Friends don’t
let friends skip leg day. We’ve all heard the memes & any of us involved in
the fitness community have felt the importance of leg day for releasing growth
hormone & testosterone (likely a future blog post to come). In training for
the Spartan Race, I have considerably changed up my leg day which used to focus
on sets of 3 to 5 repetition of heavy back & front squats & potentially
a little bit of accessory work if my legs were feeling up to it. Although I
loved this training & the pump that my legs would get, in my opinion this
type of strength training was not conducive to success in the Spartan Race. Since the Spartan Race requires muscle
strength & endurance, I instead elected for some exercises that were going
to provide some more muscular endurance.
Leg exercises
First, I will
look at the progress that I made on the 4 strength-building leg exercises that
I completed over the past 6 weeks. If you would like to read more on the
rational behind why I chose each exercise, I discussed it at length in my day 8 post on strength training.
- Goblet Squat (quads, hamstrings,
glutes, core) getting away from barbell squats was a tough decision for me, but the goblet
squat allows me to focus more on my form & my core, & based on the
set-up in my gym, has also made it a lot easier to work into an interval with
my other leg-day exercises. I am using the heaviest kettlebell that my gym
currently offers (55lbs), so moving forward I will need to use a dumbbell to continue
to increase the weight each week. Over the 5 weeks, I was able to increase my
goblet squats from 3 sets of 15 repetitions with 25 pounds, way up to 55 pounds
for repetitions of 20, 18, & 18. Moving forward I will work up to 3 sets of
20 repetitions per set (again focusing on muscular endurance) with perfect form,
before adding 10 lbs the following week.
Progress: 25 lbs for 45 repetitions to 55 lbs for 56 repetitions
- Box Jumps (quads, hamstrings, glutes): I incorporated box jumps as an anaerobic activity
that will help me build leg strength, explosiveness, & balance. As an added
bonus, an effective box jump will also ensure I am able to successfully
complete the fire jump come race day, even when my legs are screaming in agony.
My progress on the box jump did not move as quickly as in the other exercises,
I believe due to the nature of it being more anaerobically challenging. I will
continue to incorporate the box jumps, working up to 3 sets of 20 prior to
increasing the height. Please note these heights are total guesses as I did not
bring my measuring tape to the gym.
Progress: 2.5’ for 36 repetitions to 3’ for 48 repetitions
- Lunges (quads, hamstrings, glutes): the lunge is another leg exercise focused on
strength & mobility, & another exercise that challenges me
anaerobically each time I complete them, especially after a tough set of box
jumps. With lunges, I focus on taking long strides with good form & can
certainly feel the exercise working all of my leg muscles & most specifically
my glutes by the end of a set. As with the goblet squats, after I complete 3
sets of 20 repetitions with the 55lb kettlebells, I will be switching to
dumbbells for this exercise to allow myself to continue increasing the amount
of weight.
Progress: 25 lbs for 52 repetitions to 55 lbs for 44 repetitions
- Farmers Carry (quads, hamstrings, glutes): the farmers carry
is certainly one exercise that I overlooked when I began this training
exercise. Perhaps because it is coupled with holding kettlebells during the
goblet squat & lunge exercises, however by the end of a few sets of a
farmers’ carry, I find my forearms screaming in pain & my breath picking up
considerably. Since carrying around heavy things is a huge part of the Spartan
race, evidenced by the atlas carry, the bucket brigade, the sandbag & other
obstacles that I discussed in my day 34 post on the Spartan Race obstacles, I am going to focus intensely on increasing my farmers walk abilities.
Further to this point, I am also going to incorporate some bucket carries on my
long run day, since I will need to complete these outside of my apartment. More
on that in a future blog post.
Progress: 90 lbs x 13 repetitions to 110 lbs x 26 repetitions
Leg Day Changes
Over the past
5 weeks, I have found my leg day among the most anaerobically challenging,
often finding myself breathing heavily following sets of each exercise. I have
been making a conscious effort to decrease the amount of time between sets,
however moving forward I am going to set a timer to keep myself moving through
the various exercises. As with anything I do in the gym, I will establish a
baseline (likely 1 minute), then look to decrease this over time.
In terms of
the exercises themselves, I am going to continue with each of the 4 existing
exercises that I am doing (goblet squats, box jumps, lunges, farmers walks).
The only change I am going to make on the existing exercises is the time
between sets noted above & I will have to switch from kettlebells to dumb bells
for weight restriction reasons.
In terms of new exercises, I am going to be adding in sled pushes/pulls
to my routine. Since I have never completed any sled work, I will start with
45lbs & move my way up from there. The major motivator behind adding sled
work to my routine was the sled drag obstacle that I discussed in my post on obstacles specific training, However also because the sled pull is another
anaerobic exercise that will help build muscle strength in the legs & core.
As I move closer to race day, I want to continue to increase the anaerobic
challenges in my strength training workouts, & I believe sled work is a
great way to achieve this.
Overall, I am happy
with the progress that I have made on my leg-strength exercises. I am aware
that I am not likely to replicate the level of gains that I made in weeks 1
through 6 since I have substantially increased my baseline abilities, however
as long as I am able to continue to continuously make small gains as I
discussed in my day 32 post on incremental gains,
I am confident that my legs will have the strength required to power me through
my Spartan Race come June 24th.
100-Day Spartan
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