Leg Day - First step towards full strength

 #EverydayShouldBeLegDay Always happy when I'm squatting the bar. Last week was the first time handling heavy(ish) weights on squat, since I last peaked in strength roughly 10 months ago. It's always a shock at first, as even if the body has the strength, the shock of Weight on the structural parts of the body is still hard to overcome. As a result last week I only managed 1 rep on 200kg 400lb.

However it doesn't take long for the body to be re-accustomed with its old iron friend. Today was the first major step in the right direction, with me managing to rep out 200kg for 6reps. This is good early heavy phase prep work - that will lay a good foundation for heavier work in 8-10weeks time.

My hope was to do at most 3reps. So doubling that target was very encouraging, however it does mean next time I deffo need to put the weight up more, as ideally I should be doing sets of 3-4reps at the moment, with the idea of cutting the reps down to doubles and singles within a few weeks.

It's important to note also, that this was done after a small amount of pre-exhaustion work on leg curl and leg extension. On days when I go for a 1 rep max these will be excluded, so that I lift on fresh muscles. But there is nothing quite as good as squatting when your legs already feel like jelly hahah as it's important to train and steel the mind as much as the body, and fear has no place under the bar.

One major advantage of pre-exhaustion work is that, it also acts as a warmup. Minimising the donkey work I have to put in, on the bar.

After squat I then went back onto, firstly leg curl, and then leg extensions. Chasing the pump with some Mike Mentzer style "heavy duty" (hd) work. I've always done leg extensions to the max, ever since I started lifting as a teenager, and I never intend to stop. Growing up idolising Tom Platz as a kid, leaves a long time impression upon you lol

Overall extremely pleased with this workout. Serious progress made, and a clear plan on how to move forwards.

Thanks for reading my training journal. BIG AL 💪🦖💪🦖💪