Wednesday, March 17, 2010

March 16

Monday is supposed to be squat day, but the workout was postponed due to my son's Cub Scouts meeting.

I've been mixing it up a lot in my workouts of late. In addition to doing more supersets, I've also changed the routine up quite a bit. I seldom do the same workout twice. The conventional wisdom is that this is a good thing because it forces the muscles to continue adapting to the changes.

In my previous leg workouts, I performed what amounts to pre-exhaustion supersets of sissy/frontal squats with Powertec Workbench squats. This time around, I decided to do the Powertec Workbench squat as the first part of each superset followed by the sissy/frontal squat. The end result is that I lifted more weight in the Powertec squat, but still not as much as I would do in the usual straight sets. In the sissy squat, used just the Olympic bar.

Set 1:
Powertec Workbench squat @ 180 x 8
Sissy squat @ 45 x 10

Set 2:
Powertec Workbench squat @ 250 x 8
Sissy squat @ 45 x 8

Set 3:

Powertec Workbench squat @ 250 x 8
Sissy squat @ 45 x 8

Set 4:
Powertec Workbench squat @ 250 x 7
Sissy squat @ 45 x 6

Set 5:
Powertec Workbench squat @ 180 x 8
Sissy squat @ 45 x 6



After all the squatting nonsense I did step-ups in supersets with stair climber. Okay, that probably sounds a little weird, but I'm operating on the basic principle of these things being the resistance training equivalent of wind sprints.

Set 1:
Step-ups: 15 reps each leg
Stair climber: 1.5 minutes @ 75 steps per minute

Set 2:
Step-ups: 15 reps each leg
Stair climber: 1.5 minutes @ 75 steps per minute

Set 3:
Step-ups: 15 reps each leg
Stair climber: 1.5 minutes @ 75 steps per minute

I consider this a pretty effective way to log a short, intense workout that offers some cardio benefit on top of the resistance training. In keeping with my plan, I will follow this up with some vertical leg press on my deadlift day on Thursday. Normally, I do deadlifts on Friday, but I'll be otherwise engaged, so I'm getting it out the way on Thursday.

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