Warm-up for 10 - 15 minutes (stair master)

Then stretch every muscle in you body
especially your ankles,lower back and hamstrings.(very important)

Squat
135 x 12 (warm-up)
135 x 12 (warm-up)
185 x 10
225 x 4
205 x 6-8
185 x 10

Now the MOST important thing to stress with squats is depth and foot placement. Too many people think they are going deep but in reality are just making parallel and leaning forward. Here is where ankle and lower back flexibility come into play.. you got to force your back to stay as upright as possible. Which is near impossible if your not flexible and doing your squats with a narrow (shoulder width) stance.

Next up is foot placement� Squats emphasize different muscles depending on foot placement (narrow) more quads (wider) more hams and glutes.

Then comes depth you need to go as deep as possible(past parallel) and maitain a straight back , flat feet and do not let your knees go past your toes.

Leg presses (I'll do the weight in 45lbs plates total so 10 plate is 5 45lbs on each side)

10 plate x 15
16 plates x 12
18 plate x 12
20 plate x 10
22 plates x 10

When doing leg presses or any exercise you need focus on your breathing (think of yourself as a human piston) and get into a mental trance of inhale(super deep breath) on decent...quads tap torso..EXPLODE UP while exhaling..

Next up Stiff legged dead lifts

135 x 12
185 x 10
225 x 6
185 to failure

Keep your back straight (no curve in lower back)and SQEEZE your glutes together on each rep.

Then you finish off some Extensions and leg bicep and calves.

This routine in IMHO ranks a 7 on the make you barf,passout or get an explosive nosebleed scale.

Let me know what you think

IG

a. you turn green at least once during it
b. you actually vomit
or c. you cannot walk either out of the gym- especially if that requires you walking down a flight of stairs, orcannot walk for the next 3 days.....aka you look like you got a foot in the ass.....hehe

50 reps squats. One set. One weight. One dead person. I've not had the currage as yet. Although I have done 50 rep presses with six plates (each side) and pulling ONE plate off every five reps (so on the first pull one side woutld have six plates and the other would have five plates). Something different.

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LAte

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I'll use one of my female client BBs weights and reps as an example.

Warm-up on the bike (5 min)
Light stretching

HEAVY DAY (Sunday)

Squats (to parallel)

Bar x 8
135 x 8
185 x 3
225 x 3
275 x 3
315 x 1
335 x 8
305 x 8

Leg presses (35 degree sled; knees to chest (90 degree bend, max)

360 x 8
540 x 3
720 x 3
900 x 3
1080 x 25, 20 sec break; 15 reps, 20 sec break, 10 reps.

Leg xtn. (cybex mfg)

110 x 6
190 x 15, drop to 130 x 8, back up to 150 x 3 isometric contractions at the top (5 sec hold, 5 sec eccentric contraction, 5 sec pause between reps

Hacks (ass to ankles)

180 x 3
360 x 8-10

Leg curls

Lying (cybex)

70 x 8
130 x 8-10
130 x 8-10, drop to 110 x 6, drop to 90 x 6

Seated leg curls (cybex)

150 x 8-10, drop to 130 x 6, drop to 110 x 6

Light calves

3 sets of standing, seated and donkey.
Moderate weight about 15 reps per set.

FOLLOWING SUNDAY

Light legs

Warm-up on all exercises then 2 sets of 8-10 reps, moderate weight on all of the above exercises. Your quads should only feel mildly fatigued after light legs. The whole routine leg portion shouldn't take more than 35-40 minutes.

Heavy calves

Stretch out the calves with a couple of LIGHT sets of standing heel raises.

Standing calf machine

500 x 12, drop to 425 x 12, drop to 350 x 12,
drop to 225 x 12, drop to 150 x 12. About 10 sec pauses between sets.

Seated machine

200 x 15, drop to 150 x 15, drop to 100 x 15,
rep out with 100 (full range of motion).

Donkeys

Me (260 lb) on her back, sometimes add another person (150 lbs)

2 sets to failure with assisted reps (15-25 reps per set)

This workout is done once per week. For those of you who think you can or should work calves more than this, if you are doing this routine to the letter you simply won't be able to. I've produced some pretty big f***ing calves with this routine and it only takes about 20 minutes.

