Strength & Mobility Leg Workout

As many of you may know from following me, I despise leg day. So this week I decided to change things up, and break legs up, instead of doing them all on the same day. I have also changed up my training style some. Here is a schedule (just my weight training) I am going to follow for a few weeks to see how I like it.

Monday: Back, Chest & Abs
Tuesday: Quads & Glutes
Wednesday: Shoulders
Thursday: Biceps & Triceps
Friday: Hamstrings & Weighted Abs

Bye Bye Pride

First, I want to talk about form, flexibility & focus. When I used to do regular barbell squats, I used to do 135-155lbs – but, I didn’t go super deep. Part of the reason I couldn’t go that deep was knee pain, another reason was I didn’t have the strength to push that weight in my deeper squat and, lastly, I didn’t have the flexibility to maintain good form. So, with pride leading my workout, I just did what I could without lowering my weight (like anyone is really impressed with how strong I am anyway).

That was the old me – lifting heavy as I could. Now, I leave my pride at home and lighten my load to focus on improving my weaknesses, instead of continuing to improve my strengths.

My Weaknesses

1. Flexibility in my hips, inner thighs, squads and hamstrings. 
2. Maintaining good upright position while squatting deep (without falling back on my rump!)
3. Maintaining a deep squat (bottoming out basically) while remaining flat on my feet & weight on my heels (more flexibility issues).

Strengthen More Than Muscles

Admittedly, I’ve never been one for stretching (again, that would mean working on my weaknesses which is no fun). Aside from stretching before or after a run, I avoided it at all cost (because it HURTS, duh!). Now, I’m sucking it up and focusing on my weaknesses FIRST, and then my strengths LATER.

Here was my workout from yesterday listed below. The first time I did the overhead squat mobility work, I was SO sore the next day – and I was just using PVC. Ha! I am improving every time I do them and am determined to get stronger and more flexible. Hopefully, this will help you! PS: Even though I’m going deeper, my knees never hurt when I do these exercises. 🙂

Leg Workout

I did 3-4 sets and 15-20 reps of everything, except for the Yogi Squat, which I held as long as I could. Enjoy! 🙂

• Overhead Squat Mobility PVC Drill (for shoulder/flexibility)
• Malasana – Yogi Squat (Awesome exercise to improve inner thigh/hip flexibility for better squats)
• Overhead Mobility Squats  with Yogi Squat in between while I rest to keep me stretched out. TIP: Heels stay flat on the ground, knees spread out.
• Back Squat (95lbs) with fast explosive Plyo Squats in between
• One Leg Squats off Bench (on each leg to failure)
• One Leg Step Ups on the bench (One leg at a time)
• Leg Extensions 

FitFluential LLC compensated me for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.