Should I lower my weight

[capitalT]

When doing leg press (on the standard leg press machine) I found that at my max weight I am using my hands on the knees to 'spot me' for the last 3 reps. Would it be wiser to lower the weight and not 'spot' myself?

Here is my leg press workout...
total # of plates (45's) X Reps
4 X 20
12 X 12
16 X 12
20 X 10-12
22 X 8
24 X 6-8
24 X 6-8 <--using hands here on the last 2-4
24 X 6-7 <--using hands here on the last 2-4
20 X 8 (or 16 X 10)
8 X 12
4 X 15

After which I do Squats (7sets) and Extentions(5sets) and Curls(5sets) and either Front Squat or Lunges on Smith Machine(4sets).

 

[supersizeme]

32 sets for legs. Holy shit. I'll try to be constructive on this, but after reading your thread, I want to smack you on the head with a rolled up newspaper

Alright first off, what's the reasoning behind doing leg press before squats? Are you trying to pre-exhaust your quads? My quads would be about 8 steps beyond "pre-exhausted" after eleven sets of leg press. That's crazy volume. In my opinion, workouts should be centered around core exercises, not isolation ones. Get your squats out of the way first so you can put max effort into them and get your body the most bang for the energy and time you have to expend in the gym.
Second of all, how deep are you goin on leg press? Are you bringing your knees down to your chest? I've seen maybe a handful of guys load up 24 plates on a leg press machine, and they never used any more than half the range of motion that I use. They've got the entire bar filled with plates, plates stacked ontop of the leg press, people sitting ontop of the leg press holding plates, and people welding more plates to the plates that are already on there. They'll get like a total of 6 inches of movement on that thing and then get up like, "check me out, just did 47 plates on leg press." Yeah, right. No need to spot yourself on leg press. If you are going deep enough, you won't be able to fit your hands on your needs to push it back up. It sounds like you might want to drop the weight a little bit.
And overall I would obviously cut down on the volume. 32 sets is way too much. That would take me like 3 hours to get through a leg workout, unless you're waiting like a minute between sets. And god knows that if you're hitting your legs hard, you're going to need at least a couple minutes in between your sets. Hell I take more like 3-4 minutes in between.
Anyways, good luck your training.

 

[capitalT]

Thanks for feedback.

I am going just a bit below 90 degrees on the leg press. I usually have a guy watch me to insure I go low enough. I only use my hands when I drop past 90 otherwise I feel like I might loose control of the weight. I usually 'spot' myself to a little pass 90 then take my hands off.

I do leg press first I can't go extremely heavy on squats due to getting hit in rugby the wrong way a long time a go. Besides....I enjoy the pain.

 

[zackdarnell]

Why so many sets? looks like a recipe for overtraining, if you ask me.

 

[capitalT]

I have been growing pretty good on it and am partially afraid to change it. I have looked at lowering it and changing things around but if I walk out of the gym....I feel I haven't done enough.

Besides I seriously enjoy the pain.

 

[PolishHammer1977]

Cap,

Even if you are "overtraining", you say there is progress being made. Stay with the current "oveertraining" program for six to eight weeks at a time. Stay with it only because you say "it works". After that time has gone by, then make your modifications.

One more thing. Be nice to your knees.

 

[scruples]

When doing leg press (on the standard leg press machine) I found that at my max weight I am using my hands on the knees to 'spot me' for the last 3 reps. Would it be wiser to lower the weight and not 'spot' myself?

Here is my leg press workout...
total # of plates (45's) X Reps
4 X 20
12 X 12
16 X 12
20 X 10-12
22 X 8
24 X 6-8
24 X 6-8 <--using hands here on the last 2-4
24 X 6-7 <--using hands here on the last 2-4
20 X 8 (or 16 X 10)
8 X 12
4 X 15

After which I do Squats (7sets) and Extentions(5sets) and Curls(5sets) and either Front Squat or Lunges on Smith Machine(4sets).

that's ridiculous

maybe do squats followed by SLDL followed by calves and then limp home...

 

[Haz]

That is a crazy amount of sets, but if its working then you don't really need to change anything.

I also like to leg press before squats. My knees are bad, so I like to pre-exhaust them with presses before i hit the squat rack. That way i'm not handling as much weight, and the legs and knees are all warm and pumped up. I feel no pain this way.

As to the original question, using your hands to help you spot yourself is fine as long as its only 1-2 reps. You don't want to be using your hands for each rep.

Another thing you might want to try, is going down ALL the way on the leg press. By that, I mean letting the sled actually touch the bottom of the track. I've been doing this recently and its been giving me great results. I feel alot more leg muscle being used when i go all the way down.