The Leg Blaster Thread - are we having fun yet?

[caderader]

The fuck are your cars doing in there? Garages are for toys. Youre doing this wrong.

True. I accommodate my half rack by compromise. My wife's car has to fit but I can park mine outside and make room for cleans etc if needed by backing hers up a bit during the workout and putting it back in before she needs it in the morning.

[Phall]

5x fulls in tonight’s workout.


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[auvgeek]

Finally feeling strong ish. If anyone is looking for a progression past regular leg blasters, I’m doing:

8 sets of 10 reps (or 10 per side) of
- jumping lunges with 10# dumbells
- lunges with 10# dumbells
- squat jumps with 10# dumbells
- step ups with 10# dumbells
- kb swings with 12kg kb
- front squat to OH press, just the bar for now

30 sec between sets, 2.5 min between exercises. Jumping lunges are still my weakness. Last week was 6 sets. Next week will be 10.

I alternate the above workout/progression with pure strength. I think it’s much much more skiing specific than when I did pure strength alone.

[ptavv]

garages are for gyms


attics are for climbing walls

[J. Barron DeJong]

What I really need is a basement, not the damn dirt floor crawl space I have.

[californiagrown]

What I really need is a basement, not the damn dirt floor crawl space I have.

Why not just pour a concrete slab yourself, bag by bag? You seem to like arduous back breaking labor (see your 6x12 deadlift routine).


I use LBs as a finisher on my leg days. This morning, i managed 3 sets of full LBs. Pretty weird that before starting my 2nd LB my legs were feeling real wobbly, but i actually had pretty normal bounce in them for the full sets... good mental bump that my legs are rounding into shape and there is a good reason to keep doing this terrible feeling exercise.

[J. Barron DeJong]

Why not just pour a concrete slab yourself, bag by bag? You seem to like arduous back breaking labor (see your 6x12 deadlift routine).

Not that I would do it anyway, but it’s about 3’ high at the highest point. I can barely squeeze myself under the HVAC ducting when I need to get around on my belly under there.

Maybe I need to excavate the whole thing out using a garden spade, one bucket at a time.

[EWG]

Not that I would do it anyway, but it’s about 3’ high at the highest point. I can barely squeeze myself under the HVAC ducting when I need to get around on my belly under there.

Maybe I need to excavate the whole thing out using a garden spade, one bucket at a time.

As long as you do a lunge each time you stick the spade in the ground then that would work great.

[J. Barron DeJong]

As long as you do a lunge each time you stick the spade in the ground then that would work great.

I’ll consider doing that next shoulder season.

[Dantheman]

Maybe I need to excavate the whole thing out using a garden spade, one bucket at a time.

If Dave can do it so can you.

[J. Barron DeJong]

If Dave can do it so can you.

He’s cheating.

[EWG]

FKNA!!! Stoked for ya, that's awesome.

Looking to add in gym based strength and cardio training on an ongoing basis. I'd like to think I'm in decent shape - benneke10 will likely disagree, but I've never been consistent with gym based workouts, and I'd like to change that. Helps that this new gal is a former gym rat, and she's great at showing me how to have proper form etc.

DTM is right; it's amazing how much of a difference we can tell after just one month of daily, consistent gym workouts. Now I wanna build on that.

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Great conversation about this in the sprockets training thread.

Here's one post I made there about weights, but the whole conversation is worth reading. Go forward and back from this post on the linked page (don't know how to link to a specific post so I fucked up this thread by posting that post here - sorry.). This is focused on cyclists but much still applies:

https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...light=training

Here's the post:
----------
First part was the why, this part is the what.

First, figured out what your goals are. As mentioned, are you currently racing and want to improve top end speed, or interval speed? Are you trying to fix a beat up body? Come back from injury? Are you now wanting to be recreationally fast and willing to sacrifice a little speed for a more all around fit frame? It's too much to handle all of that here, so we'll hit some common situations, but feel free to ask for your specific situation.

Some general stuff:

Form is really important. Look each exercise up on youtube. You want to do the exercises with form that targets exactly what it's trying to fire. For squats, for example, you need your load path to run straight down. If you are bent over like good mornings and you aren't bending your legs, you're just making an existing problem worse.

Counterbalancing matters. If you push, do the pull also. Example - if you do bench press, make sure to do rows or something else that builds the back muscles to counteract the pecs you are building with the bench presses. Again, cyclists often get out of balance from riding so part of what we are doing is fixing that - don't create new problems.

Do not neglect core. It provides stability for everything else you do, especially lower back stuff.

There are a million opinions on how to lift: dynamic programs, low rep high weight, 5x5, high rep low weight etc. No consensus. This is my opinion: for endurance athletes there are two schools of thought - low weight high rep and high weight low rep. I like high weight low rep, because I think that high rep work essentially adds stress to muscles already trying to recover from training rides. Low rep high weights make the muscles work harder but for shorter time, so there's less lactic acid to clear out. (that's not exactly correct but I don't want to spend the time to explain it in more detail) Suffice it to say that low reps with high weights seem to interfere less with recovering from an already full cycling or running training load, so I think most people should stay with that.

