My new leg routine (Please critique)

[Niroc]

This is what I've changed to today. I've never felt like I've been training my legs right but up until recently haven't been able to do squats. I can say after completing this routine I felt totally fried and was barely able to walk upstairs to my kitchen.

squats 3x10
leg press 3x10
seated leg raise 3x10
SLDL 3x10
lying leg curl 3x8
smith calf raise 3x12
seated smith calf raise 3x12

any insight will be helpful, I'm trying to really crush my legs and don't have alot of experience training them. Also would it be helpful to hit squats twice a week?

[Overload]

Personally I wouldn't do legs twice a week. They need time to recover. I don't do anything twice a week. Well, in regards to weight training

If it was me doing it, I would change your routine to something like:

squats 3x8
leg press 2x10
SLDL 3x10
standing calf raise 2x15
seated calf raise 2x15

For now I wouldn't bother with leg curls or leg extensions (raises). If you want to build your legs stick to the basics. Actually if you squat hard enough you shouldn't want to or need to do leg presses. Heavy squats and heavy SLDL will be more than enough for growth IMO.

If what you're doing now is wiping you out, consider cutting back. You should feel like you had an intense workout, but not wiped out.

Good luck.

[Niroc]

the only reason I was doing the leg ext/curls in the past; I had no way of doing any type of squat. I was stuck with presses and ext for quads and slds/leg curl for hams. Cheesy home gyms but I guess you have to make do. I honestly don't like doing them much either. So it's agreed I'll scrap the crap. What intensity should I be doing with the routine you suggested? regardless of what it is, I plan on doing the SLDL's light, they aggravate my lower back some but the squats don't seem to bother me at all.

[4aces]

i have always had great luck on this program. i would squat heavy on a monday. with squats being the main lift. i would warm up with extenstions, and then just squat. 5 sets of 5 was always good. if you are man enough to have the weight just right so that you are all most failing at the 5 rep, you are good. if you can hit the 5th rep easily, add a ten on each side. i would then finish with some hacks, but i was always dead from the heavy squats.

then on friday, i would deadlift. after deadlifting, i would do front squats. not too much, maybe 4 sets. or else i would leg press, and have a 100 pound fixed barbell ready, and supperset the leg press with the 100 pound squats. i was not looking to really fry the legs, just enought to get them ready for mondays workout.

this will give you two days for your legs to recover, and two days to get your mind ready for the heavy day on monday.

my 18 year old son and his friend are on this. and he just hit 315 for the first time, so i know it works. ace

[~*IronBelle*~]

I think OL is right. Don't hit them if they arn't fully recovered. It uually takes me 5-7 days to recover after a workout that "fries" my legs.

[A.FreeRadical]

So it's agreed I'll scrap the crap. What intensity should I be doing with the routine you suggested? regardless of what it is, I plan on doing the SLDL's light, they aggravate my lower back some but the squats don't seem to bother me at all.

Sounds much better. I like lower reps and more weight, but that is your call.

If your lower back is a problem you should priotize working that. (On another day) As your poundage increases on the squats you could have a problem. Good mornings and back extentions with weight has really improved my lower back. Start light and work up until your lower back is no longer a problem on SLDLs. Listen to your body. When an area is aggravated, it is talking to you.

*
aA.FreeRadical a

[fitnessman]

If you can work your legs twice a week you are not working them hard enough. A good leg day should leave you shaking for a few hours

I read in your other post you want to bulk...I would drop with reps in the squat to 4-6 rep range...Just IMO on that, but I get the best growth with squats in the 4-6 rep range.

[Capt. America]

I do this once per week and the jeans are gettin' tight.
ATG Squat 3X6
Leg Press 3X6-8
Front Squat 3X8-10
Seated Calf Raise 3X15
I'll do several warm up sets for the squats and throw in some RC and ab work in between heavy sets.

[Niroc]

I do this once per week and the jeans are gettin' tight.
ATG Squat 3X6
Leg Press 3X6-8
Front Squat 3X8-10
Seated Calf Raise 3X15
I'll do several warm up sets for the squats and throw in some RC and ab work in between heavy sets.

I like this setup even better. I haven't trained with squats in a long time and wasn't too sure on my rep range but undoubtedly it's going to respond like the rest of my body. I like the idea of the front squat, I'll just drop the SLDL's and add rack pulls on back day. I think this is gonna work.

