squat. That may not seem like much, but at nearly 45 years of age, it felt like a huge accomplishment. Boom!
The next task at hand is to work on the deltoids and arms. The former will get Roger Lockridge’s “3-Week Shoulder Smash” from the June 2013 issue of Iron Man. This is a serious shoulder workout that runs for 3 cycles of 3 weeks. My shoulders are not responding as hoped, so it is time to put them on notice. Arms will probably contain the current spider curls, dumbbells and inclines. The new routine reduces the exercises for the deltoids to three, but raises the intensity several notches. Can’t wait.
Keep on lifting.
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