I had a really good leg workout today!!! So I thought I would share it because I often have people ask me how I determine how much weight I do or how many reps and so forth. So here I breakdown the how's and why's of one of my workouts. I will preface this by saying that I don't gain muscle very easily, especially in my lower body! My legs are pretty lanky and I have no hips, so for me to have any curves at all I have to lift pretty heavy on my lower half. Also, I do legs twice a week. My upper body responds to exercise much quicker than my lower body, therefore I focus more time on building leg and glute muscles than some women may have to.
So here's a typical leg day for me:
Warm= 10-15 minutes on the step mill; I do this to get my heart rate up and also to get my joints warmed up on my left knee, which I have issues with.
First exercise= I start with whatever I want to do the heaviest and whatever will be the hardest. For example, squats or leg press. On this day I did leg presses as follows;
6 X 45 lb plates total 15 reps wide stance
8 X 45 12 reps wide stance
10 X 45 10 reps wide stance
12 X 45 15 reps narrow stance
14 X 45 12 reps narrow stance
16 X 45 10 reps narrow stance
16 X 45 10 reps narrow stance
8 X 45 20 reps narrow stance, half reps at the bottom of the range of motion
8 X 45 Repeat above
Here's the explanation for why I did it this way: When I get to 6 plates on each side (645 lbs including the weight of the machine) my left knee start to give out. By doing a narrow stance from that point on gives me more stability and puts me at less rick for injury. At the end, I drop my weight in half and focus on very short contractions, putting all the resistance on the glutes. This isn't heavy weight, but it does a burn out of the glute muscles so that they are adequately pushed to failure. Also on my first few sets I had shorts rests in between, maybe about a minute. But as my weight increased I allowed for longer breaks in order for mu muscles to recover. On the last few sets I rested about 2 minutes and stretched also.
Second exercise=lying hip thrusters superset with calf raises with no break in between
15 reps X 95 lbs hip thrusts/ then immediately into 20 reps X 45 lb plate calf raises
12 reps X 135 lbs / 20 reps X 45 lb calf raises
10 reps X 145 lbs / 20 reps X 45 lb calf raises
20 reps X 95 lb / 20 reps X 45 lb calf raises
Third exercise= plié squats in the squat rack
15 reps X 95 lbs
12 reps X 115 lbs
10 reps X 135 lbs
8 reps X 155 lbs
Fourth exercise= leg extension superset with hamstring curls (this set was pretty light because at this point my legs were pretty much useless!)
leg extensions 7 reps toes pointed in, 7 reps toes pointed straight, 7 reps toes pointed out (AKA 21's)
25 lbs on each leg
Hamstring curls 12 reps on each leg X 15 lbs on each leg
This was done with no rest in between sets.
Fifth exercise= Hip abductor machine ( as you notice, I use little to no machines at all. I like to use free weight, cables and dumbbells 90% of the time ) this drop set was done with little to no rest in between each ahcnge in weight.
190 lbs X 10 reps
150 lbs X 10 reps
130 lbs X 10 reps
110 lbs X 10 reps
90 lbs X 20 reps
70 lbs X 20 reps
60 lbs X 20 reps
50 lbs X 20 reps (this set is done with short range of motion also, keeping all the tension on the glutes; I also held the last 5 reps for 3 seconds each)
So there you have it! My brutal leg day, which I hope I will be feeling tomorrow! If any of this is unclear feel free to contact me at House of Glutes on FB and @ HouseofGlutes@outlook.com ! And don't forget to follow my Instagram Anniemc1101 :)
 |
| It tooks me MONTHS over the summer to get this kind of size of my quads... And that's nothing compared to most women I know! |
Warm= 10-15 minutes on the step mill; I do this to get my heart rate up and also to get my joints warmed up on my left knee, which I have issues with.
First exercise= I start with whatever I want to do the heaviest and whatever will be the hardest. For example, squats or leg press. On this day I did leg presses as follows;
6 X 45 lb plates total 15 reps wide stance
8 X 45 12 reps wide stance
10 X 45 10 reps wide stance
12 X 45 15 reps narrow stance
14 X 45 12 reps narrow stance
16 X 45 10 reps narrow stance
16 X 45 10 reps narrow stance
8 X 45 20 reps narrow stance, half reps at the bottom of the range of motion
8 X 45 Repeat above
Here's the explanation for why I did it this way: When I get to 6 plates on each side (645 lbs including the weight of the machine) my left knee start to give out. By doing a narrow stance from that point on gives me more stability and puts me at less rick for injury. At the end, I drop my weight in half and focus on very short contractions, putting all the resistance on the glutes. This isn't heavy weight, but it does a burn out of the glute muscles so that they are adequately pushed to failure. Also on my first few sets I had shorts rests in between, maybe about a minute. But as my weight increased I allowed for longer breaks in order for mu muscles to recover. On the last few sets I rested about 2 minutes and stretched also.
 |
| On any lower body exercise where you are trying to focus on your glutes, DIG INTO THE GROUND WITH YOUR HEELS!!! This will activate the glutes and shift your weight to your butt and hamstrings, instead of your quads. |
Second exercise=lying hip thrusters superset with calf raises with no break in between
15 reps X 95 lbs hip thrusts/ then immediately into 20 reps X 45 lb plate calf raises
12 reps X 135 lbs / 20 reps X 45 lb calf raises
10 reps X 145 lbs / 20 reps X 45 lb calf raises
20 reps X 95 lb / 20 reps X 45 lb calf raises
Third exercise= plié squats in the squat rack
15 reps X 95 lbs
12 reps X 115 lbs
10 reps X 135 lbs
8 reps X 155 lbs
Fourth exercise= leg extension superset with hamstring curls (this set was pretty light because at this point my legs were pretty much useless!)
leg extensions 7 reps toes pointed in, 7 reps toes pointed straight, 7 reps toes pointed out (AKA 21's)
25 lbs on each leg
Hamstring curls 12 reps on each leg X 15 lbs on each leg
This was done with no rest in between sets.
Fifth exercise= Hip abductor machine ( as you notice, I use little to no machines at all. I like to use free weight, cables and dumbbells 90% of the time ) this drop set was done with little to no rest in between each ahcnge in weight.
190 lbs X 10 reps
150 lbs X 10 reps
130 lbs X 10 reps
110 lbs X 10 reps
90 lbs X 20 reps
70 lbs X 20 reps
60 lbs X 20 reps
50 lbs X 20 reps (this set is done with short range of motion also, keeping all the tension on the glutes; I also held the last 5 reps for 3 seconds each)
 |
| I burned this many calories while doing this workout. It took me about 80 minutes. |
Comments
Post a Comment