Need a great leg training idea? If you have access to a leg press, then this was a great leg training workout I did when I was short on time and low on concentration. I put it on auto pilot and just started pressing.
It happened that on this particular day, my son decided to get a nose bleed that wouldn’t stop. It actually started the previous day, and that’s a lie, it actually started two days before that…
My son is an avid football player and he had a flag football tournament. His best friend and Sam were going for a flag when Sam got an elbow to the nose (by the way they stopped the play, a very important fact…). He hit the ground and came up bloody with his nose all over his face. It happened to be the last play of the game (for him for sure!) and he came home with a blinding headache and swollen nose. End of day. Nothing spectacular.
The next day passed without incident and so did the next, until about 3:30 pm when his nose inexplicably started to bleed and did not stop for three hours, an emergency room visit and a painful nose packing later, off we went home. He was fine until 1 am when it started all over. We managed to control the bleeding until morning and then headed back to emerg.
We spent the day with him bleeding out of his nose and eyes until emergency surgery managed to stop it for good. Another nose pack, much neater and less painful under anesthetic. A rough day all round for a tough kid.
I tell you this so you can get a sense of my mindset going into this workout. I was spent, having not slept the night and having had the stress of a day in the emergency room. I guess I could have sat with a glass of wine to unwind, but I thought a leg day would work better.
I needed a mindless distraction, and this was a perfect workout. I set out with a plan in my head so all I’d have to do is count reps and strip weights.
For this workout, you need to know how much you can leg press on the particular sled that you’re going to use. Choosing the correct weight is the key.
Your goal is to get to 100 reps as quickly as possible. However, you won’t rush your reps, you’ll do perfect, full range reps with no rest.
I’m not incredibly strong on the leg press. That is, I don’t use 700 lbs or anything, so when I loaded up the sled, I put three 25 lb plates on each side. That’s so that when I strip down the weight, I can do so at small intervals.
This was my workload:
225 x 15 , 200 x 15, 175 x 15, 150 x 15, 125 x 15, 100 x 15, 75 x 15, rack x 10 = 115 reps (I didn’t have THAT solid of a plan since I actually did more reps that I should have! Apparently math isn’t my strength, especially when I’m tired and stressed.)
Here was my time:
After this set, I finished with super setting extensions and stiff legged dead lifts and calf raises. I finished my workout in about 30 minutes and felt the stress of the day melt away.
I don’t know if this was my best leg day, but it’s a great format and I’ll definitely try it on a day when my head’s in the game a little more. I’ll go heavier and push harder. On this particular day, I just needed to push some weight and make myself hurt cuz it just feels good when I stop!
Here’s the plan. (It’s best to have a partner for this.)
1. Start with your working weight, what you can normally get for about 20 perfect full depth reps.
2. When you feel that you’re getting close to failure, have your partner take weight off one side of the sled. (You don’t need to strip the weight evenly as the weight will still be evenly distributed enough.)
3. Do as many reps again as possible, that is, get close to failure.
4. Strip more weight off.
5. Continue in this manner until you get to 100 reps.
6. You’ll know that you got the exact weight correct when you can end with just the un-weighted sled for your last 10 reps.
Leg Press
- Sit in the leg press machine and put the feet on the pads at hip width with toes slightly turned out.
- Keep the back flat and abs tight.
- Lower the ad as low as possible.
- Push from the heels to the starting position.
