Quad training

[juggy38]

Ive discussed this with my physiotherapist and according to her, single leg press will put higher amount of stress on your hips.
also, it rather leads to imbalances at the hip side since you are never 100% symmetrical between left and right leg.
i do them from time to time though. lower weight, more reps, more focus

My knee pain drastically improved when I started really focusing on front foot elevated reverse lunges holding dumbbells. Once I mastered those, (zero wobbly going up or down, and being able to pause), I moved to rear elevated split squats and did the same thing.

It’s good…you’ll find one hip flexor is tighter than the other, or one glute weaker, or one ankle has less mobility. Then go prehab/stretch/strengthen the issue = longevity training legs

Edit~ I use them almost as a diagnostic tool weekly. What’s too tight, too weak, bound up…..while also getting a hell of a finisher exercise

 

[A50#]

After watching your videos I think I might be training in the ladies section of my gym

 

[alfresco]

After watching your videos I think I might be training in the ladies section of my gym

Problem?

 

[A50#]

Problem?

Only the fact that what I thought was moving some poundage is merely a warm up for some. Maybe it's time for me to take up a different hobby like sewing or some arts and crafts?

 

[alfresco]

Only the fact that what I thought was moving some poundage is merely a warm up for some. Maybe it's time for me to take up a different hobby like sewing or some arts and crafts?

Have you thought about lawn bowling?

 

[st114]

Are you hitting Zerchers on more of a back focused day?

Hey brother, I do Zerchers on another day that is both legs and back combined

I’ll do:
-Zercher squats 3x3
-Plate stack or stone rows 3x15
-Zercher Weighted step ups 3x6
-Towel pull-ups 3xmax
-Hamstring curls 4x10
-Cobra lat pulldowns 3x15
-Neck work
-Barbell complex (squat, lunges, OHP, RDL, BB row 8 reps each no dropping barbell, 30 seconds rest and max sets, harder than you’d think)
-Assault bike sprints and 60m prowler sprints for 45 mins

 

[d4ve]

Side tracking this thread, or should I start a new one?

What are the thoughts on single leg press vs two?

Benefits? Drawbacks (other than less proportional weight and taking 2x the time)?

I like them sometimes, but I feel like they serve a different purpose. I always feel better orthopedically doing some single leg work, be it a lunge or SL press. SL is still decent for hypertrophy but it wouldn’t be my first choice compared to a bilateral- just don’t feel like I can take sets quite as far esp with extended sets like clusters and drops.

That said I did really like doing an SL Hammer hip press during last year’s prep when I hate a whole day for glutes and hams. I’d usually work up to a top 12-20 bilateral and then do an alternating B-stance cluster- 5x5 or something similar, no rest between sides so it was just 50 total reps / 3-4 minutes of torture.

(B-stance is the off leg slightly supporting with the toes on the platform, makes it much easier to keep your hips square)

 

[M@NU]

My knee pain drastically improved when I started really focusing on front foot elevated reverse lunges holding dumbbells. Once I mastered those, (zero wobbly going up or down, and being able to pause), I moved to rear elevated split squats and did the same thing.

It’s good…you’ll find one hip flexor is tighter than the other, or one glute weaker, or one ankle has less mobility. Then go prehab/stretch/strengthen the issue = longevity training legs

Edit~ I use them almost as a diagnostic tool weekly. What’s too tight, too weak, bound up…..while also getting a hell of a finisher exercise

ill take a closer look at those, thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Nate Dawg]

Hey brother, I do Zerchers on another day that is both legs and back combined

I’ll do:
-Zercher squats 3x3
-Plate stack or stone rows 3x15
-Zercher Weighted step ups 3x6
-Towel pull-ups 3xmax
-Hamstring curls 4x10
-Cobra lat pulldowns 3x15
-Neck work
-Barbell complex (squat, lunges, OHP, RDL, BB row 8 reps each no dropping barbell, 30 seconds rest and max sets, harder than you’d think)
-Assault bike sprints and 60m prowler sprints for 45 mins

Thanks for laying that out, I appreciate it! That's one hell of a finisher at the end of the training session with the barbell complex and 45 min of sprints! Sending a PM.

 

[Hyperemia]

What’s your typical quad-focused leg day like lately (or just leg day, if you always do it all in one go)? How has it changed the last few years?

As with most body parts, I used to hammer away at progressive overload on the main movements (leg press and back), and that worked great for a time- especially as I got away from powerlifting and free squatting and embraced the movements that actually grow my quads. But over the last year or so, I’ve upped the rep counts, added more intensifiers, and started doing a lot more volume on the way up to top weights, ie pyramiding. As a result, my quads are better than ever, and my hips and knees are in solid shape, even in the offseason when they’d normally be screaming at me.

As much as I love training to true failure, I’ve also started shying away from grindingly slow reps in favor of drops, clusters, etc- basically getting more of the high-fatigue, “effective” reps in a safer manner. I don’t love leaving a rep on the table, but at some point it starts to feel like you’re playing with fire every leg day. I still aim for weight and rep progression over the term, but in a much more pre-fatigued context.

Here are a couple sets from this week’s leg day. A Cris-pause set on the leg press ala Cris Edmonds (awesome guy, helped my wife with her Olympia training and myself with posing)- typical 3-round DC-style rest-pause with an additional drop at the end. Then onto a double drop on the hack with a much lower and narrower stance I’ve been using lately.

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The whole leg day looked similar to the usual, but with a little less volume given I'm deep into prep. In full-swing offseason, it'd be more like a top set + a backoff with intensifiers on each movement.