Start out easy, or it will be a quick trip to the toilet. Also have a walker ready for the 2nd day following heavy legs.

Remember, even the heavy leg day shouldn't take more than 75-90 minutes. As I tell my clients, the only reason we are here is to get out of here.

F1

Thats a strong women (how much she weigh?)

And not to be a skeptic, but I would love she her form on those squats (especially the high end)..I have seen very few people who can do them right and that includes Pros.

Is wrapping herself or wearing a belt?

Form is pretty good. Has some problems with back spasms from time to time.

Light wraps (enough to keep the knees warm but not enough to assist in the movement, no power wraps) and a belt.

On this board, I often read about the weight some of you ladies use for various exercises, in particular when you are on a cycle. When I see these weights, I think to myself, that's not very much, why?

I train many female clients who start out with zero weight training experience, sedentary and as out of shape as can be and within 1-2 years, nothing special with diet, maybe some creatine and NO AAS, I have some of them benching 135 x 8, squatting on a smith machine to a box with 275-315 for 8 reps, leg pressing up to 720 for 50 (knees to chest), overhead seated DB presses with 50-55 lb dumbbells, etc. Of course not all of them can do this, but a good number of them can and they are in it for general fitness, not bodybuilding or fitness competition.

Those that I have counseled on workout strategies that have used AAS, and I maintain a don't ask don't tell policy so I don't ask nor do I want to know (but its obvious), they end up moving the really big weights.

It's all about training and recovery. I get the sense than many of you train to intensely with too much volume, and far too often with not enough recovery.

I recently prepared a female BB for a national qualifier training her 3 days per week (1 hour workouts), each body part once per week, heavy every other week. She did abs twice a week on her own (15 min/sessions) and 3-5 30 min low intensity cardio sessions per week 8 weeks prior to the show. She came in at 136 (about 6.5% BF) at 5'4". She won the show.

A number of years ago, I was stretching out next to the squat racks and a couple of veteran male bodybuilders (really big guys) were getting ready to squat. The one was telling the other how he screwed up his back at work and could only squat once a week now. The other said, "that's too bad, how much have you lost on your squat"? The one with the bad back responded, "ya know, my squat is increasing since I've only been training legs once a week, I don't get it". The other guy was puzzled as well. Meanwhile I'm sitting there thinking, "yup, dinosaur mentalities die hard". Its too bad that most of us who finally learn about recovery are too old to make full use of our knowledge, all we can do is try and teach some of the young lifters how not to be stupid, but from experience and knowing how I was when I was young, it isn't easy.

"The only reason you're in the gym is to get out of there."

I don't think F1 (he knows his shit) meant it as an insult to anybody, just an heads up on who is doing what..and what a women is capable of doing.

I love hearing shit like this it turns me into a total task master when designing workouts and training for FC.

IG

Cocktails, email me. If you are in Columbus for the Arnold next year, I'll be happy to put you through a leg session.

Ladies, quit worrying about numbers (weight lifted) just used them as an example as to what can be lifted with proper training. Adjust the weights and try the routine, it really works.

Regarding my client that trained 3 days per week, 1 hour workouts. You don't need a lot of exercises to fatigue a muscle group. People spend too much time in the gym. When I get time, I'll post the routine I use with my clients.

I alternate my leg workouts. Since, we train a four day split we do alot quad work the first time we hit legs and then alotta hammy stuff the second time.

10-15 minutes of the stair climber is prerequisite and I always do two good warm up sets of squats before the meat and potatoes. Other than that leg workout is already very similiar to IG's. Like to alternate light days with heavy days as well. On light days we do mega reps with lighter weight. On heavy days we stay more traditional with upping weight and lesser reps.

Although I am not up there with the weight like I would like to be I know what I am doing is working because 1. I am super sore for until leg day comes around again. 2. My hubby and I take turns puking in the bathroom after we train.

As for squats I have a smith machine that I can do squats in a proper form!
I know free weights are better; but if you can build your strength and form on the smith machine is that going to benifit me in the long run? (I still do FW squats too)!