[Niroc]

If you can work your legs twice a week you are not working them hard enough. A good leg day should leave you shaking for a few hours

I agree, when I was younger, I lifted with so many guys on gear and they'd spend 2 1/2 hours twice a week training legs. We were so naive because we just supspected they were genetically gifted. lol It was funny watching them strip plates so we could do sets though.

[Capt. America]

Where you at in the burgh? I'm in the South Hills area.

[DanMc]

If you can work your legs twice a week you are not working them hard enough. A good leg day should leave you shaking for a few hours

I read in your other post you want to bulk...I would drop with reps in the squat to 4-6 rep range...Just IMO on that, but I get the best growth with squats in the 4-6 rep range.

That is what happend to me the curb out to the car has nearly dropped me a number of times.

I would say your leg routine is ok but are you getting gains from it?

OL's idea is close to what I do now, its minus dead lifts which I do as part of leg day. Mostly because my back day consists of mainly upper back work and it takes a bit of time. Something had to go so I shifted when I do deads.

[Niroc]

Where you at in the burgh? I'm in the South Hills area.

Monroeville area, Used to lift @ one of Monty Webbs gyms and in this dive called muscleworld. 80% of the people in muscleword were on juice lots of them competed as well.

[Mark1T]

Say Niroc,

The Captain's workout for legs looks good. IMO, if you worked them out once per week, will be best for recovery.

But, in my other opinion, why not bump up the sets to 5 or 6 on the Squats and to 4 sets on the leg press?

I usually do 6 to 7 sets of Squats - after warming up well. You gotta bust 'em up.

[Overload]

It comes down to whatever works for the person, but I have to disagree with the 6-7 sets of squats. If you can do 6-7 sets of squats then you're not going hard enough on the first 5 IMO. A person can tear up their quads with 2 - 3 sets of squats. If they were to do a 20 rep squat routine then just 1 set is all that's needed.

[Niroc]

Say Niroc,

The Captain's workout for legs looks good. IMO, if you worked them out once per week, will be best for recovery.

But, in my other opinion, why not bump up the sets to 5 or 6 on the Squats and to 4 sets on the leg press?

I usually do 6 to 7 sets of Squats - after warming up well. You gotta bust 'em up.

I'm not really certain what I'm going to do. I figured I'd start low and see how things developed. In a few weeks a may decide to bump up my sets for squats. I only did 3 sets the other day and they are aching right now and since I haven't done squats in so long, I'm gonna take this slow. I remember I did like squating till I puked but as I look back I made few gains probably due to overtraining. I've surpassed all my old PR's from when I was in my prime and I actually thought I was strong then.

[Mark1T]

I respect Overload and Niroc on the 3 Sets thing.

I work legs one per week. But, for me, I work in reps and low reps on Squats.

The first 3 sets are reps that burn. The last 3 sets are heavy low reps.

For me, if I only did 3 Sets of Squats, I'd feel like I didn't do enough reps or heavy sets.

Maybe I should do high reps one week, then low reps heavy the next.

[fitnessman]

Mark, training heavy every week is just too taxing on the body. I train real heavy one week in the 4-6 rep range. The next week I still squat, but pre exhaust with leg presses, then keeping the reps in the 10-12 range.

Every once in awhile I squat with 10 sets of 10. Now that will get you shaking

[Mark1T]

Mark, training heavy every week is just too taxing on the body. I train real heavy one week in the 4-6 rep range. The next week I still squat, but pre exhaust with leg presses, then keeping the reps in the 10-12 range.

Every once in awhile I squat with 10 sets of 10. Now that will get you shaking

Thanks Mr. Fit for that. Will start that Wed.

[Capt. America]

Man, I had drill this week end and just read the replies to this GREAT thread. Everyone seems to have a good system that works for them. One question I have in reguards to doing 5-6 sets of squats is this. To keep from overtraing once every 2 weeks I'll do my last set @ 10 reps. If I get them I'll know it's time to increase the weights for my next leg day. Does that hold true?Granted now that my PH cycle is over I expect the poundages to drop somewhat but I would have to agree that if you can get 5-6 heavy sets in you could be increasing your poundages in the 3x6 range. One interesting note is that when I started this 6 week cycle I weighed 170. Yesterday I weighed in @ 192 with no noticeable gain in body fat. I've been really hitting the squats and deads hard. I quit doing them for about 5 years due to back problems so some of the weight gain is probably attributed to adaptation and natural growth. It will be interesting to see if I can keep the weight on during PCT.