Wednesday - Legs
(Week 2, Gamma Bomb - Free Weights/Cables Only)Exercises
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• Barbell Squats
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, positioning the barbell across your upper back and shoulders. Keep your chest up, core engaged, and back straight. Initiate the movement by hinging at the hips and bending the knees to lower your body as if sitting back into a chair. Keep your knees tracking over your toes and ensure your heels remain flat on the ground. Descend until your thighs are parallel to the floor or slightly below, then drive through your heels to return to the starting position. Maintain proper posture throughout, avoiding forward leaning or rounding the back. Use the Smith machine or power rack to guide the bar's movement, providing stability and safety during the squat.
Prescribed Sets:
Do the same thing as last week, but let’s see if you can beat how much weight you used last week for 8. Do a few sets of 15 to get warmed up and then go to sets of 8. Keep doing 8 until you can just barely get 8. That will be your last set. We will call this 3 total sets. I don’t want you to actu ally fail on the 8th rep, but I want it to be hard. Note: If you are unable to perform regular squats, try front squats, or a machine squat with a back support. Pro Tip: Doing heavy quarter squats can increase sheering forces on the knee. Don’t cut you squats that high.
Working Sets:
6
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• Bulgarian Split Squats
Stand with your back facing a bench or elevated surface. Place the top of your right foot on the bench behind you, keeping your other foot flat on the ground about two feet in front. Keep your torso upright, core engaged, and chest lifted. Lower your hips by bending your front knee until your thigh is parallel to the ground or slightly below, ensuring your front knee stays aligned over your toes. Push through your front heel to return to the starting position. Maintain proper posture throughout, avoiding leaning forward or arching your back. Switch legs and repeat. Keep movements controlled and steady, focusing on balance and muscle engagement.
Prescribed Sets:
Do 3 sets of 8 moving up in weight. On the 4th set, we are going to do a drop set. You do 8 reps, and then you do an iso hold (see the video below) for 8 seconds before dropping down to the next dumbell. Do one leg at a time, and let your partner go before you come back to do the other leg. Example: Set 1 – 20 lb dumbells x 8 reps Set 2 – 40 lb dumbells x 8 reps Set 3 – 60 lb dumbells x 8 Set 4 – 60 lb dumbells x 8 with a 8 sec ond iso hold, then repeat with 40’s and then repeat with 20’s.
Working Sets:
3
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• Stiff-Legged Deadlifts
Stand with feet hip-width apart, holding a barbell or dumbbells in front of your thighs with an overhand grip. Keep your legs straight or with a slight bend in the knees, maintaining a neutral spine throughout. Hinge at the hips by pushing your hips back, lowering the weight along the front of your legs while keeping your back flat and chest up. Lower until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, then drive through your hips to return to the starting position. Keep the movement controlled and avoid rounding your back. Focus on engaging your hamstrings and glutes during the lift.
Prescribed Sets:
I want you to go down with a slow 5 second count, sit in the stretch, and then come back up 4/5 of the way. Try to get around 10 reps like this. Ensure your back is flat and not rounded as you hold your stretch at the bottom. You won’t be able to use a lot of weight with this technique, and there is a massive emphasis on the stretch. Pro Tip: Working through a good stretch on the muscle can create a nice growth stimu lus in itself.
Working Sets:
1