If your knees are bothering you I say train on an normal schedule but every 2-3 workouts use gargantuan volume like 40+ sets/ 10x10 on most excercises.
[quote]RampantBadger wrote:
If your knees are bothering you I say train on an normal schedule but every 2-3 workouts use gargantuan volume like 40+ sets/ 10x10 on most excercises.[/quote]
interesting idea, i do love high volume
today i usually train legs but today woke up with some knee pain so decided to put off legs till tomorrow and train chest today. Then when i arrived at the gym my knee felt fine but shoulder was slightly suspect (lol). I still trained chest/shoulders anyways—give my knee one more day to recover.
Maybe its one of those things is that you just need to get the blood pumping in that area and it’ll feel better.
[quote]optheta wrote:
Maybe its one of those things is that you just need to get the blood pumping in that area and it’ll feel better.[/quote]
its possible, but id figured id rest it a day to be safer—
i think when it heals a bit more i might only do a mini leg blast of two weeks----i dont have long before ill start dieting for the show.
I think adding the sled drags as the 3rd day would be good. I drag a sled and LOVE it.
But if you kept it lighter, you could definitely do a 3rd leg day with weights as well, something along the lines of 8 sets of 3, speed work.
You mentioned knee pain, I found that getting into a squat stretch several times a day keeps me loose and helps alleviate knee pain.
I think (and I could be wrong) that knee pain doesn’t typically come directly from squatting too much (unless your form sucks, lol), but rather, it comes indirectly from tightness we get in certain areas as a result of the squatting (am I splitting hairs?).
Meaning, that as long as you are doing things to stay loose; foam rolling, stretching, etc, then hitting legs 3 times a week is no problem.
I know that I personally tend to get tight ankles and hips, but where I feel the pain is in my knees as those tight areas pull on the knee joint. So the squatting itself doesn’t hurt my knee. I just have to do thing to keep my hips and ankles loose.
I was doing a version of CT’s HFSW during my contest prep, I was hitting legs 6 days a week. Now, it wasn’t maximal, but by no means was it light or easy work either. I currently do much more volume in one session and couldn’t pull that off, but just illustrating that it’s doable depending on how you set it up and how much your focus on recovery.
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
I think adding the sled drags as the 3rd day would be good. I drag a sled and LOVE it.
But if you kept it lighter, you could definitely do a 3rd leg day with weights as well, something along the lines of 8 sets of 3, speed work.
You mentioned knee pain, I found that getting into a squat stretch several times a day keeps me loose and helps alleviate knee pain.
I think (and I could be wrong) that knee pain doesn’t typically come directly from squatting too much (unless your form sucks, lol), but rather, it comes indirectly from tightness we get in certain areas as a result of the squatting (am I splitting hairs?).
Meaning, that as long as you are doing things to stay loose; foam rolling, stretching, etc, then hitting legs 3 times a week is no problem.
I know that I personally tend to get tight ankles and hips, but where I feel the pain is in my knees as those tight areas pull on the knee joint. So the squatting itself doesn’t hurt my knee. I just have to do thing to keep my hips and ankles loose.
I was doing a version of CT’s HFSW during my contest prep, I was hitting legs 6 days a week. Now, it wasn’t maximal, but by no means was it light or easy work either. I currently do much more volume in one session and couldn’t pull that off, but just illustrating that it’s doable depending on how you set it up and how much your focus on recovery.
[/quote]
thanx for the suggestions
did you build your own sled?
its true i do need to foam roll more—i do think the problem with the knee is that i was going pretty darn heavy on the Bulgarian split squats—also doing them too early in my leg training, they are safer if you putt them later in the workout when the knees are nice and warmed up after some squats and or leg presses
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
thanx for the suggestions
[/quote]
No problem!
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
did you build your own sled?
[/quote]
Yes, it’s pretty easy.
Large eye bolt, with a nut and lock washer (I also used a little block of wood to make sure it didn’t pull through the tire). Drill hole in wood and tire, place eye bolt through and tighten nut/lock washer. Buy some decent rope and loop through the eye bolt. You can knot the ends of the rope or thread through some PVC for handles. The last part is a little tricky, I jam some plywood in the tire and just lay weights on top of the wood in the tire.
