I have always subscribed to the belief that legs make up half the body so therefore should receive at least the same amount of attention as the upper body. I also understand the reasoning behind looking at lower body exercises as either hip-dominant or quad-dominant (Ian King), which equates to two separate lower body workouts per microcycle (the same as for upper body in some of his programs).
I am currently doing a pseudo OVT program (5x5 squat/leg extension, romanian dead/leg curl) with one leg day per microcycle. The program is giving me decent results and I really love squats, but I miss my deads.
It will soon be time to change up the exercises for “phase 2” but I don’t want to give up the squats …is there a way to do both squats and deads on the same day without overtraining or killing myself???
I respect your opinions and any advice will not fall on deaf ears.
I’m curious as to why not do 2 leg training days currently (one day for squats and the second for deads)? I use this as a staple in my routine, and only worry about changing the exercises I do within each of those 2 leg days.
I feel like I may have missed something in your post, because you said you know that hip vs. quad dominant requires 2 separate workouts, yet you only do 1.
I wanted to try something different, so after a bit of research I chose OVT …hence only one leg day.
As I said, I used to do the same as you do, but it was time for a change. I’m happy with OVT so far and I will stick with it to the end, but wondered if I modified it as far as the number of leg workouts go, would it still be as effective.
How about changing your split a bit so that you’re training back with hams and shoulders with quads. You can get away with training upper boy four times per week on Mag-10.
Back/Hams …I like that as deads do as much for my back as for my hams and glutes. I’ll try that when I’m done with OVT.
EC I know what you’re saying, and that would be similar to what I was doing before - 2 days for legs. I have a lot of respect for what you have to say …your name came up often when I was searching on this topic …so I’m guessing that since you didn’t say “sure, train both on the same day” it means that they really can’t effectively be trained together. I kinda knew that already but I wanted to hear it from someone who knows more than I do.
P-DOG, that may be my solution …now I have to figure out how to do sumo deadlifts
I would caution against working both the same day. It is how I hurt myself and spent 4 months twice a week in the chiropractor’s office. I was doing relativly light weigths and supper setting them. My back just got tired and then quit on me. Next day I couldn’t move.
All good advice. I’m going to stay with one leg day until my “OVT” phase is over but I have to change the exercises in another week. I want to try deadlift/one-leg hyper, any suggestions for quads …something I can do along with lunges maybe??
For 3 years I have been doing one leg workout per week, first week = squat and additional isolation exercizes, second week = deadlift + additional isolation excersizes. Go crazy on both the workouts and you should see magnificent results in leg developement. My body takes longer to heal than most other people’s do on this forum though (according to empirical evidence). If this is too boring for you or not enough workload do what P-DOG says.
