Week 4: Legs

This has been a very busy week, with graduation events, family in town, and general plans all coming up during my typical 'gym time'. I unfortunately missed yesterday's Chest workout, which I felt awful about. So about 20 minutes before we started legs, I did a quick few sets of flat bench, just to activate them somewhat (and to see my estimated 1rm). It went something like this:

Barbell flat bench:

• 135 x 10
• 225 x 6
• 275 x 2
• 295 x 2
• 315 x 2 (failed 2nd rep, but my spotter got it just past the sticking point, and I lifted it the rest)

Not too shabby, but I definitely am gunning for 335 x 1 within the next couple weeks.

Anyways, today's leg workout went well, but I can definitely tell that I am creeping up to my absolute 4rm. The videos will show, I was not coming down as low as I'd like, and I felt pretty compressed. The combination of not enough legwork, and my lack of 3500+ calorie diet is going to be my worst enemies the next 8 weeks.

I was pretty impressed with my ability to leg press today, I don't normally press over six plates a side, so I hope that gives me the muscle breakdown necessary for next week's target of 355lb squats. Here's the breakdown:

Barbell squats:

• 65 x 10
• 135 x 10
• 135 x 10
• 285 x 4 +10lb
• 315 x 4 +10lb
• 335 x 4 +10lb
• 345 x 4 +10lb
• 345 x 4 +10lb

Machine leg press:

• 315 x 10
• 405 x 10
• 495 x 10
• 585 x 10
• 635 x 10

Machine leg curl:

• 100 x 8
• 105 x 8
• 115 x 8

Abs:

75 crunches

Final thoughts: There is not enough time in the week to do all the conditioning I feel like I should be doing in order to optimize my strength gains. This week especially is going to be a struggle to make each day count (let alone make it to the gym). I am a little hopeful that I can keep climbing in my squat gains only because after this week the reps drop to 3.