If you search “DIY tire sled” you will get some different designs.
And even a T-Nation article:
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
its true i do need to foam roll more—i do think the problem with the knee is that i was going pretty darn heavy on the Bulgarian split squats—also doing them too early in my leg training, they are safer if you putt them later in the workout when the knees are nice and warmed up after some squats and or leg presses
[/quote]
Yeah, heavy BSS would not be my first choice. 
[quote]timmcbride00 wrote:
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
thanx for the suggestions
[/quote]
No problem!
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
did you build your own sled?
[/quote]
Yes, it’s pretty easy.
Large eye bolt, with a nut and lock washer (I also used a little block of wood to make sure it didn’t pull through the tire). Drill hole in wood and tire, place eye bolt through and tighten nut/lock washer. Buy some decent rope and loop through the eye bolt. You can knot the ends of the rope or thread through some PVC for handles. The last part is a little tricky, I jam some plywood in the tire and just lay weights on top of the wood in the tire.
If you search “DIY tire sled” you will get some different designs.
And even a T-Nation article:
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
its true i do need to foam roll more—i do think the problem with the knee is that i was going pretty darn heavy on the Bulgarian split squats—also doing them too early in my leg training, they are safer if you putt them later in the workout when the knees are nice and warmed up after some squats and or leg presses
[/quote]
Yeah, heavy BSS would not be my first choice.
[/quote]
thanks a lot tim!
can you take a look at my alternative cardio methods and post some of the workouts you’d do with that sled.
post a typical leg sesh
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
post a typical leg sesh[/quote]
if im in a high volume phase:
Lying leg curls
1x15
1x12
1x8
Drop set plus partials
Squats
- ramp up to 8 rep max
then lower the weight and
4x8
Hack squats
work up to 4pps and then
4x8
drop set down to 1 plate perside- do a tear drop finisher
Leg extensions- 3x20 then a drop set
Stiff leg deadlfts- 4 work sets
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
thanks a lot tim!
can you take a look at my alternative cardio methods and post some of the workouts you’d do with that sled.
[/quote]
Sorry if I missed it, where were the alternative cardio methods? I will comment on them if you could repost them.
Here is a sample of sled work that I do:
Generally speaking, I will do 3 to 4 “sets” meaning up and back about 30 yards or so.
A workout I really enjoyed at the end of my last prep was:
4 sets of legs
3 sets of press
2 sets of pull
It took about 20 minutes to complete.
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
post a typical leg sesh[/quote]
if im in a high volume phase:
Lying leg curls
1x15
1x12
1x8
Drop set plus partials
Squats
- ramp up to 8 rep max
then lower the weight and
4x8
Hack squats
work up to 4pps and then
4x8
drop set down to 1 plate perside- do a tear drop finisher
Leg extensions- 3x20 then a drop set
Stiff leg deadlfts- 4 work sets
[/quote]
Food for thought…take it with a grain of salt…
-
Try subbing heavy ass high rep leg press for squats. 3 sec negatives, w/ bands, 1 1/2 reps, drop sets…all kind of intensifiers out there. Don’t feel like you have to squat every workout…if it ain’t workin’ for ya it ain’t workin for ya.
-
Love the hacks and brutal drop =)
-
Higher volume for hams. 6 sets of 12-15 stiff-legs.
-
Higher volume for quads. Sub smith squats or lunges for leg extensions…can add an intensifier to these too, slow negatives, heels on plates, etc.
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
Food for thought…take it with a grain of salt…
-
Try subbing heavy ass high rep leg press for squats. 3 sec negatives, w/ bands, 1 1/2 reps, drop sets…all kind of intensifiers out there. Don’t feel like you have to squat every workout…if it ain’t workin’ for ya it ain’t workin for ya.
-
Love the hacks and brutal drop =)
-
Higher volume for hams. 6 sets of 12-15 stiff-legs.
