How many times in the gym have you been asked, how much can you bench? How many times on a night out, when you have a low V neck t-shirt on "mate how much do you bench". I bet its in the 100's if not 1000's! Its the true indicator of who is the alpha male right?!!
Well im going to go against the norm here, and say that bench press is infact a over rated exercise used to fuel ego's and create body shrinking injuries! What is really going to seperate you from every other gym rat, being able to stack the Hammer Strength preacher curl machine? I'd hope not! The answer your looking for is the size of your upper legs (and legs in general).
So how do we go about building upper legs that can move mountains, stop trains and look so good to girls they oil your legs when sat on them!! The very first thing you need to do is establish your nutrition, and as im guessing you'll be wanting to gain muscle in the leg area clcik the link HERE to find information on mass gaining diets.
But it obviously isn't just about nutrition, your going to need to break the muscle fibres down in order for them to come back stronger and bigger. Generally for hypertrophy (gaining muscle size) your looking at between 8-12 reps per working set. But this work out im going to suggest that you use all rep ranges in order to stimulate all muscle types, and hopefully more growth should occur.
This is the workout i think you should follow for between 6 and 8 weeks;
LEG DAY 1
Barbell Squat
warm up- 20 reps of body weight squats
set 1- 10 reps on a 60% of your 1 rep max
set 2- 5 reps on a 75% of your 1RM
set 3- 1 rep of a near max rep around 90% (but you know you can complete the rep without a spot)
set 4- to failure on max weight aiming for 2/3 reps (have a spotter assist you)
set 5- to failure on 85% of your previous weight aiming for 6-10 reps (have a spotter assist you)
set 6- to failure on 60% of the "set 4 weight" aiming for between 12-20 reps. (a spotter may be needed, even though the weight should be light enough)
Leg press
set 1- 5 reps on a light weight to feel the motion and really recognise how low it need to go
set 2- to failure at the maximum weight you can lift for 8-12 reps
TAKE A STRICT 1.30mins rest then...
set 3- to failure aiming for as many reps on the "set 2 weight"
LEG DAY 2
Barbell Deadlift
warm up- 20 reps of just olympic bar deadlifts (no plates, just the bar)
set 1- 10 reps of 60% of your 1RM
set 2- 5 reps of 80% of your 1RM
set 3- 1 rep of 90% of your 1RM
set 4- to failure on between 95-100% of your 1RM
set 5- to failure on 85% of your 1RM aiming for 5-8 reps
set 6- to failure on 60% of your 1RM aiming for 10-15 reps
Hamstring machine curls
This is performed on either a lying or standing Hamstring Curl machine, some are even seated.
set 1- perform 5 reps on a light weight really feeling the machine and where to contract etc
set 2- 10-15 reps on a heavy weight but concentrating on form over weight used
TAKE A STRICT 1.30mins rest
set 3- to failure with the same weight used as "set 2"
Additional information; The days should be performed at least 3 days apart, for example I do mine on a wednesday and on a saturday allowing enough time to recover.
Try to keep the rest periods to around 2mins but be very strict with the rest periods of the second exercise on each day. I know that 2 exercises for legs doesn't seem much but the big compound move done to complete failure will be very taxing and trust me you wont want to do any leg extensions or even calf raises after squating and leg pressing, thats for sure!!
Thanks for reading.
If you have any other questions then send me an email;
jonno@completely-anabolic.com
Well im going to go against the norm here, and say that bench press is infact a over rated exercise used to fuel ego's and create body shrinking injuries! What is really going to seperate you from every other gym rat, being able to stack the Hammer Strength preacher curl machine? I'd hope not! The answer your looking for is the size of your upper legs (and legs in general).
So how do we go about building upper legs that can move mountains, stop trains and look so good to girls they oil your legs when sat on them!! The very first thing you need to do is establish your nutrition, and as im guessing you'll be wanting to gain muscle in the leg area clcik the link HERE to find information on mass gaining diets.
But it obviously isn't just about nutrition, your going to need to break the muscle fibres down in order for them to come back stronger and bigger. Generally for hypertrophy (gaining muscle size) your looking at between 8-12 reps per working set. But this work out im going to suggest that you use all rep ranges in order to stimulate all muscle types, and hopefully more growth should occur.
This is the workout i think you should follow for between 6 and 8 weeks;
LEG DAY 1
Barbell Squat
warm up- 20 reps of body weight squats
set 1- 10 reps on a 60% of your 1 rep max
set 2- 5 reps on a 75% of your 1RM
set 3- 1 rep of a near max rep around 90% (but you know you can complete the rep without a spot)
set 4- to failure on max weight aiming for 2/3 reps (have a spotter assist you)
set 5- to failure on 85% of your previous weight aiming for 6-10 reps (have a spotter assist you)
set 6- to failure on 60% of the "set 4 weight" aiming for between 12-20 reps. (a spotter may be needed, even though the weight should be light enough)
Leg press
set 1- 5 reps on a light weight to feel the motion and really recognise how low it need to go
set 2- to failure at the maximum weight you can lift for 8-12 reps
TAKE A STRICT 1.30mins rest then...
set 3- to failure aiming for as many reps on the "set 2 weight"
LEG DAY 2
Barbell Deadlift
warm up- 20 reps of just olympic bar deadlifts (no plates, just the bar)
set 1- 10 reps of 60% of your 1RM
set 2- 5 reps of 80% of your 1RM
set 3- 1 rep of 90% of your 1RM
set 4- to failure on between 95-100% of your 1RM
set 5- to failure on 85% of your 1RM aiming for 5-8 reps
set 6- to failure on 60% of your 1RM aiming for 10-15 reps
Hamstring machine curls
This is performed on either a lying or standing Hamstring Curl machine, some are even seated.
set 1- perform 5 reps on a light weight really feeling the machine and where to contract etc
set 2- 10-15 reps on a heavy weight but concentrating on form over weight used
TAKE A STRICT 1.30mins rest
set 3- to failure with the same weight used as "set 2"
Additional information; The days should be performed at least 3 days apart, for example I do mine on a wednesday and on a saturday allowing enough time to recover.
Try to keep the rest periods to around 2mins but be very strict with the rest periods of the second exercise on each day. I know that 2 exercises for legs doesn't seem much but the big compound move done to complete failure will be very taxing and trust me you wont want to do any leg extensions or even calf raises after squating and leg pressing, thats for sure!!
Thanks for reading.
If you have any other questions then send me an email;
jonno@completely-anabolic.com
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