Week 11 Day 1 - In The Pump We Trust

08/06/15 Day 70 – Legs

The beginning of a new week means as always the beginning on a new style of training, still working within the confines of the DTP training. This week I will be training through Giant Sets, for those of you who don't know what a Giant Set is here is a definition:

“A series of 3 or more exercises performed in succession with no rest break between them”.

This style of training is perfect for the high volume nature of the DTP training and I must say, I achieved a stupidly hardcore pump from this leg session and put it all down to this type of training! So here is the session:

Giant Set 1

Leg Extension – 5 Sets x 30 Reps

Leg Press – 5 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10

Hack Squat – 5 Sets, 1 x 30,25,20,15,10

Giant Set 2

Lying Hamstring Curl – 5 Sets x 30 Reps

Leg Press – 5 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25,30

Hack Squat – 5 Sets, 1 x 10,15,20,25,30

As had no steady build up, I had to make sure that going into the session I was really well warmed up, really well stretched out and most importantly incredibly focused for what I needed to achieve. With this style of training it isn't always easy being able to get on to every piece of a equipment, especially in very busy gyms and peak hour training, so remember to be thoughtful and let other people jump in between your working sets, it keeps everyone happy and you might even get a little rest break out of it!

As I began with the first Giant set I made sure the focus was entirely within my quads, knowing I was hitting my Hamstrings after allowed me to work to failure on every set without fear of not being able to complete the second half of the session. Keeping the Leg Extensions constantly at 30 reps meant that I was able to actively pre-fatigue the quads in an isolation movement before going on to the next two compound exercises that would be aided by other synergistic muscles. To keep the main focus on the Quadriceps I took my foot stance on the Leg Press low and narrow, meaning that the Glutes were not able to influence the movement, which simply allowed me to beast the Quadriceps even more! After the Leg Press came the Hack Squat, this was an insane way to finish off each set, which such a high muscular demand for the exercise I found the first two sets I wasn't able to use anything but my body weight as my legs had become so incredibly fatigued and pumped up. As spoken about previously, having such high levels of blood being forced into the muscle (such as “the pump”) allows the body to trigger, release and transfer higher levels of Human Growth Hormone into the cells, enhancing the size and strength of the muscles and thus allowing the body to grow. With each set that went by my legs felt heavier and heavier, not just due to the ridiculous levels of blood in them but due to the battering they were being put through. As the number of reps went down the weights went up, trying to constantly push the muscles to the brink of failure only means that they will come back bigger and stronger. As I am currently in the off season for my competitions I am only focused on getting some solid lean muscle mass on my frame, so pushing to failure is a key task in my method of madness.

With the Quadriceps utterly obliterated it was time to work back up the repetitions now, but taking the emphasis to the Hamstrings and Glutes. Taking on the same pre-fatigue style to Hamstrings that were used on the Quadriceps, although this time I started at the bottom of the rep range with the Leg Press & Hack Squat allowing me to smash those heavy weighted sets out to start with, then tapering down the weight whilst the repetition range increased. To take full advantage of the Hamstrings and Glutes I changed my stances around once again with the Leg Press & Hack Squat, taking my feet high up on the platform, taking my stance really wide and pointing the toes out very slightly, this then put the emphasis on the target muscles and did I know about it! Maybe it was due to already being fatigued but working through the Hamstring work was completely soul destroying, I was trying my hardest to constantly keep working through the reps but by the time I made it to the hack squat I was completely flagging and thus found myself rest pausing from around 15 repetitions on every set, which only added insult to injury in the sense that it took so much longer to finish each set.

With the final set of 30 reps done and tiny tear of joy I made my way to the mats to some my legs so TLC and have a great stretch out, with my protein shake in hand to feed the muscles I spent a solid 15 minutes stretching out what was left of my legs. Before the gym starting shutting down for the day and it was time to go home. All in all it was a wicked session and I loved it, none the less it was still incredibly testing.

Hope you are having a great day where ever you are!

Happy Lifting,

Matt