This is part two of our articles about leg strength and why you should never skip legs day. In part one I discussed the various reasons why it is important to spend time strengthening the legs and how the leg muscles can have a big impact on the upper body. In this article I am going to give you an advanced workout plan that has four programs split up over 16 weeks. This plan assumes that you have correct technique with all the exercises, no injuries, and are someone who has plenty of experience in the gym. If you are a beginner, or someone getting back into it after a long break these workouts will be too challenging for you at the moment. It would be wise to spend some time building up a base and correcting any movement weaknesses before attempting hard training like this.
Using Supersets & Advanced Methods
Feel free to change the exercises I have suggested, but remember the exercise order is very important. Always keep the most complex exercises at the start, and avoid doing heavy squats and deadlifts on the same day. I find it is too much compression into the spine in one workout and it is safer to break them up. Make sure you complete a warm-up set before lifting heavy and if things do not feel right back the intensity off and do a light workout instead.
You will find I like to use a lot of supersets in the following workouts.
Supersets contain pairings of exercises that can target the same muscle or muscle group. This is where one set is performed of one of the exercises in the pair, then the other immediately afterwards without any rest between. A short recovery can be taken between each pair before the next set is performed. Supersets are great way to hit the muscle fibers with an abnormal amount of workload. This stimulates muscle growth, particularly if they target the same muscle group and medium to heavy weights are used.
It is also a great to achieve more volume of work within a session without needing hours to do it.
Okay, let’s get into it.
Weeks 1-4 Build a Base – Contrast Load Supersets
This first block is all about building some strength endurance with a program that tries to combine maximal strength and endurance together.
I have always found the heavy sets are the easy part and lighter high rep sets are the killer in this program. This is a great way to build a strong base with supersets that double up on the leg muscles.
The first exercise is loaded up maximally, if you can do more than 5 reps it is too light. As soon as you finish this set immediately superset with a similar movement but with a light load and more reps! This gives a massive contrast in muscle demands and is a great transition into complex training used commonly in sports. Gives a great pump in the muscles.
Best to do this workout with a spotter as fatigue kicks in quickly!
Weeks 5-8 High Volume – Drop Sets & Tri-Sets
Drop sets are an advanced version of supersets. This system will have a serious anabolic (growth) effect and significantly overload muscles (all fibre types). As such it is a good option for increasing muscle size.
The drop set method is used to extend a set beyond its normal finishing point. It takes advantage of the fact that, just because you can no longer lift a weight, it doesn’t mean that your muscles are completely gone! Often when doing this workout you end up lifting the tiniest of dumbbells or barbells but it still hurts as much as the big weights as your muscles are being forced into complete meltdown.
For example, if you were using 100kg on a barbell squat and could just man-age 10 reps and not an 11th, all that has happened is that you are no longer able to generate 100kg of force. You could, however, probably generate 75kg of force. So by lowering the weight to 75kg, you can continue the set beyond the point you normally would have stopped at. After a few reps, 75kg begins to feel like 100kg again and cause your muscles to burn and quickly run out of power. So then you take more weight off the bar to 50kg and continue the set for a few more reps, and again it will feel like 100kg in next to no time.
I usually stop this process after the 3rd lowering of the weight.
It is important to note that to get the most out of drop setting, it’s important to try and reduce the resistance as quickly as possible once muscular failure has been reached. I like to set up the bar with the exact plates so I can make it a quick drop and minimize the time between sets.
Tri-Sets are very similar to Supersets except it includes one more exercise, hence the name Tri-Set. These are often my favorite to do as they add that extra variety and can really bring in additional nervous system and muscle fatigue. Great for strength endurance and muscle size programs.
Weeks 9-12 – Complex Training
This method is all about trying to transfer strength into powerful explosive movements often used in sports.
The complex movements are not suitable for building maximal strength as too many things can go wrong compromising safety. By using a simple exercise for strength development prior and immediately following up with the complex athletic sports movement, you give yourself every chance of transferring the strength gains into the complex exercise.
This workout also gives your joints a break from the heavy lifting and allows you to catch up a bit for you are going to need it for the next phase!
Weeks 13-16 – Wave Loading
This is a very advanced style of training and designed by Olympic Weightlifters. This is not suited to beginners or anyone with an existing injury.
It is great if you are looking to improve your maximal strength.
A word of warning you MUST have a spotter to do this workout and you can only do this for a maximum of 3 weeks at a time before lightening the loads and giving your body a chance to repair the damage. Weightlifters work off a ratio of 3,2,1 but I find it is a bit risky for most general gym goers and I work off a ratio of 6,5,4 or 5,4,3.
How it works
Perform a set of 6 reps, rest and increase the weight and do 5 reps, rest and increase the weight and do 4 reps. Now you go back to doing 6 reps again but go back to the weight you use for 5 reps and repeat the process. I take a 2-3 minutes rest between sets. This workout takes a long time so you need to break up upper body and lower body exercises into separate days.
Here is an example of a 6 set squat wave load workout.
•6 reps = 100kg
•5 reps = 110kg
•4 reps = 115kg
•6 reps = 110kg
•5 reps = 115kg
•4 reps = 120kg
As this workout takes a long time I only use this method with one exercise and use some simple sets with the complementary exercises after the main set.
What About Upper Body Exercises?
Of course you will need to do exercises for your upper body and you can use any combination of these you like. I like to try to use the functional movements that require me to stand up such as, single cable press & pulls, wood-chops, bent-over row etc. It just depends on how tiring the workout is and if I need to rest my legs due to fatigue.
Depending on how tired I am I will keep the sets and reps of these exercises to 3 x 8-12 throughout the program and not add drop sets or advanced methods to the workout. It just depends on how tired I am.
Do You Want More Workout Ideas?
And if you want even more circuit workouts, strength programs and even cardio and sporting workouts, make sure you get a copy of the Little Black Book of Training Secrets where I share 101 amazing programs just like the ones shown in this article. Click here to see more about what is inside this special report and download your digital copy instantly.
Summary
As mentioned at the beginning this type of training is brutal and definitely not for a beginner or anyone with injuries.
Even an experienced lifter will find this methods exhausting and it is important to recognize if you are over-training and need a week or two break to let the body catch up. There is plenty of scope to vary the exercises and the amount of volume of work and modify this to fit your needs. The point of this article was to show you there are more ways to build strength than simply the same exercises over and over using 3 sets of 10.
About The Author
Nick Jack is owner of No Regrets Personal Training and has over 20 years’ experience as a qualified Personal Trainer, Level 2 Rehabilitation trainer, CHEK practitioner, and Level 2 Sports conditioning Coach. Based in Melbourne Australia he specializes in providing solutions to injury and health problems for people of all ages using the latest methods of assessing movement and corrective exercise.
References
- Movement – By Gray Cook
- Athletic Body in Balance – by Gray Cook
- New Functional Training for Sports – by Mike Boyle
- Corrective Exercise Solutions – by Evan Osar
- Low Back Disorders – by Stuart McGill
- Motor Learning and Performance – By Richard A Schmidt and Timothy D Lee
- Assessment & Treatment Of Muscle Imbalance – By Vladimir Janda
- Scientific Core Conditioning Correspondence Course – By Paul Chek
- Advanced Program Design – By Paul Chek
- Twist Conditioning Sports Strength – By Peter Twist
- Twist Conditioning Sports Movement – By Peter Twist
- Twist Conditioning Sports Balance – By Peter Twist