Chest & Calves workout on 3/30/16

A video posted by Ian Heydecke (@bodybyian) on Mar 30, 2016 at 3:12pm PDT

Incline Hammer 4 x 20, rest - pause, Go halfway then come back down then do a full rep. That's one rep.

Smith Flat Bench press 4 x 20, SAA

Cable Crossovers 5 x 12-15, last set do 100 reps, rest - pause.

Seated Calf Raises 4 x 30, do 10 reps then hold for 10 seconds and repeat til you hit 30 reps.

Standing Calf Raises, 10 reps, then 10 bodyweight reps and repeat til you get to 100 per set. 4 sets.

Cardio (video)
10 rounds of 30 seconds intervals.

Leg Day Training

Here's the workout:
Lying leg curls 4 x 15-20 superset with Leg Extensions 4 x 25
*Seated Calf Raises 4 x 30
Hack squats 4 x 8-12
Leg press 4 x 20, pause at the bottom for 2 seconds
Seated Leg curls 4 x 20
Squats 4 x 10, 1.5 reps per rep.
Standing Calf Raises 10 reps superset bodyweight calf raises for 10 reps til you get to 100 per set, 4 sets.
Leg Extensions 4 x 100, brutal finisher

*Seated Calf Raises do 10 reps then hold and squeeze for 10 seconds and repeat til you hit 30 reps.

Leg Day Workout at Diamond Gym

Squats 6 x 15-20 reps

Close stance leg press 3 X 15-20 reps
Leg extensions 3 x 16-20 reps (toes pointing towards you)
Seated leg curls 10 x 20-25 reps

Aim for 3 seconds negative, pause at the bottom to stop momentum and then squeeze at the top of the rep.

Lack of Hamstrings

The reason most people lack hamstrings is because they never get them anywhere near their shortest position. I watch people on a daily basis yank their butts in the air, not knowingly actually taking the hamstring out of the movement as they do so!

1.5 Reps Squat Tips

1 & 1/2 rep squats are an excellent way to get stronger at the bottom of the range, where your body is naturally weaker. It will also place more emphasis on the vastus medialis, the 'teardrop' muscle on your quads. Choose a slightly lighter weight and focus on initiating the rep by squeezing the quads. Elevating the heels is another great method, especially if you have a longer femur and have a hard time getting low while staying fairly upright.

Related Posts
The All Mighty Squat
Squat For Bigger Leg Muscle
Squat Tip

Leg Day | 7/16/15

Leg Day is here! Some people like it, most people hate it and true gym rats love it! I love leg day! This workout was a volume based with lots of fun (for some, pain). Creating a set of wheels takes time, effort, intensity and a whole lot of pain threshold. You got to want some legs! Here's the workout in detail:

The Best Training Split

HOW should you divide your body parts across the week? That's the question!

Back/Bi's

Chest/Tri's

Legs

Shoulders/Calves

Hangin' Hammies

In muscle building, most people tend to neglect one of the primary functions of the hamstrings - Hip Extension, and overly stimulate the hams with knee flexion. It is essential to work both primary functions of the hamstrings if you want them to respond. The hamstrings are made up of more fast twitch muscle fibers. Therefore they respond better to heavy weight, lower reps.

What Muscles Does a Deadlift Work?

All of them!
Deadlift - Key Points:
► Keeping your back flat, head NEUTRAL, slowly bend from the waist and knees.
► At the bottom, you should feel a "slight" stretch in your hamstrings - i.e. butt back, not down.
►At this point, driving your heels into the ground FIRST, stand back up to the starting position using forceful contraction of the hamstrings, glutes, quads.
►Do not lean back at the top of the rep. Get to the point where your lats are contracted, not hyper extended at your lower back.

