Legs (26.09.21)

Sunday legs:
  1. Single leg lying hamstring curl w/ band:
    1. 2x12+
    2. Straight into isometric hold on last rep
  2. Smith calf raise
    1. 1x12, 1x8
    2. 5s pauses in full stretch
  3. Deadlift
    1. 3x8
    2. Pyramid up in weight, working on form throughout
  4. Smith squats
    1. 1x6, 1x16
    2. Use heel wedge to elevate heels, keeping torso more upright, and the knee through full flexion
  5. Walking lunges
    1. 2x12
    2. Holding DB's to make tougher, nice finisher for whole leg
Stretching to finish.  
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Recovering injured hamstring

Late last year I had a small tear of my hamstring. This severely hindered my training, preventing major hip-hinge movements, like deadlifts, and even as a stabiliser in certain pull-down/cable row machines. I adapted my leg training to work around this, doing a phase of pin-squats, stopping the bar at a height that prevented my hamstring from going into a full stretch deep at the bottom.  To rehab the injury itself, hamstring physio was a puzzle to work out. Stretching too frequently made the symptoms worse, essentially persistently re-opening a cut. Conversely, doing nothing and resting also made it worse, becoming too tight and feeling ‘sticky’. I found a nice middle-ground doing some banded isometrics twice weekly. This way I could easily moderate the resistance going through the injured muscle. The band allowed me to reduce tension in the stretch where I was most sensitive to re-injury, whilst still getting a lot of tension at the contraction. Photo of the set-up is above.
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Legs: deadlift x smith squat (16.09.21)

Today's leg workout was as follows: Warm-up
  • Banded walks- black band around ankles, 12 paces left then right
  • Hanging knee raises- 2 sets of 6 reps
  • Spin bike- 3-5 mins
  1. Single arm bicep curl- 2x12
    1. Mainly aiming to combat some bicep tendonitis, so 2 sets of 12 light curls, focusing on contraction
  2. Single leg lying hamstring curl- 2x45-60s holds
    1. Again recovering from previous hamstring tear. 2 sets of isometric holds, with knee bent to 90 degrees.
  3. Barbell deadlift- 4x6-8
    1. Pyramid up adding weight each set, reaching heavy and high effort top set
  4. Smith machine calf raise- 3x8-12
    1. 3s pauses in full stretch, trying to increase ankle mobility and dorsiflexion before squatting
  5. Smith machine squats- 1x8, 1x20
    1. Warm up to something heavy, then 1 top set aiming for 8 reps, and one back-off (less weight) set for 20 reps.
  6. EXTRA?
    1. You could add a single leg pistol squat/walking lunges, for extra pump and blood flow to finish.
Stretching
  • Quads- heel to bum, 2x30s
  • Glutes- newspaper stretch (seated on bench, ankle on opposite knee), 2x30s
  • Hamstrings- 60s hold of light barbell in stiff-leg deadlift position
  • Calves- stretched in exercise (4)
HB :)
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