My best friend and i started working out at home in December 2022. He was mainly targeting his arms and shoulders, and i wasn't sure what i wanted so i did a bit of everything. In March 2023 i decided i wanted to grow my legs. My entire life i have been embarrassed of my legs. I am a healthy weight, but short in stature and my legs always have been kind of "chubby" in my eyes. And i was done!!! I knew the only way i was going to ever be happy with my legs was probably if i were to starve myself (i have battled an eating disorder when i was in my teens), and i didn't want to do that. So, instead, i decided to GROW MY LEGS. And i mean grow. I want Chun-Li legs! I want to be able to crush my enemies between my legs with ease.
So last week i went to the gym and signed up. My first day was with a trainer from the gym who also made a schedule for me. I had already extensively researched what i wanted to do for leg training, but i was willing to try out his routine first. I feel that he put me on a full-body ultra newbie routine, which might have been caused by the fact that i didn't mention to him that i was already working out at home, and had my own routine in mind. This is the routine he came up with for me (which honestly seems like a generic full body routine to me with a slight emphasis on legs, rather than a proper leg focused routine):
10 minutes elliptical
10 minutes stair stepper
leg press 3x15 (30kg)
adductor 3x15 (20 kg)
abductor 3x15 (20 kg)
glute machine 3x15 (15kg)
core machine? 3x15 (20kg)
lat pulldown 3x15 (15 kg)
I am 5'3 and about 110 lbs / 50 kg with zero muscle, so my weights aren't that impressive. After the first workouts i didn't feel it in my legs, at all. I had done work-outs at home every other day since December, and doing leg-only since February, before joining the gym and my legs always felt weak after training them. The following day i expected some muscle pain but only the inside of my thighs hurt... but nothing else. I went back on Wednesday and did the same routine after extensively researching the exercises that i was supposed to do in the hopes that i could target my legs better... but on Thursday no pain again. Followed by Friday where i tried higher weights cause i was sick and tired of not feeling anything, but i couldn't do most reps with higher weights so i overall felt defeated.
On Sunday i worked out at home. The gym closes early in the weekend and i like to sleep in so i decided to just do my routine at home:
Bulgarian split squat 3x12 (7,5kg)
Single leg hip thrust 3x20
Romanian dumbbell deadlift 3x12 (7,5kg)
Frog opens (idk what they are called lol) 3x12
Resistance band leg routine 3x
Calf raises 3xfailure
On Monday i FELT THE BURN. It hurt so bad!!! But the good kind of hurt, where you know you worked out hard. One of the reasons i started going to the gym was not only cause i wanted to grow my legs bigger, but also cause i was outgrowing my 7,5kg weights and i didn't want to invest in higher weights if i knew i was going to outgrow them fast. I was annoyed that i felt the burn at home but not in the gym. So today, tuesday, i decided to switch up my routine in the gym a little:
10 minute elliptical
10 minute stair stepper
leg press 3x15 (30kg>40kg>50kg)
romanian dumbbell deadlift 3x12 (8kg>10kg>10kg)
adductor 3x15 (20kg>25kg>25kg)
abductor 3x15 (20kg)
glute machine 3x15 (15kg)
It was really scary to go to the weight section and grab dumbbells and do my romanian deadlifts. I was scared that my form was bad, and that people would be looking, but i did it anyways! I was really proud of myself. I could do 12 reps with the 8kg but with the 10kg i could only do 10, mainly cause my arms hurt!!! Doing more and more weight on the leg press was awesome too. It felt very rewarding, and the last reps with my bodyweight(!!!) made my entire face contort, but i was very proud of myself and my legs definitely felt weak afterwards.
I observed other people a little in the gym today too and i found out that my gym has a bulgarian split squat stand and i found out where the cable kickback machine is; two things that i wanted to incorporate in my original work-out program. This is the original program that i had in mind before i joined the gym:
Bulgarian split squats 3x8-12 (8>10>12)
Cable kickbacks 2x10-15
Hip thrusts 3x10-15
Hip abductions 2x10-15
Leg extension 4x15
Leg press 3x10
I want to slowly but surely move into my own routine. I will go back on Thursday and i will probably ask someone there to show me how the cable kickback machine works, because i want to ditch the glute machine; you have to lay over a bench and then push back your leg, and today that made me very dizzy cause it pressed on my stomach so much. So i want to exchange the glute machine for cable kickbacks. I can also not fully extend my leg with the glute machine, which means that i can't properly incorporate my glutes. I think that the cable kickback is way better. Here is a video of the dumb machine so you can see for yourself how awkward it is:
I also totally ditched the core machine. I only used it twice. It is a very awkward machine that didn't even work-out my core, and plus i do my core on my off days at home. The machine works by having weight loaded on your back and then you bend forward, it always seemed to work-out my back very well but it didnt do anything for my core. I've seen an old grandpa use that machine, so that mainly seems the target audience, so why did i get put on that machine :( Here is a video (from the same channel as the previous video) on how the awkward abdominal crunch machine works:
I probably want to keep the lat pulldowns in my routine but i might start incorporating arms/shoulders on its own separate day. I don't really want to work-out my arms or shoulders because i only want to grow my legs, but if my arms and shoulders are weak it is difficult to carry higher weights, so that is a problem.
Currently my schedule looks like this:
Mon/Wed/Fri: legs at gym
Tue/Thu: core at home
Saturday: active off day
Sunday: legs at home
Mon/Wed/Fri: core at home
Tue/Thu: legs at gym
Saturday: legs at home
Sunday: off day
And repeat.
I might switch one of the core days for arm days. My dream legs right now are Will Tennyson's legs in this video:
Absolutely insane!!! This is his work-out routine:
4 days/week workout || 48h between leg exercises
WORKOUT A
- Seated Hamstring curls
(Pyramid up weight | Pyramid down reps)
° Set 1 (15-20 reps)
° Set 2 (12-15 reps)
° Set 3 (10-12 reps)
° Set 4 (8-10 reps)
-Hack Squat
°6 sets (10-12 reps)
- Bulgarian split squat
(4 secs down | 1 sec up | deep strokes)
° 3 sets (10 reps)
- Leg extensions
(Control weight | hold 1 sec up)
° Set 1 (15-20 reps)
° Set 2 (12-15 reps)
° Set 3 (10-12 reps)
° Happy ending (25 reps | if failure: get up, shake legs, go until finished)
- Backwards treadmill walk (10 min)
WORKOUT B
- Lying leg curls
(Pyramid up weight | Pyramid down reps)
° Set 1 (15-20 reps)
° Set 2 (12-15 reps)
° Set 3 (10-12 reps)
° Set 4 (8-10 reps)
-Lying leg press
°6 sets (10-12 reps)
- Reverse dumbbell lunges
(4 secs down | 1 sec up | deep strokes)
° 2 sets (10-12 reps)
- Leg extensions
(Pyramid up weight | Pyramid down reps)
° Set 1 (12-15 reps)
° Set 2 (12-15 reps)
° Set 3 (8-10 reps)
° Set 4 (8-10 reps)
Someone in the comment section wrote this out so i copy pasted it hehe.
Well, i hope this was informative. It certainly felt nice to write it all out. Tomorrow is technically my core day, but i might switch it for an arm day at home. I will have to figure that out... i also don't know if i will write about my food intake because i am still trying to figure that out... but i will keep that for another post!
No comments:
Post a Comment