The All Mighty Squat

Key Points:
► Take a shoulder width stance and descend to the bottom of the rep under perfect control as you skew the load to the outside of your feet
► Keep the focus on the negative (eccentric) portion of the rep and maintain contraction until you reach the bottom. And with a "hesitation pause at the bottom" push the ground away from you and ascend to the top of the rep.
► Intent for quad training comes in the form of an outward “shove” against the ground. Literally just push your heals outward against the ground (without moving). You will feel the entire outer half of your leg contract. To do this while performing a rep will increase muscular activation dramatically.
► Heals down, push with entire foot(evenly distributed weight). If you have a hard time keeping heals down(height is often a factor), elevating your heals is by no means cheating or less effective.

Squat For Bigger Leg Muscle

Keep INTENT on the quads, even on the negative (eccentric) portion of the rep and maintain intent until you reach the bottom, push the GROUND away from you and ascend to the top of the rep.
 
INTENT for quad training comes in the form of an outward “shove” against the ground. Literally just push your heals outward against the ground (without moving). You will feel the entire outer half of your leg contract. To do this while performing a rep will increase muscular activation dramatically.

Mutant In A Minute - STEP UP to build BIG LEGS

Here's a way to Step Up and Grow those legs! This exercise hits the quads, hams and glutes, Add this to the end of your workout. Make sure you adjust this according to your height level and a 90 degree angle. 

Hack and Hack Combo

What a great combo to build those quads up. I'm definitely going to try this out!

Better Quad Sweep - Mutant In A Minute

IFBB Pro Manuel Romero shows us how to improve our quad sweep with different foot placings on the leg press. 

Squat Tip

Keep your form tight and maintain tension by imagining the antagonist muscle pulling you into the eccentric of an exercise.
For example, think about your hamstrings and glutes pulling you down into a squat.

Squat Tip

Squatting is undoubtedly a GREAT mass builder & strength exercise for your legs.

However, if you have flexibility/mobility issues around your ankle and hips/glutes then you really need to address this otherwise there is undue stress on your body, especially your lower back and knees.

Bigger Hamstrings

Some people genetically have hamstrings which just hang off the back of their legs. For most though, hamstrings can be a hard muscle group to develop and I think there are a number of consistent reasons why this happens!

1. Like your back, you can't visually see them so some people really struggle to visualize that contraction taking place in the same way they can when doing biceps for instance

2. It's very common to see someone use too much back involvement when training hamstrings which ultimately transfers the stress and load directly to the lower back, not the hamstrings

3. Range of motion is often an issue where it's common for people to stop short of full extension (near full!) and more importantly achieve FULL flexion where that contraction really takes place

4. Poor exercise selection, with MANY gyms focusing on seated hamstring curls as their only/best option unless you know better

With that in mind, here is what I will say to you in order to accelerate your hamstrings development.

1. Start the movement by squeezing/tensing your hamstrings (and glutes where applicable) so that the muscle is ALREADY engaged. From here, it is up to you to mentally focus hard enough to maintain the tension!

2. I personally do not like seated leg curls, I much prefer lying leg curls. There's a much better contraction and far less lower back involvement. However, to avoid this even further have your training partner push down and partially massage your lower back as you do lying leg curls. This will help alleviate stress on the lower back, allowing you to focus on squeezing the hamstrings.

3. Beyond lying leg curls, you want to be using exercises like Romanian Deadlifts, Glute ham raises and good mornings.

4. When doing your reps, actively focus on squeezing the hamstrings HARD and continuing with this through the negative and especially at the isometric (contraction) point. REALLY squeeze hard!

Hidetada Yamgishi Leg Workout - Arnold Classic 2015 2.5 Weeks Out

Hidetada starts with leg press superset with walking lunges. He wraps his knees closer to the show. Next is front squats on the hack squat machine superset with step-ups. Next is leg press with super slow reps.

Leg Extensions Tip

Leg extensions are not just about contracting your vastus medialis. Think about trying to contract all the way up to the top of your quad and drive your glutes/hamstrings into the seat. Keep your chest up and lean slightly forward for a full contraction!

Dexter Jackson Trains Hamstrings - Arnold Classic 2015 4 Weeks Out

Dexter with lying leg curls. Next is seated leg curls. They make the hams "pop!" Next is single leg curls. Next is stiff leg deadlifts on the hack squat machine. He talks about football especially being a die hard Cowboys fan.