1. Seated leg curl - 20-15-12-10 pyramid, final set double drop with partials and a 20-count iso hold
2. Adductor machine - pyramid up over 4 sets of 12 to a rest-pause of 12-5-4
3. Prime leg extension - pyramid 2-3-4-5 plates on the middle peg each for 10 reps with a hold at the top. On the final set, drop back to 3 plates for ~20 total. Then a backoff with weight evenly split between middle and top pegs (lengthened / stretch emphasis)
4. Leg press: pyramid 2-4-6-8-10 plates for 10 paused reps. Final set was the Cris-pause for 14-4-3 reps, then drop to 6 plates for a final 10
5. Hack, low and close stance: pyramid 4-5-6 plates for 8 reps each. Final set just got 7, then double drop to get 15 total.
6. Walking lunge: 1 very long trip down and back the turf in the back of this gym

On a related note, prep leg training is awesome when you're in that goldilocks zone with better hip mobility and wind due to dropping weight, but still decent energy. The latter is starting to wane, and my legs are feeling kind of dead, that 12-6 weeks out period is some of the best leg training of the year.

Love it man. The details, discussions, videos, all of it. It's really motivating. Good to have you here.

What knee sleeves are you using there?

 

[d4ve]

Love it man. The details, discussions, videos, all of it. It's really motivating. Good to have you here.

What knee sleeves are you using there?

Thanks man, I appreciate that. This place is more fun in a lot of ways than posting on social media...I learned a ton from forums in the early 2000s when I started at this whole endeavor, and it's cool to see there are still a few lively ones.

Those sleeves are actually from a long-gone powerlifting company called PowerBelly. I got this pair in 2016 and have used them for virtually every squat session and quad workout since, so they're extremely high quality. The company "sponsored" me (gave me free stuff, which was really nice) after I did well at a meet in 2015 - Boss of Bosses 2, if anyone remembers those meets Dan Green and his wife put on back then.

 

[juggy38]

Thanks man, I appreciate that. This place is more fun in a lot of ways than posting on social media...I learned a ton from forums in the early 2000s when I started at this whole endeavor, and it's cool to see there are still a few lively ones.

Those sleeves are actually from a long-gone powerlifting company called PowerBelly. I got this pair in 2016 and have used them for virtually every squat session and quad workout since, so they're extremely high quality. The company "sponsored" me (gave me free stuff, which was really nice) after I did well at a meet in 2015 - Boss of Bosses 2, if anyone remembers those meets Dan Green and his wife put on back then.

I love that cris is keeping the MD legend and the training going. Lots of good videos

I sometimes play a game….some
Vidoes he says “pump” “super pumped” “massive pumps” so much I start counting them lol.

@d4ve do you and Cris think hip hinging for hamstrings with a BB brings too much fatigue? What would yall do hypothetically if you needed more glutes hams?

 

[d4ve]

I love that cris is keeping the MD legend and the training going. Lots of good videos

I sometimes play a game….some
Vidoes he says “pump” “super pumped” “massive pumps” so much I start counting them lol.

@d4ve do you and Cris think hip hinging for hamstrings with a BB brings too much fatigue? What would yall do hypothetically if you needed more glutes hams?

Cris is such a wealth of knowledge and experience, I'm glad his YT channel is getting more traction.

I'm not certain of Cris's position on this, but given what I see most of his people doing, I think he and I are of a similar mind. I don't find heavy hip hinges to be all that great for hamstring development.

To clarify, what I mean by "heavy hip hinges" is SLDL, RDL, and conventional DL done for high load in moderate (6-12) rep ranges. They're awesome for glutes and erector development, and for that reason I think they're very important for most bodybuilders earlier on in their careers. But I did all of the above for well over a decade, pulled over 800 in competition, pulled 700+ for very controlled reps, strictly hinged 6 plates for ~10 reps...my glutes were / are enormous, but my hams sucked.

Extreme effort and intensity on leg curls has accounted for 90%+ of my hamstring improvement the last few years. Maybe some more targeted hinging has been a cherry on top, but tbh I still look at any hinge as mainly a glute movement.

I train back twice per week, and on the heavier day, instead of doing any DL variation, I now finish with lying leg curls and a 45-deg. "back" (glute) raise. I may go back to deadlifting in spurts, but for now my erectors are getting enough stimulus from heavy T-bars.

 

[juggy38]

Cris is such a wealth of knowledge and experience, I'm glad his YT channel is getting more traction.

I'm not certain of Cris's position on this, but given what I see most of his people doing, I think he and I are of a similar mind. I don't find heavy hip hinges to be all that great for hamstring development.

To clarify, what I mean by "heavy hip hinges" is SLDL, RDL, and conventional DL done for high load in moderate (6-12) rep ranges. They're awesome for glutes and erector development, and for that reason I think they're very important for most bodybuilders earlier on in their careers. But I did all of the above for well over a decade, pulled over 800 in competition, pulled 700+ for very controlled reps, strictly hinged 6 plates for ~10 reps...my glutes were / are enormous, but my hams sucked.

Extreme effort and intensity on leg curls has accounted for 90%+ of my hamstring improvement the last few years. Maybe some more targeted hinging has been a cherry on top, but tbh I still look at any hinge as mainly a glute movement.

I train back twice per week, and on the heavier day, instead of doing any DL variation, I now finish with lying leg curls and a 45-deg. "back" (glute) raise. I may go back to deadlifting in spurts, but for now my erectors are getting enough stimulus from heavy T-bars.

Epic reply. Thsnk
You sir.

And I’m the same….i can pull mid 500s hungover, and my hams ain’t impressive. Well…I don’t have anything impressive…but
You know what I mean lol

 

[3BILLS]

I've been doing the belt squat with a close grip attachment instead of the belt.

Loving them