5 Ways to Tell if you had a Great Quad Workout
Let me start off by saying that I believe that one should separate his/her Hamstring workout from his/her Quadriceps workout. "Why?" you say? Well, if you’re like me, and you really mess up your quads after a workout, there is simply not enough energy to train the back of your legs. (And if you’re still fresh, well then you need to rethink your intensity level in the gym). My split is like this: Chest, calves, abs/Back/Shoulders, Hams, calves, abs/Quads/Arms, forearms, calves, abs….with maybe one rest day somewhere in between, and definitely 1-2 rest days afterwards.
If you had a grueling Quad session…
1) Your shirt should be soaking wet. I even had a towel with me (have to wipe down those machines when you’re done folks) and my shirt was pretty drenched.
2) At some point in your workout, your knee buckles/legs give out when your leaving/entering a machine. After my last set of leg presses, I had to stumble out of that ****ing machine.
3) At some point in your workout, you feel like your about to throw up (or you actually do!). After Hack Squats, I felt like something was about to burst out of my throat, kept it down though…
4) You do that crazy, shaky, stumblin’ dance out of the gym to your car. You know that funny-ass walk you get when your quads are shaking from all the **** you just did to them.
5) You fear going up/down stairs for the rest of the week (**** it, I’ll take the elevator for this one floor…).
Now let me get in to the insanity that was my quad workout for today. I like to start off with leg extensions, not heavier then 50lbs., just 3-4 light sets to get the knees warm and happy. Then it was off to Back Squats (I switch from Front to Back Squats week to week). After I did 2 warm-up sets, squats looked like this: 315 x 8, 325 x 3, 335 x 3, 335 x 2…next time I figure 335 x 6-10 is definitely in reach.
After that, Leg presses were next. After one set of 630 x 10 to warm-up, I got to work, doing 720 x 12, x8, x8, and x 10 for the last set. For leg presses I just get nasty…during the last set, I take of 2 plates (one off of each side) for each drop, and do continual drop sets until the last drop, where I’m only using 90lbs. It really hurts, but damn is it fun to do.
Hack Squats were next, 4 sets, 315 x 10-20 reps. This felt really easy, next time I’ll add 50-100 more pounds and it will get interesting. Of course, last set was a double-drop set (I subsequently felt like puking after this, but oh well, I wasn’t done yet.).
I added lunges to this workout, I usually don’t do them, but I felt like paralyzing my legs today. I did 3 sets, alternating front lunges (in place) for 8-15 reps. It hurt…
Leg extensions were last…4 sets, 180 x 10 was the heaviest, last set=giant-drop set. Then I got my bag, and did that funny-ass dance back to my car.
Does anyone else ever get worse delayed onset muscle soreness 2 days after a leg workout and not just the next day. For me, the following day is not as bad as 2 days afterwards…oh well, I’m just going to down alot of red meat and hope that helps.
I hope this quad workout motivates you to get to that squat rack...and if you don’t even train legs…well then get the **** out of the gym.
Happy (Leg) Lifting!
