Week 4 Day 2 - Like Father, Like Son Pt.2

21/04/15 Day 23 – Legs

So continuing on with the FST-7 style of training I moved on to, what is for me, the hardest day of the week. Even though I have always found legs the harder muscle group to work I actually enjoy it more than most other muscles groups these days, maybe its because I'm actually getting some sick results from my training now!

The sessions today are meant to be spilt into 2, an Am workout targeting the Quadriceps and an Pm workout targeting the Hamstrings. Due to me working this even I have merged the two workouts together, which was INSANE!

AM

Leg Extension – 4 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Leg Press – 4 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Hack Squats – 4 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Smith Machine Squats – 7 Sets x 10-15 Reps

PM

Laying Hamstring Curl – 4 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Stiff Leg Barbell Deadlift – 4 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Seated Hamstring Curl – 7 Sets x 10-15 Reps

Cardio - Interval Training 15mins Total

Today was another father/son special, working legs big time with the big bear. We started off with our Leg Extensions, doing a few sets on a really light weight to get those joints all nice and lubricated before we really hammered the legs. If you are slightly older over have previous knee injuries I cannot stress enough how imperative a solid warm up and active stretch session is! It was nice working with my dad today, feeling like the competition was on we constantly tried to 1 up each other on weights throughout the session, which is great for me because it meant I pushed myself to pretty much complete failure. Remember in between each set I was doing a 10 second contraction on either the quads or hamstrings depending on the exercise, so if you are follow this, then you need to be following too. Stretch that fascia and grow.

Then, after getting some good amount of blood into those legs we moved onto the Leg Press. Here the focus was to get some real heavy reps out on each set, having a training partner is nice because it allows you to work harder than usual knowing you have a spotter there to help you out, so push your boundaries like we did today and get the results.

After a quick talk with my dad about the direct links between weighted muscular training and the effect on your breathing rate and heart rate increase we moved over to the Hack Squat, this is probably one of our favourite new exercises, not only due to the insane contraction in the quadriceps but also the tension you can create through your glutes as well, which obviously will help all pressing motions too. Here the main focus was slow and deep, so deep in fact that a few times I wasn't quite sure if I was ever going to come up, but that's the fun of it, push yourself to the limit and demand more of your body.

After this came our final exercise, the dreaded 7 Sets of Smith Machine Squats. Now as I have stated previously, I don't like the smith machine at the gym I use, not because it isn't good, its just that I moves both horizontally as well as vertically, which in my opinion is not the point of a smith machine? But anyway that is my opinion and you guys and girls may love that kind of machine. So I had to work seriously hard through these sets, as I have spoken about in a few of my leg days I don't feel like I have lots of endurance. So having 30 seconds rest between each set takes its toll by about the 4^th set, but “by thepower of grey skull (I HAVE THE POWER!)” I forced myself through it with some good encouragement from the chief and am now all the better for it.

Then with a pretty quick turn around it was on to Hamstrings. So as our gym doesn't have a Seated Leg Curl I had to improvise and instead did my first 4 sets on a decline bench and did some Laying Dumbbell Leg Curls, which I have never done before and thought were really, really good. Then I moved onto the standard Barbell Stiff Leg Deadlift, which was again awesome, I feel like my hamstrings respond fantastically well to training which is why I love training them so much. Finally for the 7 Sets I worked on the Laying Leg Curl with the aim of the game being, keep tension for as long as possible, so this means not coming all the way up, listen to your muscles, actively seek out where the contraction stops and starts then drop to the bottom of the motion before the contraction fades away and work in that range. This is going to give: more blood, more naturally occurring Human Growth Hormone (HGH), more nutrients for repair and also help us to stretchthatfascia. So work hard and reap the benefits!

Wishing you all the best day you could possibly have.

More than welcome to ideas of how to make this blog better, soon I will be starting a Vlog to accompany this, pretty excited about that! But for now,

Happy Lifting,

Matt