Would appreciate any advice, my squat has gotten progressively lower since the summer, every time I do a set the bar feels heavier and my form feels more awkward, I do legs twice a week, it usually looks like this
3×8 squat
3×20 calf raises
3×10 leg press
3×10 leg curls
3×10 leg extensions
5 mins on stair climber
I've been told that it could be overwork but my squat numbers only started to go down when I accidentally missed a leg day one week, I'm currently coping by thinking that maybe my overall muscle mass has increased from doing other workouts causing my weight to go up and making my squat heavier.
There is zero need for leg press if you’re already doing squats
My advice
>take a week or two off
>start slowly with a plan
>work big to small
>squat, then RDL, then leg extension, then leg curl, then calf raises
Too much volume will kill you
Keep the sets low and intensity big
If you do 3x8, you better make sure it’s impossible to do the 9th rep, if you can do more, raise the weight
If you’re reaching failure like that, there’s no need to hit leg press nor stairs
AND THE MOST IMPORTANT
How is your diet?
I feel like my diet is pretty complete, 3 full meals but it varies since I just eat my moms cooking, I eat protein yogurts and drink some glasses of milk throughout the day and always have my protein shake when I get home from the gym. You're probably right about the leg press but I'm not sure which other exercise I can replace it with to hit glutes. I forgot to mention that my leg related exercises that don't involve my body weight haven't really suffered.
>I eat my moms cooking
Let me stop you right there
You need to be tracking every single calorie that goes in your mouth to get a good look at your intake
.8-1g/pound body weight protein
The rest of your calories in carbs and fat for your calorie requirements
Moms mean well, but most time they serve junk
She does make a variety of foods but alright I'll try and make my own meal for breakfast and lunch at the very least.
You are 100% overtraining your legs, your legs should be 80% fried after doing three heavy sets of squats. Your routine is junk volume central.
Junk volume, zero progress, horrible form. The average SS-hating, moronic, main-gainer/fit/izen
How heavy are you squatting? If you're strong enough you're going to run into recovery issues. If that's the case you need to cut leg press and call this leg day A:
3×8 squat
3×20 calf raises
3×10 leg curls
3×10 leg extensions
5 mins on stair climber
Then cut squats from leg day B and re-add leg press so you have:
3×10 leg press
3×20 calf raises
3×10 leg curls
3×10 leg extensions
5 mins on stair climber
You should also adjust your rep ranges a bit. Squat will be your highest effort per rep exercise. so do 5-8 reps for squats. calf raises are fine at 20 but I'd call it 15-20. Leg press should be 8-12 OR 12-15 reps depending on which gives you a bigger pump. Leg curl and extensions are both isolating AF so those should be 12-15.
Remember, when you're doing hypertrophy you should be going until you have 2-3 reps in the tank. So if you have 15 leg curls prescribed, do it at a weight where you can bust out 17-18 reps. This promotes recovery and recovery is the literal part of the process that you grow.
If you're a low intermediate or below (just barely intermediate) You treat your squats and only your squats as the exception. You should be taking those to the absolute limit until you've squeezed out every bit of newbie gains you can. So if you're still lifting novice/low intermediate numbers you will be able to recover from weekly near max effort squats.
If you hit a wall on your squats on a given day as a novice/low intermediate (Being prescribed 5 reps but only doing 3 or 4), you have to reduce the weight during the workout to encourage recovery. So if 275 is what you did 3 reps on, you want to bring the weight down to 270 (WAIT 5 MINUTES) then bust out a strong 5 reps for 2-3 sets in a row.
If you remember anything, remember that FAILED MAX EFFORT REPS ARE TERRIBLE FOR RECOVERY
Lastly as a low intermediate you should be transitioning your squatting to only once a week and then using either leg press or belt squat as an accessory.
Alright, only thing is that I thought you were supposed to hit glutes twice? Or is it fine if I just do squats and then do my isolation exercises for quads, hamstrings, and calves?
sets of 8 are not for building strength...they are for looking big.
I thought 8 reps were a good in between for strength and hypertrophy?
Toshiki 3 phase squat program.
>Phase 1
5-8x10
>Phase 2
5x5
>Phase 3
10x1-3
3 days a week. Add box squats at or above your goal weight during Phase 2 if you still have the leg strength. Simple as.
Bunch over complicated posts here. Lower your load for about two weeks. During this time eat more meat. Then try the weight you were doing two weeks prior.
>"OPs programming is fine just bulk harder and deload"
That aint it chief. If you want the best results, use the best method.
Stop doing 8 reps and start doing singles instead
Singles are awful. They only help maximal strength and the more maximal you go the higher the risk of injury. Build basic strength instead with sets of 5. Basic strength will give you some carry over to maximal strength. You can do a peaking phase if you eventually want to do a powerlifting meet. But basic strength also transfers over to how much strength you have for hypertrophy work.
Person A has a 5rm bench of 185. Person B has a 5rm bench of 135. Who do you think has a higher 10rm bench? Person A of course. They can then stimulate hypertrophy far better than Person B because more weight is more stimulus.
These 5rm squats will carry over to the hypertrophy range at a much better fatigue cost than doing 1rm.
Only if OP is a powerlifter, singles are stupid for anything else
and do you see how stupid op is with all that garbage he's doing for reps?
I disagree. Singles got me to 185kg squats and now I’m repping on my previous max. I got nowhere repping the same weight over and over.
Your workout routine is atrocious. Written by someone who knows nothing. Find something made by a professional.
You could just low bar squat and do ss for a few months
Good advice from the other anons already I'd add that it's better squatting in your socks than with those soft looking shoes.
squats and deadlifts + your cardio are 100% enough for your legs, no need for these accessories and I guarantee you hold back a bit on your squats because you know you have all this stupid shit to do afterwards
You’re doing a lot of work on your legs twice a week. I would recommend you either up your calories and sleep to recover better. Or dial down the volume, especially on all these isolations. You could just do squats, single leg leg press and calf raises and you’d be getting a good amount of volume in.
>he hasn't tried resting
ngmi
What a bunch of morons in here. My legs get jacked just from Leg Extensions and Leg Pressing. I mean, that's cause I do it right. I don't have to grab and deload plates, put on a dance ritual, psyche myself up with loud grunts to blow out my knees doing ATG terrible form, all momentum down and 40% ROM up like the rest of you homosexuals.
Do you warm up? Do you ever take an easy week to recuperate?
I see you don't have a deadlift variation on your "leg" day, are you doing that on a different day, such as a deadlift+pull day, which would massively affect your recovery?
For warm ups I just squat the bar by itself for 2 sets. I rest but the problem is that it's kind of extreme, I've been made to go on month long trips once or twice a year which made me lose a good deal of progress. No I've never deadlifted as a part of my routine, ive always been unsure about them.