Be conservative when you start! If you haven't lifted for a long time (or ever) you can hurt yourself easily, especially with sketchy form. Don't pop a hammy. And it won't usually happen lifting - it'll happen on a ride later that day or the next.

Rest is critical, as always. The older you get the more rest is needed. Young guns can lift all the time and recover fine. As you get older you have to be more careful. I've tried to assume below that each scenario is based on an age and tune the number of workouts to that.

Specifics:

Scenario 1: committed racer trying to increase interval and top end speed performance

In this case you are willing to sacrifice long term body stability and general health for short term (even if it's years) performance. You cannot add any extra mass that doesn't make you go faster. You want to concentrate on leg stability and strength, a little core, and power. You exercise should include:

Squats, Heels elevated squats, hack squats, spanish squats and sissy squats (even out and stabilize the quads)
Deadlifts, RDL, dumbbell RDL, sumo deadlifts (hamstrings - power)
Calf raises - body weight and loaded
Lunges - walking, bodyweight, loaded with dumbbells (great for knees)
Lateral lunges, weighted and BW (stability)
Leg curls - towel or slider, on back using balance ball (cautious here if your hammies are already overloaded)
Hip thrusts (riders often weak here)
Some lighter core work - keep things strong but don't overdue it. nothing holding anything heavy. V ups, russian twists, sit ups, planks on elbows, side planks, etc.

You would want to make sure you cycle through these and that you are balancing push with pull. To start maybe 2-3 times per week in the offseason, no more than 2 times per week in shoulder season, once a week during season for maintenance. This is helping create an unsustainable body by the way - inbalanced top to bottom. But it's a trade off for speed.

Scenario 2:

Enduro kind of rider, or fast recreational roadie, or general mtn biker. Still want to go fast but don't mind carrying an extra 10 pounds of muscle. Want some full body fitness and better general health. This assumes you don't have any major inbalances - we'll get to those next. We're going to do the stuff above, but now need to add upper body and connection between upper and lower.

All the leg stuff above
Landmine squats (stability and power)
All the core stuff above but add - heavy russian twists, suspended knee ups, weighted situps, landmine twists (stronger core)
Good mornings, GHDs (lower back)
Bench press, incline bench press, dumbbell press, squeeze press, close grip barbell press (think of it like armour)
Pendlay rows, jansen rows, strict upright rows, dumbbell rows, prone rows (upper and middle back)
Pull ups, variety of hand positions, weight and bodyweight (heavier you are the harder they are)
Dips, weighted and bodyweight (back of arms and back)
Lateral raises, bowing lateral raises, prone lateral raises (shoulders)
Overhead press, dumbbell overhead press (shoulders)
Standing curls, dumbbell curls, spider curls, hammer curls, strict curls with elbow on inside of knee, preacher curls
Tricep extensions, band pull downs, overhead tricep raises, face pulls, dumbbell tricep extensions, dumbbell PJR pullovers

Same thing as above - cycle through these to balance push and pull. You should be doing twice a week for each of upper body, lower body and core work. Bail on the second leg day and core day, or both, if you have a big event that week and want to be ready for it. The idea is that you are doing this consistently year round so missing some workouts now and then doesn't matter.

Scenario 3: You have inbalances you need to fix.

I decided not to tackle this here. There are too many variables. If you want individual help with either checking yourself out or if you know you have issues post them and we can handle case by case.

More general notes on lifting:

I've listed a bunch of exercises on each line. Generally, they are interchangeable. You want to change it up to different exercises within each muscle group (each line above) so your body doesn't adapt to a single movement, plus some slight variety works muscles differently and it's better for your body. It's often good to pick some main moves and repeat them for a few weeks, then change those up. The smaller moves vary more often.

Every 4-5 weeks you should have a very, very easy week. Either lift really light that week or don't lift at all. Between rest weeks you want to focus on building strength each week, so repeating moves those weeks helps. Then next cycle change the moves up.

If you haven't lifted before start light. You will be really sore two days later - the older you are, the more sore you will be.

One of the cool things about a real, consistent lifting program: if you are carrying extra weight, most people see really progress with that after 8-12 weeks. If you are already in race shape you will need to eat more.

If you are on the high weight, low rep plan, you will be between 4-6 reps for things like bench press and 6-10 reps for things like lateral raise. Generally the higher the weight you can move with that particular muscle group the lower the reps.

Ok, probably enough for now. Next installment will tackle how to set yourself up at home if you don't have access to a gym (or don't want to go there) with options from just using bands to a full weight setup.

[Harry]

One of the beauties of Leg Blasters is that zero equipment is needed.

I am currently farm-sitting for several weeks at my brothers place near Macon GA. During my drive down here, thanks to my mid-60s bladder, I stopped at every single rest area I saw. After taking care of business I did a mini before getting back on the road. Probably 8-10 minis each day. Arrived feeling good with lots of energy, instead of my usual arriving feeling worn out from the drive.

Same thing here at the farm. Real easy to do a mini anytime anywhere.

Did my 1st full today. Significantly harder. I don’t think I could have done a 2nd. But that will change!



