Thursday, February 5, 2009

You Can Do It, Just Don't Put Your Back Into It

As leg day rolled around this week my back was feeling a little bit tired from the heavy deadlifts and back workouts over the last few weeks. 

Unfortunately, in order to get a thigh stimulation from squats it usually tires my lower back out a lot, so I quickly devised a plan and hit my legs hard!

Started off with some leg presses, and since I was doing them first, I was able to push a bit more weight than usual: 4 Sets {230 lbs x 30; 410 lbs x 20; 590 lbs x 20; 770 lbs x 12}

This got the ball rolling quite well, so went over to the squat rack and did some front squats, 3 sets {135 x 12; 175 x 12; 185 x 8}.  All the goodness of squats without any of the lower back stress.  Although, also a very good biceps workout.

Same rack, 2 sets of barbell lunges with 135 lbs x 8 reps.

I still did some stiff-legged deadlifts (although they involve a lot of lower back), but I kept the weight low and did them on top of a wooden box so that I could go extra deep and I only raised the bar up to my knees.  This helped keep the stress on my hamstrings and not my back. 3 Sets {135 x 20}

This was followed up with 3 sets of lying leg curls and some seated calf raises and quite a bit of stretching.

The legs were nice and pumped, and now "the back" feels good and ready for Saturday.

Have a good weekend!

1 comment:

Every Gym's Nightmare said...

great workout!

Kelly Turner
www.everygymsnightmare.com