843

Leg day. Largest muscle group in the body, and therefore the most painful to train. Major lactic acid coursing through my thighs, screaming bloody murder at me, begging me to stop. But I pushed through. My head wanted to stop after each set, but I forced myself to do all five sets of squats. The first set was pretty easy, a good warmup, nowhere close to failure. But with each successive set, my legs screamed a little more, recovered a little less between sets, and generally complained.

After five sets of squats, eight reps per set, I could barely walk. Not content to leave well enough alone, I hobbled over to the leg extension machine to continue the torture. I squeezed out five sets of extensions, and my quads were literally throbbing after.

A great leg workout! As much as I complain about doing them, I love lifting legs. (If I keep saying that, eventually I’ll believe it!) When I’ve been at it a while, I can really push some serious iron – I used to leg press 800 pounds in high school, for reps. Of course, I’m no high schooler any more, and by the fifth set of squats, I was approaching failure. 135 was a good weight for me to do today. After I have a few more weeks’ worth of consistent effort under my belt, I’ll go heavier and maybe even go for a one-rep max, to see how I do. Not yet tho. 🙂

I’m going heavier, but still not going “heavy.” My strength is returning, as is the mental toughness it takes to sit in the gym and crank out rep after rep, ignoring the body’s signals to take a break, pushing through and forcing growth. Your muscles don’t respond if you don’t tax them beyond their limits, and it’s important to keep good form and not go too heavy. Listen to your body, and know the difference between pain and injury.

Weight: 217.2

Legs

Warmup – elliptical, 10m
Barbell Squats – 135 x 8/8/8/8/8
Leg Extensions – 70 x 10/9/8/8/8
Soak – 10m