Tuesday 31 March 2015

Week 1 Day 1 - Lets do this!

 30/3/15 Day 1- Legs & Abs

Today was mainly spent at work, working from 9:45-5:30pm, felt pretty shot to be quite honest, it was pretty dark here in England and there was a glumness in the air. But on the train to the gym I chugged down my pre-workout (musclepharm assult), looked at the diary and began to focus on the task at hand. Today is Leg day, now for those of you new to the gym leg day is normally conveniently "missed"by most people, excuses are normally found to by pass this day. But I embrace Leg Day, some people might think I'm crazy but I might even go out to say that I actually enjoy it! With a few previous injuries to my right knee legs were always my week point. I have had my PCL (ligament) slightly torn, along with some grinding of my Meniscus cartilage, which obviously as it sounds isn't ideal by any means.

So with my rucksack on I walked into the gym, the smell of warm sweat circulating in the air and set out to annihilate my legs. The first 3 weeks of this program is based on Neil Hill's Y3T training scheme. This is focusing on targeting each of your three (3) muscle fibre types; Type 1, Type 2a and Type 2b. The first week concentrates on heavy compound movements with a low-rep range. The second week is a combination of compound and isolation movements with a slightly higher rep range. In the third and final week, the approach is complete muscle failure with lighter weight and a high rep range.

So here is what today's training looked like:

Leg Press- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Spilt Squat- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Hack Squat- 3 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Stiff Leg Deadlift- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Lying Leg Curl- 5 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Seated Calf Raise- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Standing Calf Raise- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Bent Knee Hip Raise- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps
Decline Reverse Crunch- 4 Sets x 8-12 Reps

Cardio- Interval Training 15mins Total 


The idea today was for me to push my muscles to failure on pretty much every single set. With the rep range being pretty low (8-12) it means that heavy is the main objective. If you can get out 12 Reps and still have something left in the tank for a 13th Rep, you aren't working hard enough in the set. So for me it was all about hitting the 8th Rep, from there mentally I could then focus on squeezing out the possibility to hit the follow 4 Reps. 

After going pretty heavy on the Leg Press I could already feel my legs swelling, the blood pushing its way through my quads. Considering this was the first exercise I knew I was in for some mentally challenging and physically tough training. The Spilt Squats came around pretty quickly, working each leg individually really allows me to see my weakness in each of my legs, in terms of stability, strength, symmetry etc. Which I think is a fantastic tool for equal progression of all body parts. Giving myself around 90s-110s rest it was really taking it toll on my legs and glutes! But I pushed through to the Hack Squat which was quite new to me, I really loved this machine as I could really work on correct and slow glute activation. Now if I have learnt anything from the hundreds of hours of videos and articles about body building I have watched/read, its that nothing is better for muscle growth than Time Under Tension(TUT). The Idea that the more time you can keep the muscle under constant tension, the more blood, naturally occurring HGH (human growth hormone) and nutrients can then be delivered to the muscle and therefore allow you to grow more!
For a more in-depth look at TUT visit:http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/time-to-grow.html 

Pushing forward, with my lifting straps on I moved on to the Stiff Leg Deadlift, here the emphasis was on the hamstrings, keeping the back tight and sinking till tension is found, then explode to the top of the movement. With the heavier weights being used the Hamstrings took a real battering, and getting the last few reps out was incredibly arduous. After this I waddled over to the Lying Leg Curl, to further work on isolating the Hamstrings further. Out of all of the exercises and weight already shifted in today's session this was undoubtedly the strenuous, working through the contraction on both the concentric contraction (muscle actively shortening) and then without rest working through the eccentric contraction (muscle actively lengthening) is very taxing. So its fair to say the rest periods here were slightly longer!

Then came the Calf work, the Seated Calf Raise was interestingly more difficult compared to the Standing Calf Raise, this I feel was due to the fact I could influence the standing calf raise with some more momentum, were as the Seated work really isolated the Calf muscles. Again I made sure I kept tension through the whole movement to give more blood to the muscles, as one of the smaller muscle groups the calves are often overlooked by most people (which I have also been guilty of!).

To finish I hit the mats for the Bent Knee Hip Raises, again surprisingly difficult when performed with control and not allowing those abdominal muscles to switch off. If you have ever done any core work in some gym classes you will know the burning sensation in your stomach. Its not overly pleasant, and does make you think you may have a small forest fire ripping through your stomach, but it is the exact sensation I was looking for in both the Bent Knee Hip Raises & Decline Reverse Crunch. Needless to say I was rather happy when this was all over! 

To complete the session it was a quick 16mins on the Treadmill working through 4 min Intervals 3min Easy 1 min Hard to keep that heart rate elevated and yet again flood the legs with as much blood as possible to help aid recovery.

After a quick 10min cycle home I could finally relax, get a quick Protein Shake in me, I only use basic Whey Protein at the moment. Will go through all the supplements I am using later in the series. After a shower and some dinner (Nasi Gorang) I find myself here at the computer, telling you my story. But that is enough for now. Sleep beckons and I need to get in my 8 hours! So will check in tomorrow, where I am going to be training Chest & Triceps!!!  which promises to be insane!

Happy Lifting!

Matt













References: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/neil-hill-workout-program.html
                   :http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/time-to-grow.html 

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