In the mid 1970’s I tried this on leg days for about a year. I only did one set and collapsed on the floor for about 15 minutes before finishing my workout. But the squat effort was pitiful. It felt like my muscles were uncoordinated and not firing effectively.
After that single year, I never tried that again
I recommend doing them again. Here’s how:
Don’t go near failure, and don’t worry about increasing the weight until it’s too light.
Move a little slower in the last half of the negative and pause in the bottom position.
Use weights that allow you to get 6-8 reps in perfect form.
Make sure you feel the muscles contracting and un-contracting through the full range. Think quality.
Take no more than 10 seconds rest between exercises.
If you can’t afford Surge Workout Fuel, drink 1000 mL of water, loaded with 5 grams of L-leucine, 20 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of table salt, 20 minutes before training.
It will give you a great pump and significantly increase protein synthesis and growth signaling.
Would you recommend doing that along with Casey’s rest of the workout (full body)?
twice a week in lieu of three times
I prefer three workouts per week. I also recommend NOT doing the same workout more than once per week.
Ellington and I are working on a big training project that we’re going to release here on his forum. It’ll be free. So keep checking back.
Ooooh can’t wait
Would these be full body, or split, or a mix? Looking forward to it.
Full body, for the most part.
Hi Tim,
Is there a reason why you went with cyckic dextrin and left isomaltulose out of the new Surge Workout Fuel vs. Plazma?
We’ve learned a lot since we formulated Plazma. In simple terms, HBCD is significantly better for pumping muscle, delaying fatigue, enhancing performance, and stimulating growth. HBCD is anabolic and thermogenic, an incredible designer compound.
This is a intriguing post. I finally listened to Arthur Jones’ seminar where he discussed 100 repetition leg workouts. I also reviewed the Hungarian leg workout:
I decided to do a high rep leg workout.
2 warmup sets per DeSimone
Start at 25 reps and go up
1 set
when reps speed slows
Interestingly how Arthur Jones retreated from negative only workouts over the years.
Interestingly how few have tried the Hungarian leg workout.
I also think Surge Workout Fuel is the best supplement since creatine. Leg workouts plus HBCD’s ……hummm
Thanks for sharing the article. A method worth trying. Although I would do leg presses on duo squat instead of squats (otherwise my lower back will kill me), don’t see a need to rotate legs during leg extension - better do 30 reps in top zone followed by another 30 reps in middle zone and finishing with 30 reps or so in bottom third. On leg curls, I would better do either zones (thirds) or ascending reps (one of BDJ’s methods), preferably on a seated leg curl machine. Not a fan of lower reps on a leg curl movement.
I think freaky-thighed speed skater, Eric Heiden, used to do similar high-rep work. For some reason, 7-minutes sets is the number sticking in my mind…
Yes, Eric Heiden did 100 rep leg presses, 300 rep squats.
Tom Platz 220 pound squats for 10 minutes.
I’ve been doing zone training workouts for the last month. I might try thirds with 30/30/30 on my leg press or hip-belt squat in my next leg workout. It would definitely be ‘unique’ for me and that’s what I’m after with this approach.
To put a Nautilus twist on these 100 rep leg press is through the use of pre and post exhaust techniques aka Giant sets!
Examples:
Calf raises on Nautilus OME (body weight)
Nautilus leg extension (foot flexion)
Nautilus leverage leg press
As many reps as you dare!
Calf raises on Nautilus OME
Nautilus leg curl (foot flexion)
Stiff legged dead lift
As many reps as you dare!
FYI
For those fitness authors who deride any and all trap work due to a fear of causing an unaesthetic physique with bunched up shoulders, I laugh! Most never get on the posing platform! So visual aspects of an aesthetic physique are not important to any degree. Train the trapezius muscle as this is one of the largest muscles in the human body!
Do you know where i could pick up copy of Z3? Ive got the other two, and keen to read up on the 3rd edition.
Amazon has it for sell.
I just re-read all three Zone training books recently.
After one month (each muscle trained once a week), I lost 1.25" off my waist while every other measurement remained the same. No dietary changes. Muscles looking more full and vascular. Much greater pump as well.
on the ‘thigh’ topic.
The number of fibers used during a maximal contraction are not low, not on any muscle. Some of the upper leg muscles fully recruit closer to maximal, but they all still do recruit. All recruitment levels are based on percentage of maximal effort. Thighs are no different in that respect.
Biceps fully recruit in the 80% of max effort range, some of the quad muscles are above 90% of maximal effort. That applies whether you use a 3RM or a 30RM, when ever your effort surpasses the recruitment threshold, all fibers are being used. After that, rate coding (firing frequency) is responsible for the remaining force increases from there to 100%.
Recently I have returned back (again) to high-reps zone training and several other methods (like Gironda zones and non-repeating clusters) and my body fat percentage dropped significantly without any additional efforts (aerobic workouts) or nutritional changes. Within one week my body fat went down from my usual 7.5-8.0% to 5.2-5.4%. I have never seen such lower body fat figures on the same bathroom which I have been using for more than 20 years.
Do those numbers stay low as long as you stick to the high reps training? Or do they return to previous/normal after your body adapts?