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[Foggy_Goggles]

I love that Harry! I'm gonna put that in the mix. On long drives, I'm the guy doing push ups and jogging around the rest area. I also do jumping jacks in the airport. Breaking up the sedentary helps me feel good. I've never understood the whole bad habits on vacation so you feel like ass thing.

[shera]

I've been lurking this thread, good motivation. This summer I did an infinite number of random air squats, but my workout was the "Army Conditioning Drill #3" https://www.armyprt.com/strength_and...l-3-cd-3.shtml, along with upper body stuff and movnat. Next summer I'm gonna add the blasters for sure, maybe "micro" (5 reps)?

Anyway I am done with leg work other than running/hiking, gonna ski myself the rest of the way into shape.

[bennymac]

Also lurking in this great thread. Late start for me this year.

Gonna do combo of John Collison SkierFit program and LBs which has worked well the past couple seasons. Fat biking, trail running, and leg day in the gym once as week as per usual.

[Hopeless Sinner]

7 sets full blasters yesterday. Got 2 weeks left before WROD, outside chance of getting to 10 sets.

[zion zig zag]

7 sets full blasters yesterday. Got 2 weeks left before WROD, outside chance of getting to 10 sets.

Jesus, I’m still at 6 minis. And that makes me sore as fuck for days. And it’s not like I’m out of shape I don’t think. How you guys do multiple days of these per week is a head scratcher to me.

[Dantheman]

7 sets full blasters yesterday. Got 2 weeks left before WROD, outside chance of getting to 10 sets.

Once you're doing 5+ fulls adding weight is probably a better progression than more sets.

Jesus, I’m still at 6 minis. And that makes me sore as fuck for days. And it’s not like I’m out of shape I don’t think. How you guys do multiple days of these per week is a head scratcher to me.

Probably diminishing returns after 1 day/week if you're able to do a more comprehensive program.

[2FUNKY]

Once you're doing 5+ fulls adding weight is probably a better progression than more sets. Probably diminishing returns after 1 day/week if you're able to do a more comprehensive program.

Precisely why I’m doing my workout I posted a page or two back. Fuggin wreak you.


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[Hopeless Sinner]

Once you're doing 5+ fulls adding weight is probably a better progression than more sets. Probably diminishing returns after 1 day/week if you're able to do a more comprehensive program.

Thanks, I'll go back to five and add some weight. LB is 1x week this year, and 2 regular functional strength workouts, along w some Zone 2 and HIIT on the other days. I can only maintain this pace for October and November.

[tgapp]

Once you're doing 5+ fulls adding weight is probably a better progression than more sets. Probably diminishing returns after 1 day/week if you're able to do a more comprehensive program.

Really interesting, okay. The MTI program we're doing has us up to 6 fulls two days a week for this week. I think this is peak leg blasters tho.

The one surprise to me about this program is that it doesn't have the same high weight low rep stuff I've seen in uphill athlete. It does do a lot of functional strength and zone 2 cardio stuff (yesterday was 1100 stepups 17" tall with a 25 lb pack) but not a lot of max weight.

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[neufox47]

High weight low rep will help you for endurance / uphill only if you’re deficient in this area. Dan John explained it as, it’s a lot easier to do 25% of your max lift 100 times than it is to do 50% of your max lift 100 times. But once you get strong, the added advantage is marginal at best. Doing 25% or 30% of your max lift 100 times is about muscular endurance.

To your last question about sticking with it, strength and conditioning training changes a lot once you are strong and conditioned. The easy gains go away and it gets easy to become frustrated or let your consistency drop. You really need a plan and to focus on progressive overload. Doing a bunch of haphazard workouts that are always changing won’t get you anywhere. Also, the drain on your CNS becomes real when you start lifting heavy.

Intermediate lifters will often be like, oh I need to do 5 different lower body exercises with 5 sets of 10 reps per movement type to get a good workout. But if I go in to a heavy trap bar deadlift day I’ll probably do 4 sets of 8x335, 6x385, 5x405, 4x425 and be crushed. But doing 425 for 4 is way different than someone doing 4x BW.

If you are working out everyday or close to it scale that back. Have at least one rest day per week, probably two or three, and take a week off every 6-8 weeks.


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[californiagrown]

strength and conditioning training changes a lot once you are strong and conditioned. The easy gains go away

I would argue that once a recreational athlete is strong and conditioned, there isnt a good reason to try and get stronger and/or more conditioned. The recreational athlete (which we all are) would be better served simply maintaining that high fitness level, and devoting extra time/money/effort towards skill improvement reps (ie, go fucking skiing or mtbing, or something fun). The amount of time, money, effort that goes into trying to achieve the last 10% that a competitive/pro athlete would push for is just not worth the sacrifice IMO... unless you are trying to be a pro athlete, or dont have much else going on in your life.

[Toadman]

I added Romanian split squats to the routine this past weekend. Damn, that killed me. I used to do those all the time. Amazing what adding a new routine to the regiment can do to hit the legs in a new way. I'm still sore this morning. Honestly, it feels like Saturday was my first day working legs for the season and not week 8. Just more motivation to keep working to get that extra 10% in gains so that I'm only 90% behind pro athlete's level of fitness.