-
Higher volume for quads. Sub smith squats or lunges for leg extensions…can add an intensifier to these too, slow negatives, heels on plates, etc. [/quote]
Good suggestions. I found when I stopped worrying about the weight on squats and maintaining a piston like cadence they started to grow better. Worked with the leg press too. You could also throw in front squats either before or after your squats.
Last thing I wanted to mention was that before your stiff legs you could pump some blood into the hams with legs high rep legs curls, I always feel them work better that way.
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
post a typical leg sesh[/quote]
if im in a high volume phase:
Lying leg curls
1x15
1x12
1x8
Drop set plus partials
Squats
- ramp up to 8 rep max
then lower the weight and
4x8
Hack squats
work up to 4pps and then
4x8
drop set down to 1 plate perside- do a tear drop finisher
Leg extensions- 3x20 then a drop set
Stiff leg deadlfts- 4 work sets
[/quote]
Food for thought…take it with a grain of salt…
-
Try subbing heavy ass high rep leg press for squats. 3 sec negatives, w/ bands, 1 1/2 reps, drop sets…all kind of intensifiers out there. Don’t feel like you have to squat every workout…if it ain’t workin’ for ya it ain’t workin for ya.
-
Love the hacks and brutal drop =)
-
Higher volume for hams. 6 sets of 12-15 stiff-legs.
-
Higher volume for quads. Sub smith squats or lunges for leg extensions…can add an intensifier to these too, slow negatives, heels on plates, etc. [/quote]
thanx bra
unfortunately my gym, although it has everything else, doesnt actually have a real leg press sled— only a squat press cybex machine so i cant attach bands-- i have done lots of 3 sec negs in the past though with the squat press.
As far as squats go—i feel they are actually one of the best movments i can do for quad development-- i have a very quad dominate squatting style and whenever i stop doing squats it seems that my quad sweep seems to dimish. Surprized my 20 plus set leg workout wasnt enough volume for you. But i agree i could do higher volume on stiff legs…Im usually fucking trashed by the time i get to them though haha.
today I did
-ham curls 1 top set of 8 + drop set + partials for 3 minutes (fuck)
-adductors 4x15
-quad extensions 4x15 toes back to hit rectus femoris
-hatfield squats 1 top set of 10
-DB RDL’s 100x10
-leg press 50,40,30,20 (I hate leg press) Superset bw lunges x20
-hip thrusts 4x10
[quote]Mr. Walkway wrote:
today I did
-ham curls 1 top set of 8 + drop set + partials for 3 minutes (fuck)
-adductors 4x15
-quad extensions 4x15 toes back to hit rectus femoris
-hatfield squats 1 top set of 10
-DB RDL’s 100x10
-leg press 50,40,30,20 (I hate leg press) Superset bw lunges x20
-hip thrusts 4x10[/quote]
christ, 3 mins of partials
i usually do about 25-35 reps of partials tops on hammy curlz
[quote]GrindOverMatter wrote:
[quote]Mr. Walkway wrote:
today I did
-ham curls 1 top set of 8 + drop set + partials for 3 minutes (fuck)
-adductors 4x15
-quad extensions 4x15 toes back to hit rectus femoris
-hatfield squats 1 top set of 10
-DB RDL’s 100x10
-leg press 50,40,30,20 (I hate leg press) Superset bw lunges x20
-hip thrusts 4x10[/quote]
christ, 3 mins of partials
i usually do about 25-35 reps of partials tops on hammy curlz [/quote]
Same, I saw mr. Walkways post and thought i would give them a try today… I lasted 2 mins and pulled some very strange faces for the last 1:50 of those!
Grind, what do you feel with the partials to the top as opposed to from the bottom?
I’ve been doing partials at the bottom of front squats lately. Looks stupid as hell but sure does get the ole VMO burnin
[quote]Mr. Walkway wrote:
Grind, what do you feel with the partials to the top as opposed to from the bottom?[/quote]
HAHA
sorry just a weird sentence i wrote— i do bottom partials, i just i meant i do 25-35 reps on partials tops, meaning i will never do more than 35 of them. i have messed around with doing them in different ranges of the ROM though, and it seems doing them slightly above the bottom most portion is the best for getting a PHAT PUMP