Training Session: Lower Body 10/28/13

So first off… SO STOKED for Relentless in Detroit!! Big thanks to anyone who helped donate to the cause. Very much appreciated! Just a few days left. Not lifting there, but the man will be and I’ll also get to see lots of other great lifters there. I always enjoy going to meets even if I’m not lifting. Gets me even more psyched to get this injury over with!

My back has been having good days and bad days. Today was an in-between sort of day. I’m still pretty limited with my lower body exercises, but I’ve been trying to do as much as I can.

I think the best change I have made so far is switching my warm-up routine. I feel a million times better getting into my workouts than I used to. This is what I did today for warm-up:

Stair stepper: 6 minutes (medium speed)

X-band Walks: a lot (I don’t really remember how many times I went back and forth haha)

Banded Clam Shells: 2 sets of 15 on each side, with a pause at the top

Swiss Ball Leg Curls: 2 sets of 15

Swiss Ball Unilateral Glute Bridges: 2×10

Planks: 2 x 45 sec.

Sounds like a lot. But it really didn’t take all that long to go through. I don’t think warm-ups should really be less than 15 minutes anyway. I definitely feel much better and much more “primed” when I have done all my activation exercises and a little cardio prior. I can actually feel all my muscles activated with each exercise.

Which is really what you want to aim for in the first place. If the glutes aren’t firing properly, they won’t work properly and your quads will take more of the load, etc. It’s important to be able to FEEL each muscle working with the particular exercise!

That being said. Here’s my workout for the day (glute/hamstring focused). Everything was kept really light because of my back, so I just focused on really contracting hard and using my mind-muscle connection to get the most out of my session.

Romanian Deadlifts (Surprisingly these didn’t hurt my back! Score!)

95 lbs – 12×1

105 lbs – 8×1

135 lbs – 8×3

Bulgarian Split Squats

25s – 8×1

30s – 8×2

35s – 8×1

Hip Thrusts

90 lbs – 12×1

100 lbs – 10×4

Bad Girl Machine

220 lbs – 12×1

235 lbs – 12×1

250 lbs – 10×1

265 lbs – 10×2

GHR (On GHR machine)

MM Band – 10×4

WORKOUT FINISHER:

Walking Lunges (lots)

Swiss Ball Hamstring Curls (lots)